Sustainable Site Design Philosophy

Perhaps you’re interested in LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, acquiring SPIRIT (military equivalent of LEED) ratings, or incorporating as many LEED components as possible into your design. If so, we’re on board.

Fisher Associates understands that the site is only one component of an interdependent system. We expend the effort to understand the interrelationships of soils, sunlight, stormwater, plant communities, heat islands, and energy, and the impacts of human uses on each.

We practice a sustainable design philosophy that affects all phases of a project. We incorporate sustainable design principals into our site selection, planning, inventory, assessment, analysis of alternatives, design, construction oversight and commissioning activities. Some specific examples of our sustainable design considerations are:

• Protecting greenfields. Promoting existing sites that can be redeveloped
• Conserving existing natural areas, using native vegetation, and restoring existing stream and drainage channels.
• Working with existing contours to minimize earthwork and energy use and maintain existing drainage patterns.
• Reusing materials, such as milled asphalt for parking lots and timber bollards and bumper rails for amenities.
• Incorporating water quality and detention measures into the site design as landscape features.
• Minimizing heat islands and lighting spillover.
• Accommodating pedestrian, bicycle, and commuter travel needs.
• Reusing gray and rain water.
• Addressing community issues such as traffic and historic or cultural resources concerns.

Sustainable design goes beyond a basic change in design approach. If you’re interested in learning more about this philosophy or in using our sustainable design services on your project, contact Jim Sprague, P.E. at 585-334-1310, extension 231.