If you asked a random sampling of landscape architects why they chose this profession, you might get several answers: they were drawn to it because they care about environmental stewardship, they are fascinated by design, or they love to draw. But, generally speaking, most landscape architects have a common ethic when it comes to their practice. The best landscape architects care deeply about the health and well-being of people and cultures. They want to ensure that development does not damage environmental and cultural integrity. And they like to use products and materials that will have as few impacts on the environment as possible.

Landscape architects take responsibility for the consequences of their decisions on the health of natural systems, and they take steps to forecast what the long-term impacts of a project will be. Through the design and planning of places, they encourage the adoption of healthy, environmentally sound, and responsible attitudes by people who inhabit or use them.

These professionals also generate design, planning, management strategies, and policy from the basis of the cultural context and the ecosystem to which each landscape belongs. They strive to maintain, conserve, or reestablish the diversity of biological systems. They are committed to the use of native and compatible materials and plants and the creation of habitat for native animal species. And they avoid the use of plants that are known to be invasive to indigenous ecosystems.

Furthermore, landscape architects strive to develop and use building products and materials that exemplify the principles of sustainable development. They ensure that construction is of the highest quality, that site protection is integral to the project, and that low-impact construction technology is used during all phases of the process. They treat all site components--soil, rock, water, and vegetation--as resources, not waste products. Where waste exists, landscape architects reuse, recycle, and transform.

Lastly, landscape architects never stop learning. They seek constant improvement in knowledge, abilities, and skills to more effectively achieve sustainable development. They build networks of multidisciplinary teams as a method of exchanging information. And as they learn, landscape architects actively engage in creating awareness of sustainable development among clients, government, academia, students, and the public at large.