In January this year, we started a new campaign called ‘Why Invest in Landscape?’ The campaign is intended to make a bottom-line financial case for the benefits of retaining a landscape architect, showing clients how they can make or save money. The aim of the campaign has been to give the profession a tool for talking to clients about what landscape architects can offer in economic circumstances where “what’s it worth?” is the only question in their minds.
Over the year, nearly 10,000 copies of the leaflet have been distributed, and demand for more copies keeps coming in. One thing that has surprised me is the international interest in the campaign. It was only ever intended to be relevant to the UK, but it did not take long before there were requests for copies from the US, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Italy and elsewhere. In October, the campaign was presented in Strasbourg to Les Assises du Paysage and this month it was presented to the PAYS.MED.URBAN project in Seville, which is a study of landscape as a key element in the sustainability and the competitiveness of the Mediterranean urban areas. It seems that, for the moment, the profession in many other countries does not have a similar tool – so hopefully ours will inspire others to create their own.
While ‘Why Invest in Landscape?’ makes a general case, we are also working on initiatives to focus on the needs of specific clients. Last month, with the help of two ministers, we launched our campaign on Local Green Infrastructure. Through case studies, we showed how landscape architects working at a small, local scale can make excellent use of minimal resources and make a major difference to the places where their local communities live. There will shortly be a promotional video to support this campaign too.
At the other end of the scale, the government produced the first UK National Infrastructure Plan a year ago, showing how £200bn will be spent on major infrastructure work, including high-speed rail and power infrastructure. In July this year, the government upgraded its investment forecasts, bringing the total up to about £300bn. The UK National Infrastructure Plan will involve a huge range of work, from planning proposals to LVIA, design work and community consultation. As a new generation of major infrastructure takes shape across the country, the profession must ensure that plans are developed and delivered at a landscape scale. The Policy Committee has convened a working group to consider how best to work with this plan and ensure that the profession responds positively to it.
Please would you increase the type face font size—the normal text size is very small, and the bottom of the above-printed Blog is microscopic !.
Also, could the CEO’s name be put at the top of the blog—anyone outside the LI is unlikely to know his name.
Thanks !.
Lewis White