Huge Wins for Sustainability in Vectorworks Landmark

As the global conversation around climate change intensifies, sustainable site stewardship is no longer just a recommendation — it’s an expectation. Property owners, designers, and regulatory bodies alike are pushing for resource-efficient solutions that reduce negative environmental impact.

While these practices were once perceived as costly or complicated, evolving customer demands and jurisdictional mandates are rapidly shifting the narrative. One tangible way to embrace sustainability is through smarter land surfacing decisions, which can directly impact stormwater management, mitigate urban heat island effects, and support overall site resilience.

Vectorworks Landmark 2025 is paving the way for more sustainable site design by offering new tools to assign and report sustainability data on Hardscape, Landscape Area, and Curb objects. These powerful features empower designers to not only make informed choices but also communicate the environmental benefits of their decisions.

Vectorworks Landmark 2025 introduces an array of enhancements that revolutionize the way you engage with your projects. Advanced object visibility controls, intuitive model viewing, and geographic survey point integration streamline the design process while meeting industry standards. Among the most impactful updates are the new Sustainability Settings available for Hardscape, Landscape Area, and Curb objects.

Embedding sustainability metrics directly into the design workflow makes it easier than ever to align projects with climate-positive goals. Whether tackling stormwater management or reducing heat absorption through material selection, Vectorworks Landmark 2025 equips you with the tools to create landscapes that serve both people and the planet.

Stormwater management plays a critical role in sustainable site design. With the increasing intensity of rain events, managing water flow on-site is essential to reducing runoff and minimizing strain on local infrastructure.

The Permeability setting allows you to classify surfaces as permeable or non-permeable and assign infiltration rates based on proposed materials and installation methods. These rates can be expressed in various units — such as inches per hour or centimeters per day — depending on project needs.

In addition, assigning a Runoff Coefficient helps quantify how fast rainwater will flow off the surface rather than being absorbed. When combined with Vectorworks Landmark’s site model and worksheet tools, this data enables you to calculate peak flow rates by incorporating rainfall intensity, drainage areas, and surface slopes —delivering a comprehensive understanding of a project’s post-development water management.

Urban heat island mitigation is another crucial aspect of sustainable design. The Solar Reflectance Index (SRI) quantifies a surface material’s ability to reflect solar energy, helping you select materials that keep surfaces and their surrounding environments cooler.

Lighter materials like concrete naturally reflect more energy and produce less heat, while darker surfaces like asphalt absorb more solar radiation, producing an intensely hot surface and surrounding air space. Assigning SRI values to Hardscape and Landscape Area objects means you can more easily specify higher SRI-valued pavement materials to more positively influence the microclimate of your projects, contributing to more comfortable outdoor spaces and supporting broader urban cooling strategies

Vectorworks Landmark 2025 also introduces a Sustainability Metric Framework — a flexible system that helps you align projects with key environmental standards:

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG): A UK-mandated metric that promotes restoring site biodiversity to pre-development levels.

Urban Greening Factor (UGF): A UK-based scoring system that encourages green infrastructure in urban settings.

Biomass Density Index (BDI): A US-based framework that quantifies vegetated cover to help you measure existing and proposed biomass on site.

These metric assignments empower you to meet regulatory requirements and document sustainability efforts with greater precision. Looking ahead, the framework is designed to expand with input from the design community on additional metrics to support diverse global sustainability goals.

With sustainability at the core of Vectorworks Landmark 2025, every site element has the potential to tell a story — one that highlights how design choices impact the environment.

We’re excited to see how the design community will leverage these tools to create more sustainable landscapes. Share your projects and sustainability insights with us on social media by tagging @Vectorworks — we’d love to feature your work and inspire others.

Stay tuned to the Vectorworks Public Roadmap for updates on future sustainability features coming to Landmark, as we continue to support a greener, more resilient built environment.