Brief
Sustainable hardscaping may involve eco-friendly materials and a landscape layout that supports local wildlife and reduces pollution. This means there are ways to lower your impact on the environment without sacrificing your landscaping goals.
Insight
Hardscaping refers to non-organic features of a landscape such as pathways, decks, driveways, patios, walls, steps, and other human-made structures.
Sustainable hardscaping may involve eco-friendly materials and a landscape layout that supports local wildlife and reduces pollution. This means there are ways to lower your impact on the environment without sacrificing your landscaping goals.
Benefits of Sustainable Hardscaping
Hardscaping of nearly any sort can have numerous sustainability benefits. You can also take specific measures to add even more environmental pros.
Replace Lawns
Lawns are monocultures, reducing the potential biodiversity of your yard. Grass is the most irrigated crop in the United States, requiring an estimated 9 billion gallons of water per day.1
With hardscaping, you’ll be less tempted to spread fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides that end up running into the local water system, leaching into the groundwater, or harming native wildlife.
Use Locally-Sourced Materials
Hardscape is almost always sourced from local quarries, due to the high cost of shipping heavy materials with a relatively low market value. This means lower carbon emissions in transportation.
Use Less Water
Hardscaping is often integrated into xeriscaping—landscaping with minimal or no use of water other than what nature provides—which can save hundreds of gallons of water annually and reduce the carbon emissions used to provide that water cleanly.
Reduce Stormwater Runoff
Hardscapes can all too easily increase rainwater runoff and soil erosion. Sustainable hardscapes, however, use permeable hardscaping materials that allow water to drain into the soil, not the sewer. Excess rainwater runoff taxes municipal treatment systems and washes toxins into waterways.
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