Why Design Sustainably?
Sustainability has become a buzz word among design professionals and there is a lot of greenwashing that goes on out there. We put the talk into practice and have been doing so from the start, here's why. Conventional landscapes are downright harmful to the environment and end up costing the end user much more in the long run. Consider the following:
- The City of San Diego Water Department's studies have shown that as much as 50 percent of residential water usage is for landscape irrigation
- Traditional landscape practices can result in nearly 90 percent of stormwater being lost as runoff, leading to flooding and stream degradation
- Pesticides and fertilizers contaminate ground and surface water, and yet more are currently applied to suburban lawns and gardens than to agricultural plots
- Vast areas of plant and animal habitat have been forever lost to growing urban and agricultural expanses - traditional landscape designs generally omit native plants and all the local fauna that go along with them
- Tremendous amounts of carbon are expended on importing landscape construction materials from around the world while local sources are overlooked
- Traditional landscapes depend heavily on inorganic fertilizers which are derived from fossil fuels, increasing our dependence upon them
As part of the solution Urban Green spear headed the Sustainable Showcase Garden which addresses many of these concerns and is an example to those in the region how a sustainable landscape can be achieved.
Copyright © Urban Green 2011 | 619.995.1306 | michael@gourbangreen.com
