Are you interested in trying a different approach to lawn care that would mean less work and pollution while providing more beauty and wildlife habitat in your backyard or corporate lawns? The changes you make in your yards will benefit air quality and the quality of your life. We want to recognize your efforts at home and at work with our Lawn Care for Cleaner Air Awards Program. Spring and fall are ideal times to begin converting your existing lawn. Spring is always a good time to re-landscape. In the fall, plants put in the ground can better survive the colder temperatures in the winter and thrive during spring and summer months. Once plants are growing well, mulching will help keep moisture in and weeds out.
Operating a typical (4 HP) gasoline-powered lawnmower for one hour produces as much smog-forming hydrocarbons as driving an average car almost 200 miles under average conditions (more than the distance from Louisville to Nashville). Gasoline-powered string trimmers are actually more polluting than lawn mowers. (See details)
Likewise, chemicals that fertilize and kill weeds may impact air and water quality, increasing the health problems for any of us with breathing problems.
The MSD Headquarters in Louisville used native plants to replace grass.
"Lawn Care for Cleaner Air" includes various types of landscaping that visually enhance the property with very minimal use of gasoline-powered equipment such as lawn mowers, string trimmers, leaf blowers, etc. It may include the following types of plants and alternative techniques, including combinations of plants and materials:
- Native grasses and wildflowers
- Ground covers
- Shrubs and trees
- Perennials and other flowers, and decorative grasses (that do not need mowing)
- Rock gardens, Japanese-style gardens, and decks, but with a minimum of paving or other heat-absorbing materials
- Electric or human-powered equipment
Ideally, composting would be also incorporated into the landscaping plan.
Learn what "Lawn Care for Cleaner Air" does not include.
How do you convert a traditional lawn to a low-maintenance green space that qualifies for the Lawn Care for Cleaner Air award?
This “no-mow” hillside garden is easier to maintain than grass.
Lawn Care for Cleaner Air awards are made to homeowners, businesses, schools, faith-based organizations, parks, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and other landowners who use landscaping that uses minimal gasoline-powered maintenance equipment. Electric and human-powered equipment such as reel lawn mowers are acceptable maintenance tools for Lawn Care for Cleaner Air landscaping. Award nominations may be made by anyone; self-nominations are welcome.
E-mail us, call us at 574-6000 with questions, comments or information, or mail to Lawn Care for Cleaner Air, Air Pollution Control District, 850 Barret Avenue, Louisville, KY 40204-1745.
Notes
1. Lawn maintenance equipment—lawn mowers, string trimmers and other hand tools that are powered by gasoline—have been identified as major sources of the pollutants that contribute to high ground level ozone. In fact,
One hour of gasoline-powered lawn mower use produces emissions of:
353 grams (0.78 lb) VOC,
1038 g (2.3 lb) CO,
0.68 g (0.002 lb) NOx,
2.92 g (0.006 lb) PM, and
1950 g (4.3 lb) CO2.
Emission rates developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Transportation and Air Quality, Ann Arbor MI.
Assumptions:
- Lawnmower uses 4-cycle engine.
- Lawnmower is using 2.25 horsepower on average.
- String trimmer uses 2-cycle engine.
- String trimmer is using an average of 0.75 hp.
2. “No-mow” and “creative greenspace” do not mean no maintenance. There is always some maintenance to be done with any type of landscaping design, but “Lawn Care for Cleaner Air” will have
- Less maintenance than traditional landscaping
- Minimal use of gasoline-powered maintenance equipment.