Written By: Rachel Ware, Catalyst Partners

Over the past few months, I’ve had the chance to attend and participate in three very different conferences: the ASLA Conference in New Orleans, the Aquariums and Zoos Facilities Association Conference in Salt Lake City, and the Michigan Building Transformation Forum in Ann Arbor. 

These conferences brought together owners, designers, operators, sustainability leads, and people who spend every day wrestling with the complexities of creating better, healthier, more resilient places. And honestly, the conversations I had across these events stayed with me long after the flights home. 

Despite how different the audiences were, two themes surfaced again and again. 

 

Theme 1: Many firms want to integrate SITES and LEED into their standard practice 

So… is third-party certification still relevant? From what I’ve seen, yes, deeply. 

One of my biggest takeaways was how many firms told me they’re considering weaving SITES or LEED strategies directly into their standard project specifications. Not only for certified projects, but across the board.  

To me, that signals something important:

Third-party certification isn’t losing relevance; it’s becoming baked into how leading firms practice. 

And honestly, that’s the direction we all want things to go. The goal has always been for these strategies to become part of everyday practice, not something reserved only for certified projects. When firms are being intentional, it shows that the core values behind these frameworks are taking root across the industry. 

But here’s the key point I want to emphasize:

While it’s great that more teams are embracing these practices internally, there’s still real merit in pursuing certification itself. The frameworks become even more powerful when they aren’t just referenced but actually followed through to their full extent. 

That’s where certification continues to matter and why it’s worth exploring with clients, even when firms already “know” the strategies. 

• Certification requires baselines and real measurement.
  Teams must understand their starting point — water use, carbon emissions, energy performance — and then demonstrate improvement. That level of rigor doesn’t always happen without an external structure prompting it. 

• Certification creates accountability.
  We’ve all seen how easy it is for “best practice” to slip when budgets tighten or schedules shrink. A third party helps keep sustainability goals from becoming “nice to have” line items that quietly disappear. Having an independent reviewer makes sure the work holds up to an external standard, not just our best intentions. 

• Certification gives everyone a common language.
  Owners and design teams don’t have to reinvent the wheel or negotiate standards from scratch. The framework itself becomes the shared roadmap. 

• Certification is an educational tool.
  Whether it’s required signage, interpretive elements, or staff training, it turns sustainability into something visible and understood and not just a hidden feature on a spreadsheet. 

• Certification keeps us aligned with evolving best practices.
  These systems evolve with science, policy, and technology, which means projects using them stay current rather than falling back on outdated assumptions. 

So if you’re wondering whether you should still be recommending SITES and/or LEED certification to clients, my experience says YES, absolutely. 

 

Theme 2: Owners need solutions — not just “sustainability for sustainability’s sake” 

So… what do owners really need? 

This came up constantly in my conversations: owners aren’t looking for abstract sustainability goals. They’re looking for clear, practical solutions to the issues they’re already dealing with day-to-day. 

What they want to know is: 

• How do we solve the flooding and erosion issues that are getting worse every year? 

• How do we lower long-term operating costs? 

• How can we invest in resilience now so we’re not paying for bigger problems later? 

• How do we embrace sustainability and best practices without adding unnecessary complexity to our operations? 

Owners need sustainability strategies that reduce risk, save money, and make their sites easier to manage. When sustainability directly supports those goals, it becomes something owners are excited about, not hesitant to adopt. 

What’s interesting is that the more we provide realistic, on-the-ground solutions, the more they’re willing to explore certification, innovation, and broader sustainability commitments. 

In other words:

When sustainability supports their day-to-day reality, it stops being an extra task and starts being part of the solution. 

 

My Big Takeaway 

These three conferences reinforced something I’ve been feeling for a while:

We’re at a moment where the industry isn’t questioning whether sustainability matters, but whether we’re doing it in a way that’s practical, measurable, and meaningful. 

Designers are ready to use frameworks they can apply consistently.
Owners are asking for real-world solutions that meet them where they are.
And certification programs, when used thoughtfully, can bridge that gap. 

Blending proven frameworks with real-world solutions is how we move the industry forward. My hope is that we keep choosing approaches that make our work more resilient, more intentional, and more supportive of the people who use these places every day.