PowerPoint Presentation - Greenscapes

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www.epa.gov/greenscapes
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GreenScapes

• Multi-media EPA Partnership Program that promotes
  a variety of environmentally beneficial
  landscaping and land management practices

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GreenScapes Alliance

• Partners (companies, government agencies)
• Commit to two GreenScaping activities
• Allies (professional organizations, trade
  associations, research groups, product
  manufacturers marketers)
• Promote use of GreenScaping activities

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• Why Join GreenScapes?
• Program provides state-of-the-art landscaping
  recommendations
• Web-based menu of options resources
• Multi-media continually updated
• Small scale Large scale
• National Recognition Program
• Case Study Profiles

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What GreenScapes does

• Helps preserve natural resources and prevent
  waste and pollution by encouraging more holistic
  decisions regarding waste, water, chemicals,
  energy, and land use

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What GreenScapes does

• Provides cost-efficient and environmentally
  friendly solutions - improving both an
  organizations bottom-line and the environment

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Big Landscapes

• Roads Highways
• Commercial Buildings
• Industrial Sites
• Military Installations
• Brownfields
• Colleges Universities
• Recreation areas - parks, golf courses, ski
  resorts, amusement parks,

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Can Generate Millions of Tons of Waste

• Trees, Shrubs, Brush, Lumber, Asphalt, Concrete,
  etc.
• Hauled away to a landfill
• Buried
• Burned

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And Use Millions of Gallons of

• Water
• Pesticides
• Fertilizers
• Fuels
• Oil

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GreenScapes promotes holistic and sustainable
decisions

• Waste generation disposal
• Use of
• Water
• Chemicals
• Air
• Plants
• Energy
• Land Wetlands

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Focus on the 4 Rs

• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle
• Rebuy

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Reduce

• Number One step towards efficient materials use
  pollution prevention

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Ways to Reduce

• Select low maintenance plants
• Use plastic lumber instead of pressure-treated
  wood
• Grasscycle
• Limit fertilizer and water use

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Example in Reduction

• Reduce or eliminate plastic silt fencing
• Substitute with blankets, berms, and filter-socks
  made of compost.

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Reuse

• Key to effective management
• Efficient use of valuable resources
• Financial
• Materials

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Ways to Reuse

• Chip trees and wood waste into mulch

• Saves money in reduced
• disposal costs
• commercial mulch purchases
• Benefits of mulch use
• Moisture retention
• Weed prevention
• Erosion control

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Other Ways to Reuse

• Return wooden pallets to your supplier whenever
  possible or disassemble them and use the wood
  elsewhere or grind them into mulch
• Donate healthy plants to community gardens,
  schools, churches, or other local local
  non-profit organizations when. updating or
  removing trees shrubs from landscape
• Use alternative sources of irrigation water such
  as gray water, reclaimed water, and collected
  rain water.

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Recycle

• Save money on disposal costs, by recycling waste
  materials
• Might receive a few dollars for valuable
  recyclables (metal, cardboard, paper, plastics)

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Ways to Recycle

• Send wood waste trimmings that cannot be
  composted on site to a local composting facility
• Recycle plastic fencing, barriers, plant
  pesticide containers
• Collect and recycle used oil tires from your
  vehicles and equipment

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Rebuy

• Puts valuable materials back to work
• Re-think your purchasing habits
• Look for products that meet your needs but have a
  better environmental profile than your current
  product purchases

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What Rebuying Means

• Recycled content
• Biobased products (incl. fuels lubricants)
• Renewable energy products
• Energy efficient
• Change your thinking
• Its not waste its a resource!

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Rebuying in use

• Specify rubberized asphalt (made from recycled
  tires) for
• Walking paths
• Bike paths
• Cart paths
• Parking lots

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The Economic Environmental Benefits of
GreenScaping

• Reduced equip. maint. labor supplies
• Reduced fuel use
• Reduced emissions
• Reduced fertilizer use material labor savings
• Reduced pesticide use material labor savings
• Reduced nonpoint source pollution
• Reduced exposure to hazardous materials
• Reduce insurance costs?

• Reduced water use
• Reduced irrigation costs water energy
• Reduced plant growth
• Reduced plant maintenance
• Reduced waste generation
• Reduced labor time cost (maint. disposal)
• Reduced equipment operating times

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Green Buildings and GreenScapes

• Up to 40 points can be achieved in existing LEEDs
  with regards to sustainable sites, water
  efficiency, energy atmosphere, materials
  resources, and innovation design factors that
  can be achieved through landscaping. Resulting in
  Silver or Gold status alone.
• These are the very types of site considerations
  that GreenScapes promotes

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GreenScapes Efforts in Green Buildings

• ASLA is exploring development of an evaluation
  tool to measure sustainable site design for
  recreation areas, nature preserves, utility and
  highway corridors, etc.
• Establish a standard for sustainable site design
  with clearly defined metrics
• Identify recognize sites that meet a defined
  standard of sustainability
• Educate and promote sustainable design

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GreenScapes Green Buildings

• Some of our most sensitive environments are being
  developed without buildings
• Such as hiking trails, boardwalk trails through
  wetlands, sports field complex
• Some projects which have the greatest impact on
  the environment are not currently eligible to
  receive LEED certification
• Dams, roads, powerline corridors, parks,
  streetscapes, etc.
• Impacts of site development can be much greater
  than the impacts of the associated building,
  leading to a false sense of sustainability.
• For example a park ride with a stellar
  building for restrooms and ticket sales but has a
  500 car parking lot that is highly lit, with
  impervious surfaces, built on a filled wetland
  with a high-maintenance landscape

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Why LEEDs?

• The USGBC LEED certification process provides a
  recognized prototype for a sustainable tool and
  evaluation process.
• GreenScapes is currently working with ASLA and
  others on the development of a
• Site-Only LEED tool (LEED LS)

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Some Site-only LEED credits

• Use of indigenous plant species
• Use of an IPM program
• Use of organic landscape management practices
• Protecting, salvaging and reusing onsite plant
  and other materials
• Creating viable fish wildlife habitat
• Restoring natural landscapes

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GreenScapes also Works with

• EMS efforts to enhance and amplify green
  landscaping guidance aspect of that initiative
• The Federal Green Highways Partnership Recycling
  and Reuse Efforts

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More Efforts

• GreenScapes technical training sessions at ASLAs
  Annual Meeting EXPO
• October 7-10, 2006 Minneapolis, MN
• GreenScapes for Homeowners
• Spring 2006

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For more information

• www.epa.gov/greenscapes