Toward Ecosystem Services as a Basis for Design

Abstract

Environmental design has a long history of concern for ecosystems but has often lacked explicit assessments of, or goals associated with, site performance. Ecosystem services provide an organizing concept around which to make a wide array of environmental and, to some extent, social design goals explicit. Additionally, they allow assessment and evaluation of site-design decisions through both pre-construction modeling and / or post-occupancy evaluation. The U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system and the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) are used as examples of how performance-based site design can be incorporated into the design process. We suggest that the maintenance of ecosystem services become a standard and increasingly monitored goal for the practice of environmental design. This move toward performance goals linked to ecosystem services for which success or failure can be determined is essential if environmental design is to offer a substantive contribution to the achievement of a more sustainable culture.