Stone Brewing Recognized as a SITES Eco-Friendly Outdoor Space

Of the 50 locations in the US certified under the Sustainable Sites Initiative, two are in San Diego County

You’ve probably heard of LEED, which rates buildings by how green they are, but what about SITES? Short for “Sustainable Sites Initiative,” it’s also a marker for environmental friendliness, but its lens is focused on outdoor areas. Both LEED and SITES are run by the U.S. Green Building Council and Green Business Certification Institute.

The relatively new initiative is gaining traction, and San Diego is at the forefront, says Barb Eljenholm, one of only 21 SITES-accredited professionals in the state. Of the 50 certified sustainable sites in the US, eight are in California, and two are in San Diego: Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido and the Helix Environmental Planning headquarters in La Mesa.

To be eligible for SITES certification a property must meet several criteria, which encompass ecosystem conservation, floodplain protection, native plant usage, and runoff reduction. Eljenholm says the key elements include restoring and replicating ecological systems and bringing more people outdoors, “driving sustainability beyond the buildings.” Experts have high hopes for the initiative. “SITES, being easier to get, will hopefully go the same way as LEED,” Eljenholm says.

“Enjoying a Stone IPA from an Adirondack chair in our gardens, one would never know how much thought and effort goes into it. But just like your beer, there’s more than meets the eye.”

Stone’s one-acre property, designed by landscape architects at the Schmidt Design Group in collaboration with cofounder and executive chairman Greg Koch, stood out for using salvaged materials and drought-tolerant and edible landscaping, and committing to sustainable and organic maintenance practices.

A beer garden is usually more beer than garden, but that’s not the case with Stone. Koch says sustainability was a priority from day one, and he jumped at the chance to be involved with SITES. Stone’s Escondido gardens are built around a preexisting storm water detention basin, which many would have considered an unusable space. The gardens not only turn a utilitarian piece of civil engineering into a design feature; the plants chosen for its landscaping actually help purify the runoff before it returns to the natural ecosystem.

“Enjoying a Stone IPA from an Adirondack chair in our gardens, one would never know how much thought and effort goes into it,” Koch says. “But just like your beer, there’s more than meets the eye.”