7 Ways To Save The Planet One Lawn, Park And Campus At A Time

When we walk by manicured, lush green lawns, we see homeowners who take good care of their property and high resale value. When we walk, run or play with our kids in vibrant green local parks, we’re grateful the local community maintained it so well. When we stroll our university or corporate campus past courtyards populated by our colleagues and classmates enjoying the soft grass while they work, read or grab a picnic lunch, we appreciate our employer or university for creating such an inviting environment.

When Pamela Conrad sees these lush green lawns, parks and campuses, she probably wonders about their water consumption and carbon emissions, and if they are using polluting chemical pesticides or organic ones to keep it so green. This is the mindset shift she thinks we all should make.

“We do need a cultural shift in our way of living, I think, coming at it from this idea of a more climate positive approach, that if we can start seeing these choices and changes we can make that are actually positive for the environment, then maybe we can start replicating them and have a ripple effect in transformation of our environments, our communities,” Conrad said recently on Electric Ladies Podcast.

In short, she said, we need to change our definition of what makes a beautiful lawn, or good landscaping for resale value. We also need to install new systems and practices that reduce and reuse water and limit the negative environmental impact of the exterior built environment.

As an internationally recognized landscape architect, Conrad would know. She is Vice-Chair of the International Federation of Landscape Architects Climate Change Working Group, chair of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Climate Action Plan, Founder of the landscape architecture firm Climate Positive Design, and is currently a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She grew up on a farm in the Midwest, so her passion for nature has deep roots.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) water use statistic puts these lush lawns into perspective too: “The average American family uses 320 gallons of water per day, about 30 percent of which is devoted to outdoor uses. More than half of that outdoor water is used for watering lawns and gardens. Nationwide, landscape irrigation is estimated to account for nearly one-third of all residential water use, totaling nearly 9 billion gallons per day.”

Public support is strong

A December 2022 Yale Project on Climate Change Communications - George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication study found that 45% of voters in the 2022 election said that global warming was at least “one of several important issues” that drove their vote, if not the top issue. What’s more, 52% of these voters said, “global warming should be a high priority or very high priority for the president and Congress.”

Those voters are probably happy that President Biden and Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act with $369 billion towards climate change mitigation initiatives, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and CHIPS and Science Act, which also have billions allocated to climate change-related initiatives, including accelerating the transition to electric vehicles and clean energy.

“The Inflation Reduction Act…includes significant funds for landscape architecture approaches to address climate change,” Conrad added, “including, addressing water scarcity, active transportation projects like complete streets and recreational trails, to nature-based infrastructure, community tree planting, ecosystem restoration and much more.”

How to reduce the environmental impact of your lawn, campus, park or landscaping

Conrad and her professional landscape architects have a range of best practices homeowners, property owners and facilities managers can employ to reduce their carbon footprint, ensure environmental equity, and advocate for more responsible water and energy use, and more aggressive action to reduce global warming in time to keep the planet at or below 1.5 degrees.

Here are suggestions for your home or campus landscaping from the EPA, Conrad and the ASLA:

· Ban gas-powered, CO2-emitting lawn mowers and leaf blowers in 2024 like California has. California’s Air Resources Board, which led the charge on this ban, found that, “Today, a commercial operator using one backpack leaf blower for one hour generates the same smog-forming emissions as a car driving 1100 miles.”

· Use techniques that reduce and reuse water.

· Employ strategies that extract carbon emissions from the air, like planting trees.

· Include plants that are native or indigenous to your native area, because they will need less water and likely less fertilizer, because they will adapt better.

· If you need fertilizer or pesticide, use organic ones. “Nitrous oxide is a commonly found greenhouse gas in most commercial fertilizers, probably ones that you would, you know, pick up at your home and garden center, or general store. Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas that is about 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. So, if we can use organic fertilizers, organic pesticides, we can avoid those emissions,” Conrad explained.

· Track your landscape’s CO2 emissions and environmental impact. Conrad developed an app called the Pathfinder app to do so, for example.

“There really are three main pillars of the (ASLA) Climate Action Plan: practice, equity and advocacy,” Conrad explained, with the goal of zero emissions by 2040. “But it does revolve around this idea of how we're going to work with communities to plan and design these places that are going to increase resilience and restore ecosystems and support equity going forward, especially in communities that have been historically underserved.”

“How are we going to adapt in the future going forward? How are we going to support our communities and, and also hopefully thrive? You know, can we actually create places that are healthier and better for people as well.”