SoCal ASLA’s Climate Action Committee Chair, Ronnie Siegel, organized a session of four landscape architect presenters for the 2022 Net Zero Conference at the LA Convention Center on Sept. 15, 2022. The session’s title was Landscape Architecture—Design for Resilience. The summary of the talks were that Landscape Architecture is at the confluence of carbon, climate, equity, ESG, net zero, and resilience. Our session’s four landscape architects Gary Lai, Jessica Henson, Claire Latané and Jeremy Klemic produced examples of their work demonstrating how the design of our built environment enables us to become more resilient to the future climate conditions of increased heat, drought, and flooding. At the same time, they showed how we can conserve energy and increase carbon sequestration through smart and more extensive use of plant material. They presented solutions to the inequities exacerbated even further by climate change using design with nature in schools, parks, and streets of vulnerable communities to provide urban heat reduction, food security, physical fitness, stress reduction, and educational opportunities while at the same time supporting biodiversity in both urban, rural, and natural environments.
Our four speakers deserve our gratitude for volunteering their time to promote landscape architecture at this world forum where over 1500 attendees from 53 countries and 45 US states spanning all industries convened! Their presentations were inspiring and advocated for climate action and for our profession to be at the center stage of solutions.
