“The grass is always greener over the septic tank.”
Erma Bombeck
It seems everyone I know has a love-hate relationship with their lawn. Americans spends billions of dollars and countless frustrating hours chasing the ideal of a lush green carpet of grass. All the watering, chemicals, and emissions come at a cost to our pocketbooks and to the climate. Making changes in how we care for them can have can help with both. In short, greening our lawns isn’t just about the color.
Lawns and climate change
Traditional lawn tools like mowers, leaf blowers, and trimmers run on gas and oil. And just like cars, they spew CO2. So not only do they create NOISE and air pollution, but they also make climate change worse. How? By emitting heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.
Cars have catalytic converters to reduce harmful emissions, but lawn tools don’t. As a result, using a lawn mover for an hour emits the equivalent amount of greenhouse gas as driving 300 miles. Because of the way their engines work, leaf blowers are even worse offenders – they emit as much CO2 in an hour as taking an 1100 mile drive!
Greening our lawns
One thing we can do is consider electrifying our equipment. Is it time to replace your mower or leaf blower? If a push mower isn’t your idea of fun, check out the electric alternatives. They are everywhere these days and for good reason. The technology has been continuously improving, leading to better performance. And just like with electric cars, costs are coming down as well.
The pros and cons of electric lawn mowers
Pros
- Significantly quieter
- Eliminate the mess, cost, and inconvenience of gas and oil
- No harmful emissions
- Less maintenance
- Lighter weight
- Save money over time
Cons
- Potentially higher up-front cost than comparable gas-powered
- Batteries need to be charged and occasionally replaced
- Because of the limited range, they aren’t ideal for commercial use
Other changes we can make include water and chemical use, as well as incorporating native and drought-resistant plants. These can make a big difference, and I plan to circle back on them another time. But with 4% of our annual CO2 emissions coming from yard tools, going electric would go a long way to help green our lawns.
Let’s do something about climate change. Learn about it. Think about it. Talk about it.