Decarbonizing Specifications: Guidelines for Landscape Architects, Specifiers, and Contractors - 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Includes a Live Web Event on 04/09/2025 at 12:00 PM (EDT)

Every landscape architecture project has a carbon footprint—from material sourcing to construction, use, and disposal. As landscape architects, designers, and industry leaders, we must bring a new mindset to our work and prioritize climate-conscious decisions. This webinar introduces a streamlined, action-oriented framework for cutting emissions and increasing carbon sequestration through a CliffsNotes guide to best practices.

Attendees will explore key considerations, real-world applications, and essential resources to integrate carbon budgeting into their design process. The session will also include recommendations for material specification using the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) 2014 framework, highlighting ways to reduce impacts from project materials’ embodied carbon, transportation, and installation.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Evaluate the carbon impact of landscape architecture projects and apply strategies to reduce emissions while maintaining design intent.
Understand the high-level principles of decarbonizing landscape construction.
Learn how to use the specifications guide to understand high-level material and process specification recommendations to implement low-carbon solutions to meet individual project needs.

Please note: we are working through some issues with the learn.asla.org login. If you are an ASLA member but do not see this webinar as free to purchase when you go to register, please hold off on registering (this webinar is free for all ASLA members) and report the issue to learn@asla.org.

This webinar is underwritten by Landscape Forms

Image Credit: Copley Square, Boston, Massachusetts, Sasaki

Bryce Carnehl, Corporate ASLA

Specification Support Manager

Hunter Industries

Bryce Carnehl has been in the landscape industry for over 20 years working in construction, landscape architecture, sales, corporate social responsibility, and marketing. Throughout these years he has dedicated himself to promoting the value of green spaces.

Every project begins with a plan, and better planning leads to project success. Bryce now works to create business opportunity for landscape stakeholders through design, planning, and specification efforts. He believes that together we can build business prosperity, increase the value of landscapes, and ensure healthy communities in which we all live, work, and play.

Christopher R. Hardy, ASLA, PLA

Senior Associate

Sasaki

Chris focuses on the integration of ecology and culture, with a commitment to craft in the built environment. Chris led Sasaki’s CarbonConscience research project team from 2019 to the present and serves as a current co-chair of the ASLA CAC Carbon Drawdown & Biodiversity subcommittee. Through these efforts, Chris has been translating literature reviews and decarbonizing design strategies into tools and educational resources for designers and planners. Chris is actively applying these tools and research to projects in the USA and EU. Chris believes that every project is not only a design opportunity but an opportunity to experiment and learn.

Alejandra Hinojosa, Affil. ASLA

Sustainability Specialist III

LPA Design Studios

As Sustainability Specialist within LPA’s Sustainability + Applied Research (S+AR) Team, Alejandra is focused on process and progress. LPA Design Studios is a multidisciplinary firm that prioritizes an integrated approach to sustainability which allows Alejandra a unique window of opportunity effect change at a project, discipline, and firm-wide level. Her passion for environmentalism fuels her capacity to advocate for solutions that drive decarbonization and consider the triple bottom line: people, planet, prosperity. She serves on ASLA’s National Climate Action Committee and has been collaborating with her committee members to publish educational material focused on decarbonizing design and construction specifications.