Sustainable Landscaping Meets Business Owners
Whether or not you do much with it, your business has landscaping potential, and therefore potential to improve your business’ profits and environmental footprint with sustainable landscaping. This one relatively simple aspect of your business has a major impact on the environment, the community, and the people utilizing your services.
The way you landscape your property can:
- lessen your carbon footprint
- reduce pollution
- increase your energy efficiency
- reduce your water usage
- improve the comfort of people in and around your building
- restore natural habitats
- reuse demolition materials
- lengthen the life of structures on your property
Aspects of Sustainable Landscaping
Plants
Trees soak up carbon dioxide and other nasty things in the air as well as provide shade that lessens the heat island effect. The heat island effect reduces the comfort of your customers, makes your cooling system have to work harder, and has a negative impact on the atmosphere.
Plants native to your building’s location will grow more readily and require less water, fertilizer, and labor to thrive. When choosing plants for your landscape, choose those that grow naturally in your location and soil type.
Water Usage
Irrigation and water harvesting methods can make it so that your landscape virtually waters itself. Many people use rain barrels to collect the many gallons of water that pour onto their roof for use in their landscapes, so they spend little to no money on watering. Proper sustainable landscaping also plans for the most effective irrigation techniques so the plants maintain themselves naturally. Water-loving plants also absorb water that may cause flooding and sewage issues, so you can put the thirstiest native plants in low-lying areas and around ditches to collect excess water. Permeable pavement is also big in sustainable landscaping because it allows water to sink through it into the ground to effectively prevent flooding and water pollution.
Materials
Landscapes and garden areas often include built structures of some kind and if you create your new landscape with reused materials, you can both eliminate the use of new materials and resources associated with their harvesting as well as consciously handle old materials. If you demolish or renovate an old building, you can use the materials from that building to create the landscape for another. You can also acquire materials from other business owners’ demolished projects.
Energy Use
Some business owners actually “landscape” their roof as well. This process is called a green roof. It saves electricity by reducing the use of heating and cooling systems and lengthens the life of the roof, meaning less maintenance and repair.
You can research sustainable landscaping in your area to find businesses who specialize in these landscaping techniques. Many also offer consultation services, so you can discover ways to improve your business’ landscape.