How our landscaping
can help clean the air

From the equipment and methods we take to maintain our landscape to the plants themselves, landscaping around our homes and businesses can have air-quality and other environmental impacts, positive or negative. 

Trees and plants

Strategically planted trees and other plants can help you save on your home heating and cooling:  a deciduous tree (those that lose their leaves in fall) planted on the south and/or west side of a home can provide shade and lower summertime air-conditioning costs.  Street trees also produce shade and can help cool paved surfaces.  A screen of evergreen trees can protect from winter winds.  Planting near a structure’s foundation can also help protect from the elements.

When you are building, remodeling or re-landscaping D e s i g n  low maintenance landscaping that requires less mowing, blowing, pruning, as well as watering and fertilizing.  Native plants can be a great choice. I n s t a l l  electrical outlets on exterior walls of residential and commercial buildings to promote the use of electric landscape maintenance equipment.  C o n s i d e r  plant and tree placement to reduce a structure’s heating or cooling needs.

In addition to energy savings, another benefit is that plants absorb, or sequester, carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) from the air.  Trees can remove 50 pounds of carbon from the atmosphere in a year during photosynthesis, according to EPA.  And the US Department of Agriculture’s TreeLink points out that trees, especially those with large leaf-surface areas, absorb and trap airborne dirt and chemical particles, such as nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and ozone. Trees also help by reducing wind speed so that heavy particles settle out.

Lawns

It takes a lot of effort to keep a lawn green and tidy, but the effort can produce a lot of air pollution.  And those pushing that mower or operating that leaf blower are breathing in those toxic emissions.

Reducing the size of the lawn reduces mowing time and fuel used.  A homeowner using a push or electric mower instead of a gas-powered mower can reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 80 pounds per year, according to the EPA.