Professional Practice

Climate Action Event Planning Guide

Event Goals

• Address key climate change issues most pressing for each region:  
  • Existing and predicted
  • Unique to your region, or shared with other regions
   
• Identify key strategies or policies that are in place or needed to address issues.
• Create a broader network of expertise and connect practitioners who can share resources, best practices, and policies.
• Understand and facilitate relationships between university programs and practitioners.
• Understand what students are focused on - scale and ambition of projects. 
• Understand federal, state, and local legislation and how to advocate for landscape architecture in those bills (existing and proposed): 
  • Case studies that can be presented / shared with legislators
  • Subject matter experts who can advocate 
  • Showcase how landscape architects can contribute to policy discussions / action
  • Showcase how policy can fund work of landscape architects - making the connection is key
   

Planning Questions

• What regional climate change issues do you want to focus on? 
• What are landscape architects doing to address these issues?
• Who are the climate leaders / subject matter expert members within your chapter on these issues?
• What is an example of a local or regional project or community that has implemented successful climate adaptation or mitigation strategies or policies? 
  • Lessons learned
   
• What is the role of a landscape architect in advancing environmental justice and climate justice?

Event Framework

• Begin discussion by identifying key climate change issues (identified by chapters members in advance) - open discussion
• Subject matter experts to deliver short presentation highlighting community impacts of climate change issues 
• Discussion facilitators: subject matter experts, university faculty, ASLA Chapter Climate Action Committee Chair or ASLA Climate Action Network Representative, elected government officials, non-profit organization leaders, ASLA Climate Action Committee members, ASLA Chapter President, Green New Deal Superstudio participants. 
  • Consider audience participation - How many people might participate in each event?
  • Are breakouts going to be necessary to allow everyone to be heard?
   
• Target 1.0 hours - panel discussion and Q&A
• Audiences
  • ASLA members / landscape architects
  • Allied professionals
  • Community / collaborators
  • Elected officials
   

Content Framework

Content framework could include:

• Why (brief intro)
  • Immediate emergency - our future
  • How we as landscape architects can contribute (adaptation, mitigation, communication)
   
• What you can do + how to do it (adaptation and mitigation) (examples, lessons learned + tools)
  • Water - sea level rise, flood, drought 
  • Wildfire
  • Carbon reduction / sequestration 
  • Extreme heat
  • Climate justice
   
• Communication
  • What we can advocate for, how, and for whom - briefly discuss, share resources
  • Who you can work with - briefly discuss, link to shared resources
  • Collaborators / allied professions / legislators
  • How landscape architects can lead
   

Guiding Questions During Event

• How are landscape architects and other professions addressing these issues in their work?
• How do we build transdisciplinary teams? How do we create a unity of understanding across disciplines? Who should be on these teams to address regional issues?
• What policies are in place to help address issues? 
• What policies are needed?

Resources (provide 3-5 links for background to educate event attendees)

ASLA

Climate Action Plan 
Climate Action Field Guide for ASLA Members  
Climate Action Plan Case Studies 
Resource Guides 

Other organizations  

Architecture 2030 1.5°C COP26 Communiqué  
Climate Positive Design
Carbon Conscience App (Sasaki)  
International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Climate Action Commitment
Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Landscape Performance Series 
Green New Deal Superstudio
Sustainable SITES Initiative

Outcomes

• Record webinar for on-demand viewing.
• Begin to collect data / project case studies to share among region in the following topics: 
  • Advocacy - Highlight resources that landscape architects can use to promote our field to those who don’t understand what we do, so that we will be called upon to be a part of all aspects of climate action work. 
  • Policy - Identify how landscape architects can be involved in making and using policy to enact change at local, state, and federal levels. 
  • Practice - Showcase planned or built work and tools that address climate change issues specific to your region that others can learn from. 
  • Research - Identify work by academics, firms, or other organizations that can inform our practice and advance innovative tools and techniques.   
  • Funding - Share public and private financing opportunities for local climate adaptation and resilience projects.
   

If you have additional questions, please reach out to propractice@asla.org.