SUSTAINABILITY
Isabelle Greene and Associates, Inc., is a landscape architecture firm dedicated to creating excellent design within the context of sustainable living. Our passion for enduring results is apparent in our landscapes, which age well and flow naturally with the land and climate, conserving water, energy, and materials.
Some of these designs are expressed frankly and surprisingly as museum-type “art,” while others are lush green gardens, or landscapes almost indistinguishable from the natural wild landscape.
We work collaboratively with the architects, engineers and builders involved, enlarging the team as necessary to guarantee health of trees, achieve best use of water and soils as well as other features existing on the site. Thus we obtain the best use of a site and its solar orientation, finding solutions to fit structures, grading, retaining requirements, and other site features into suitable oneness with the land. This kind of collaboration results in substantial benefit and savings; it extends for the duration of construction and sometimes beyond helping future gardeners and maintenance personnel to understand their roles. If the client desires, the relationship evolves into an ongoing creative partnership for the property's management.
Our drainage designs may employ dry creek beds gently descending, catching rainwater in small ponds spilling into each other and other aesthetic natural devices to retain and recycle groundwater, ensuring better survival of deep-rooted plants and trees. Innovative paving with permeable surfaces allow for rainfall percolation, reduce irrigation and may eliminate expensive drainage structures. Likewise, minimal and subtle grading modifications —and using stone and boulders to retain slopes—blend beautifully into the landscape and cost less than complex engineered solutions like land cuts and tall retaining walls.
We design with plants, often natives, that thrive naturally on the site, thus enhancing our regional habitat and reducing water, fertilizer, chemical, and general maintenance needs. We choose plants whose growth habits fit into the spaces designated for them without undue pruning and trimming. In our designs, we are apt to make beautiful new use of most of the plants and materials already existing on the property. For plant health and resource efficiency, we encourage composting and mulching, which result in further savings. When a project is completed, for those clients who wish it, we offer follow-up visits to guide the various maintenance personnel.
Isabelle promotes green building in the community. She is a founding member of the Green Building Alliance, is one of the authors of the Green Building Guidelines for the California South Coast, has been on the Sustainability Project’s Board for Land Use and a member of the Santa Barbara Transportation and Circulation Commission. She lectures on traffic calming and participates in conferences for making cities livable. She is well known through her lectures and the many international and national publications of her works, and has been honored by the title Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.