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The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) has selected two WRT projects—the Germantown Academy Outdoor Education and Athletics Area Redevelopment and the Continental Bridge Redesign—as two of the first landscapes to participate in a program testing the nation's first rating system for green landscape design, construction, and maintenance. SITES is a partnership of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin, and the United States Botanic Garden.

The two projects will join more than 150 others 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, which can clean water, reduce pollution, and restore habitats while providing significant economic and social benefits.

The Germantown Academy Redevelopment in Ft. Washington, Pennsylvania was selected because of its extensive environmentally-friendly elements. The pre-K through 12 independent school's athletic facilities, situated adjacent to the Wissahickon Creek, will be upgraded and reorganized amongst an innovative outdoor education area. While fostering an educational program linked to the natural environment, the plan helps to repair the riparian corridor, abate flooding, and manage stormwater.

The Continental Bridge Redesign in Dallas, Texas was selected based on its potential to transform a roadway into an environmental and recreational amenity. Planned sustainable features include the creation of "green walls" and other vegetated landscape elements as well as facilitation of pedestrian and cyclist use. The historic bridge will be reclaimed as the first park feature of the Trinity River Corridor Project, which aims to transform central Dallas into a model of sustainability.

SITES pilot projects will test the point system for achieving different levels of site sustainability on a 250-point scale, and the performance benchmarks associated with specific credits within the Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009. SITES will use feedback from the selected projects during the pilot phase, which runs through June 2012, to revise the final rating system and reference guide by early 2013. The US Green Building Council, a stakeholder in the Sustainable Sites Initiative, anticipates incorporating the guidelines and performance benchmarks into future iterations of its LEED Green Building Rating System.