Green Girl Land Development Solutions is a sustainability consulting business that helps private and public land development professionals identify opportunities and constraints to integrate more sustainability into site design and construction. The firm was specifically started to help you - the developer, engineer, architect, landscape architect, contractor, maintenance staff, planner, scientist, and others - cut to the chase through an open-source business model that provides you with the information and tools you need to find the best solutions for your particular site and stakeholder conditions.

Services Offered: I can help you implement over 200 best management practices during the master planning, design, construction, and operations & maintenance phases of your project. If I don't know something or can't design it, I'll point you to the person on your team who should know or help you find who you need. I help you make good decisions about where to put your money with decision making documents and resources your whole team can use to build up their library of BMP resources for their deliverables.

Business Model: Green Girl is a one-woman (certified WBE) firm that operates like a temporary agency, except with a background in sustainable civil engineering and land development. I'm knowledgeable and fast and happy to jump in, give you just what you need, and get out. I can be the extra helping hand and fresh perspective that it takes to create as green a project as we can really afford.

This is the community building of the Oleson Woods Apartments, which is an affordable housing project chock full of sustainable practices! (Click here for a 2007 EPA report on the costs savings of low impact over conventional developments!)

Informed Advice: I have 14 years experience creating green sites for green buildings and spend a lot of time in professional development keeping up on the latest science and approaches. You won't get that from your average project manager trying to get your permits issued in a hurry. My language will be simple and straightforward and my technical assistance will be provided in an easy to incorporate formats.

I wish us ALL a prosperous and healthy 2013, so that we can all keep up our good work!

It has truly been a pleasure and privilege to work with such a diverse set of stakeholders in 2012. I'm about halfway through my 4th year in business and would like to thank my clients and partners for all for their kind and dedicated collaborations. Together, I know we have succeeded in preserving, protecting, and improving our communities for the benefit of current and future generations. Together or apart in 2013, I feel confident that we will continue that trend, each in our own different, but very valuable ways.

In both my personal and professional life, in lieu of holiday gifts every year, I donate to a different non-profit organization in the names of my clients. This year, I donated $10/client to the Hells Canyon Preservation Council, an organization that works in some truly spectacular regions of Eastern Oregon. In their own words:

"Hells Canyon Preservation Council protects and restores the natural treasures of the Hells Canyon-Wallowa and Blue Mountain ecosystems. From the remote splendor of Hells Canyon and the Seven Devils to the rolling highlands of the Zumwalt Prairie, from the winding watersof the Grande Ronde to the crystalline lakes of Eagle Cap, from the protected breaks of the Wenaha-Tucannon to the rugged summits of the Elkhorns, we envision inspiring wildlands and pure waters where native species thrive in harmony with prosperous rural communities."

My clients in 2012 were:
Chemeketa Community College, OR
Coos Watershed Association, OR
eM Zed Architecture, OR
Fairview Presbyterian Church, OR
Five County Salmonid Conservation Program, CA
Hui o Koolaupoko, HI
Hickman, Williams & Associates, OR
City of Lincoln City Public Works, OR
Oregon State University Extension Service, OR
Raphael Goodblatt, now of AhHa! Architecture LLC, OR
Strata Design, Randy Goode, OR
Oregon Surfrider Foundation, Newport Chapter, OR
Tualatin Riverkeepers, OR
Washington State University Clark County Extension, WA

And many thanks to the partners who helped me put on classes:
Devil's Lake Water Improvement District, OR
North Carolina State University, NC LID Group, NC
Salmon Drift Creek Watershed Council, OR
MidCoast Watersheds Council - Yaquina Watershed, OR

Green Girl Land Development Solutions is a sustainability consulting firm that provides mentoring, training, and technical assistance to land development professionals and agencies. Armed with the latest science and thinking about best management practices, Green Girl evaluates the opportunities and constraints of not only the physical site, but also the community impacts and economic realities – essentially, providing project-based teaching to incorporate the triple bottom line into everyday thinking and practice. Green Girl offers expertise from the very early stages of planning to the late stages of construction in BMPs related to site design, demolition, grading and erosion control, utility design, stormwater management, and materials choices for both private and public infrastructure.

To reduce the impact of land development by assisting land development teams in the application of sustainable site design principles.

Land development and its associated buildings have a tremendous impact on natural resources, both on- and off-site. Seventy-one percent of our energy and 12% of our water on average is used to construct, operate, and maintain American buildings annually. These processes comprise 39% of our CO2 emissions and 65% of our waste stream. In addition, conventional land design and construction practices typically destroy biodiversity; contaminate the air, water, and land; and increase greenhouse gas emissions directly on-site to impact off-site resources even further.

We cannot go for a few weeks without food, a few days without water, or a few minutes without air - these are the basis of survival and represent basic rights for all. Clean land, water, and air should not be sacrificed for the creation of shelter.