The University of Michigan-Flint’s Urban Alternatives House has
been selected as one of the first landscapes to participate in a
new program testing the nation’s first rating system for green
landscape design, construction and maintenance. The selection
was made by the Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™). SITES
selected the Urban Alternatives House based on its extensive
environmentally friendly elements. These sustainable practices
include: removing invasive trees from the site, developing a
landscape that includes space for food production, native
plantings, rain gardens and managing rainwater on site. The
Urban Alternatives House will join more than 150 other pilot
projects from 34 states as well as from Canada, Iceland and
Spain as part of an international pilot project program to
evaluate the new SITES rating system for sustainable landscapes,
with and without buildings. Sustainable landscapes can clean
water, reduce pollution and restore habitats, while providing
significant economic and social benef