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Grass Lawns Are Burning Your Pockets and Our Planet

College of Arts and Sciences student Harper Johnston discusses the financial and environmental costs of grass lawns.

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Harper Johnston

Journalism and Environmental Studies Student, College of Arts and Sciences

 

This article was originally published by The Tennessean on January 9, 2023: Opinion: why grass lawns are bad for the environment and your wallet. 

In Nashville, lush green lawns are everywhere. Stretching before the State Capitol, surrounding the Parthenon, outlining neighborhoods, these expansive green monsters are contributing to global warming and hurting our planet. This summer, Nashvillians experienced record-breaking heat; temperatures rose to triple digits for the first time in nearly a decade, according to an article by the Nashville Scene (Herner). Maintaining grass lawns increases greenhouse gases, pollutes ecosystems, wastes water, and diminishes biodiversity. Grass lawns are expensive, unsustainable, and poor investments.  

While more environmentally friendly than pavement, grass lawns and their upkeep come with heavy carbon costs. Lawn mowers, irrigation systems, and fertilizers add to households’ carbon footprint. An article by paleBLUEdot says that running a gas-powered lawn mower for one hour produces eleven times more emissions than running the average new car for the same duration (Redmond). The production and distribution of lawn chemicals and water used for irrigation purposes adds even more CO2 to the atmosphere. Grass lawns do remove some atmospheric CO2, through the act of carbon sequestration, omitting oxygen back into the air (Milesi et al. 4). However, a University of California-Irvine study found that the total estimate for greenhouse gas emissions due to lawn care is four times larger than the amount of carbon sequestered by grass (Grass Lawns are an ecological catastrophe).

Grass lawns are far from carbon-negative and should definitely not be viewed as an optimal use of green space."

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Harper Johnston

Journalism and Environmental Studies Student, College of Arts and Sciences

Environmental costs aside, grass lawns come with monetary costs as well. According to the EPA, experts have estimated that around half the water used for American households’ irrigation is wasted due to evaporation, wind, or runoff (Outdoor Water Use in the United States). This misspent water leads to bloated utility bills and wastes resources that could be better spent elsewhere. Wasted water is a huge issue (many areas in the U.S. suffer from droughts), but the bigger concern might be the copious amounts of water that Americans pour into their lawns to begin with. About nine billion gallons of water, nearly a third of all residential water use, go toward landscaping irrigation in the US daily (Outdoor Water Use in the United States). The Lawn Institute argues that grass reduces storm-water runoff and erosion, allowing rainwater to absorb back into the ground; however, all plants soak up water and most have more benefits than grass (Runoff Reduction). Anyone who owns a green space should prioritize other forms of vegetation, like clovers, shrubs, trees, and flowers, in their landscaping. Planting a multitude of species enforces biodiversity.

Biodiversity is under attack by climate change, and monocultures (areas dedicated to solely one species of vegetation), such as grass lawns, give our natural friends less of a fighting chance."

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Harper Johnston

Journalism and Environmental Studies Student, College of Arts and Sciences

Having diverse plant ecosystems makes food chains, and each species within them, more resilient. Weed-free lawns with no flowers are especially treacherous for pollinators (Jabr). Bee populations are declining as they face threats like climate change and habitat loss that lower their chances of survival. Crucial parts of a healthy ecosystem and economy; bees must be considered when creating green infrastructure. According to an article in The Heights, monocultures “are notoriously un-environmental: they damage soil quality, increase erosion, harm plant and animal populations, and simply, do not exist naturally” (Hargrove). When yards host an abundance of native plants instead of one grass species, biodiversity goes up and costs go down.  

Could you improve your landscaping to minimize carbon emissions and foster a healthy, diverse environment? The standard of beauty for lawns is currently a thick, grass-covered expanse. Seeing the allure and practicality of polyculture-landscaping will pave the way to a healthier environment and keep the summer heat from breaking too many more records. What is a grass lawn truly worth? 

Citations

“Grass Lawns Are an Ecological Catastrophe.” ONE Only Natural Energy, 3 Oct. 2018, www.onlynaturalenergy.com/grass-lawns-are-an-ecological-catastrophe/.  

Hargrove, Alli. “Biodiversity over Beauty.” The Heights, 27 Jan. 2022, www.bcheights.com/2022/01/27/biodiversity-over-beauty/#:~:text=Monocultures%20are%20notoriously%20un%2Denvironmental,creating%20a%20kind%20of%20monoculture.  

Herner, Hannah. “Record-Breaking Nashville Temps Aren’t High Enough to Open Cooling Shelters.” Nashville Scene, 22 June 2022, www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthewind/record-breaking-nashville-temps-arent-high-enough-to-open-cooling-shelters/article_61ed92b9-5c62-5cc2-bfb2-cf613442604c.html.  

Jabr, Ferris. “Outgrowing the Traditional Grass Lawn.” Scientific American, 29 July 2013, blogs.scientificamerican.com/brainwaves/outgrowing-the-traditional-grass-lawn/.  

Milesi, C, et al. A Strategy for Mapping and Modeling the Ecological Effects of US Lawns. International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, May 2012, https://www.isprs.org/proceedings/XXXVI/8-W27/milesi.pdf.  

“Outdoor Water Use in the United States.” WaterSense, EPA, 14 Feb. 2017, 19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/www3/watersense/pubs/outdoor.html.  

Redmond, Ted. “The Carbon Footprint of a Lawn.” paleBLUEdot, 16 July 2015, palebluedot.llc/carbon-copy/2015/7/16/the-carbon-footprint-of-a-lawn#:~:text=Irrigation%3A,of%20306%20pounds%20of%20CO2. 

“Runoff Reduction.” The Lawn Institute, https://www.thelawninstitute.org/environmental-benefits/runoff-reduction/#:~:text=The%20complex%20system%20of%20grass,reducing%20runoff%20velocity%20and%20amount. 

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