Our Eight Principles

Act Local

Act Local recognizes that built landscapes designed with an awareness of local conditions, including climate, surrounding plant communities, habitat and site-specific features, will thrive as well-functioning ecosystems that provide wildlife habitat, conserve resources and require fewer inputs than conventional landscapes.

Reduce Waste

Reducing waste starts with not generating it in the first place. Selecting the right plants for the right place, avoiding invasive plant species, using recycled and salvaged products in the landscape and composting, mulching and grasscycling plant debris are important ways to reduce the tons of plant debris that end up in the landfill.

Nurture Soil

Nurture Soil acknowledges that creating and protecting conditions for a diversity of beneficial soil organisms- feeding the soil, not the plant, encourages a thriving community— a food web of microorganisms, worms and other beneficial creatures. One teaspoon of healthy soil can contain billions of beneficial bacteria and fungi. Living soil food web ecosystems can filter pollution, store water, provide plant nutrients, sequester carbon and help plants resist pests naturally.

Sequester Carbon

Sequester Carbon recognizes that healthy vegetation works together with soil rich in organic matter and beneficial microorganisms to remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it as soil carbon- an important strategy to slow or reverse atmospheric CO2 pollution and address climate change.

Save Water

Save water means using a holistic approach of creating drought resistant soils with compost and mulch, selecting plants naturally adapted to summer-dry climates, using stormwater, greywater and recycled water in the landscape as much as possible and using efficient irrigation systems that include self-adjusting, weather-based controllers.

Conserve Energy

Conserve Energy by reducing the need for mowing and shearing, by shading buildings and paved areas to reduce the Heat Island Effect, using efficient outdoor lighting, specifying low embodied energy materials and buying local landscape products.

Protect Water & Air

Protect Water & Air through maximizing permeable surfaces and minimizing stormwater runoff, using integrated pest management, minimizing the use of synthetic pesticides and avoiding overuse of fertilizers, reducing fossil fuel consumption, and planting trees to remove CO2 and absorb air pollutants.

Create Habitat

Create Habitat recognizes that biodiversity is crucial to the health and resiliency of natural ecosystems. By using native plants and increasing the diversity of plant palettes, our built landscape provide food, water and shelter for birds, butterflies, beneficial insects and other creatures- thus helping to conserve precious wildlife and restore damaged bionetworks.