How To Create an Eco-Friendly Commercial Landscape
We’re providing some helpful guidance on creating an eco-friendly commercial landscape. The landscaping arrangements around a building are just as important as the structure itself when you want to make your commercial construction project eco-friendly. An effectively planned outdoor area will not call for the constant heavy expenditure of resources nor contribute to a large amount of pollution. Achieving sustainability in a landscape design can seem tricky, though, especially when you’re not used to doing so.
Include Lower-Maintenance Plants
Plants make up the majority of an eco-friendly commercial landscape because they provide a pleasant contrast to the rigid and often plainer appearances of commercial buildings. However, they need water and sometimes lots of attention to remain healthy. To decrease the care requirements of a landscape design, you should include lower-maintenance plant varieties. Plant species that are native to your region are always good choices because they’ll naturally flourish in your climate even when outdoor conditions might harm foreign varieties. You can save water this way while also contributing to the local ecosystem by providing food for animals like bees and birds that can in turn pollinate your plants. You’ll also avoid using excessive quantities of potentially harmful fertilizers and pesticides.
Design for Efficient Water Usage
When seeking to create an eco-friendly commercial landscape, you can arrange your design so that you avoid water waste. Automatic sprinkler systems can be helpful because you can set them to activate in the early morning before too much water can evaporate due to the sun. You may also place similar plants together in physical groupings around the landscape so that you don’t overwater them because of adjacent plants’ needs. Many commercial properties also utilize reclaimed greywater for their irrigation systems.
Build With Recycled Plastic Lumber for an Eco-Friendly Commercial Landscape
Certain aspects of your landscape will call for hard materials. For instance, you may need to erect retaining walls to aid in minimizing erosion and to provide stable bases for plants. You might also want to create borders around the edges of different sections to clearly separate them visually. Normally, builders might use wood for these purposes because it melds attractively with the plants. However, wood needs chemical treatment to prevent rotting over time, and these substances can leech into the ground and cause harm. A better alternative is plastic lumber. This material fulfills all the same outdoor structural roles of wood, but because it’s plastic, it doesn’t need chemicals to resist degradation. Furthermore, the HDPE plastic that it consists of comes from recycled post-consumer waste products, diverting them away from landfills.
If you’re interested in incorporating this eco-friendly material into your landscape design, call Tangent. We’re a leading recycled HDPE supplier and our products are simultaneously resilient and sustainable.