The extraction, transportation, processing and disposal of bulk landscaping materials makes up a significant portion of the negative climate and ecosystem effects of landscaping.

Maintenance equipment use, irrigation with water that is drawn from depleting aquifers and/or from municipal water treatment systems and synthetic or over concentrated fertilizer applications make up the bulk of the remaining harmful effects.

To minimize the harmful impacts of creating a landscape as much as possible:

• Incorporate as much of the existing on-site material into the new landscape as possible to minimize the effects transportation and disposal. When materials do need to be removed, consider where they are going and whether they can be repurposed or recycled.
• Only bring to site material that is necessary and consider whether a lower level intervention can achieve your core goals. At the design stage this can mean spending time on working out what the underlying purpose each landscape component is intended to serve, which can open up a wider range of options for meeting a need than simply fitting together requested components.
• Take care to select appropriate materials for the purpose and location. Even green materials have an ecological impact. If they don’t serve their intended purpose and need to be replaced after a short amount of time, their lifecycle costs may be higher than a product or material with higher initial impact but a much longer functional lifespan.
• Look for locally available materials, reclaimed or diverted (from landfill) materials and materials from renewable, sustainable managed systems. Also consider maintenance inputs and end of life destination.
• Minimize waste in the construction process (this starts at the design stage) by only placing high impact materials where they are needed for functional reasons and designing to material dimensions, to minimize unusable offcuts.
• Care for the components, the longer they last the lower the annual ecological impact over their lifecycle.

A product that may be ecologically friendly in one geographic are may not be ecologically friendly in another, seeking materials sourced close to where you live and work is always the best place to start and can lead to landscapes with a strong relationship with their surrounding environment and some interesting and creative solutions unique to your projects