Supporting Sustainability Through A Healthy Landscape

When You Partner With Your Local U.S. Lawns To Maintain Your Commercial Landscape, You’re Demonstrating Your Commitment To Creating A Healthier Environment For Future Generations To Enjoy.

If you know anything about the values shared by every U.S. Lawns franchise owner throughout the United States, you’ve surely seen our dedication to improving communities and improving lives in everything we do. Although this is evidenced in a variety of ways, practicing sustainable landscaping could well be the most important action any of us can take; and commercial property owners and managers everywhere are partnering with us to demonstrate their commitment to leaving a healthy environment for future generations to enjoy. 

Healthy Green Spaces Offer Multiple Environmental Benefits

How impactful can landscape management be on sustainability efforts? Well, the short answer is very, especially when landscaping services are performed responsibly. In fact, there are multiple benefits to maintaining healthy green spaces, including:

Cleaner Air – by now, everyone knows that trees, grass and other plants produce oxygen, which is vital to our survival; but just as importantly, that same precious flora removes greenhouse gasses such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone and other dangerous pollutants that can dramatically compromise our air quality. 

Reduced Noise & Light Pollution – lawns and other healthy landscaping elements are exceptionally good at blocking light and deflecting or absorbing sounds, making them invaluable light and noise dampers in urban areas as well as on commercial properties with busy places like loading docks and delivery zones.

Soil Erosion & Wastewater Runoff Control – another way healthy green spaces are good for the environment is by helping to prevent soil erosion and manage heavy wastewater runoff. How? In a few different ways:

• Thick, healthy turfgrass also offers flood control through maximum water absorption, while minimizing soil erosion that can be caused by both wind and water runoff. This is important for more than aesthetics because:
  • First, if there are areas of bare dirt showing on your grounds, it’s an indication that the soil is lacking in nutrients. This is a situation that should be corrected before it leads to bigger problems like dead plantings as well as flooding and mudslides–all of which can create costly damage and unnecessary liabilities. 
  • Secondly, a thriving lawn helps to mitigate the risk of wastewater contamination, by absorbing excess runoff and acting as a natural water filtration system. 
• Plants with strong root systems absorb a lot of water, which can prevent standing water from creating problems and lower the risk of flash flooding. 
• Temperature Regulation Outdoors & Indoors – maintaining a healthy green space has also been proven to regulate the temperature far better than paved areas; while concrete holds and emanates the heat back into the environment, grassy lawns tend to disperse the heat and cool the environment, not to mention that shade trees offer up a cooling canopy that blocks out the hot sun–regulating the ambient outside temperature and conserving energy through improved efficiency of indoor cooling systems.  

Any and all of these contributions to a healthier environment make a very strong case for sustainable landscaping. 

Sustainable Landscaping Is Advantageous To Your Bottom Line, Too

So what exactly is sustainable landscaping? It simply comes down to responsible landscape management practices. From landscape design and installation to ongoing maintenance, sustainable landscaping starts by preserving resources, employing natural plant health solutions, minimizing waste, and avoiding the introduction of pollutants into our soil, water and air. 

The added advantage of this is that when done properly, sustainable landscaping can actually improve the quality of the air, water and soil, all the while conserving precious resources, reducing energy consumption, lowering landscape maintenance demands, and ultimately resulting in less money spent on landscaping services as well as utility bills.  

What’s more, a flourishing landscape is far less susceptible to pest infestation, disease and fungal infections. This alone can translate to substantial savings in plant health services and need to replace expensive shrubs, trees and plants that, when properly cared for, should give you many good years. 

U.S. Lawns Is Dedicated To Upholding Sustainable Landscaping Practices

A few of the sustainable landscaping practices U.S. Lawns employ regularly are to:

Design a self-sustaining landscape with everything it needs to grow and thrive, including food and shelter for beneficial creatures like the pollinators that are absolutely necessary for a healthy green space. 

The landscape design process offers a prime opportunity to ensure your grounds are supporting conservation efforts and your business goals, too. For example, there are hardscape elements that can provide erosion control and double as outdoor seating; water features that are relaxing and soul soothing yet protect your property by capturing the overflow from heavy rains; and ornamental shrubs and trees that beautify while serving as a windbreak, providing a shady respite, and blocking the sounds of heavy traffic all at the same time–truly, the benefits, possibilities and advantages of sustainable landscape design are unlimited!

Plant native grasses, trees and other plants that will thrive in your region with minimal care, so they’ll look beautiful without making extreme demands. 

Ensure responsible application of plant health products by certified specialists and use them only when absolutely necessary. Again, when the ecosystem is healthy to begin with, the soil is able to provide the necessary organic nutrients, which alleviates the need to apply synthetic fertilizers. Even better? A healthy landscape is also less likely to need herbicides and pesticides, and now, more than ever, we know how important this is to the health of our environment.  

Utilize wood mulch, which more than beautifying, regulates the ground temperature to protect tender root systems, prevents weed germination, assists with moisture retention, and provides nutrients as it decomposes. 

Keep irrigation systems updated so they are in regulatory compliance, work in harmony with Mother Nature, and operate at peak efficiency throughout every season. 

Use the most efficient tools and equipment available to perform our landscape maintenance tasks.

U.S. Lawns is devoted to staying at the forefront of technology and other horticultural advances, and we’ll continue to lead the charge in providing commercial landscaping services that prioritize sustainability and a safer, cleaner environment. If you’re ready to learn more about a grounds care partner that cares about our environment as much as we do your business’ success, we’d love to show you more, so get in touch with us today.