Ecological Landscaping

Ecological Landscaping is a radically different approach to "traditional" or industrial landscaping. It's about far more than throwing the word "sustainable" in front of a service or across a website.

What does it mean to be a truly ecological firm?

💡 Prioritizing Information and Authenticity
Our job is to educate clients as they engage in the process of designing, building or stewarding their greenspaces. We hold specialized knowledge and our duty as providers is to share our expertise and recommendations with confidence. Clients often have a sense of the desired outcome but likely won't be well-versed on functionality. We use this opportunity to guide the project toward an integrated vision - creating beauty that holds true to the need for long-term ecosystem functionality. Our clients trust us to exercise our expertise and when there isn't trust we aren't afraid to part ways.

💡 Big Picture Mindset
We consider each project a piece in the larger puzzle of green infrastructure across our city and region. With that, we recognize that nothing exists in isolation and cutting corners in one area will affect the functionality and health of the whole. We consider migratory birds, insect populations and soil health to be central to, and informative of, the design process. The outcome is never an afterthought. The big picture births all of the beautiful details.

💡 Lifecycle Costing
This is a principal that I've borrowed from the framework for LEED certification from USGBC. An in depth look at the lifecycle of a product (from extraction or manufacturing to landfill or reuse) is required for sustainability certifications across the built environment. However, there are countless toxic, poisonous or high emissions products that are used consistently on "sustainable" projects. Synthetic turf is a wonderful example of a highly toxic product with an extremely short lifecycle (less than 10 years) before being removed and dumped into oceans or landfills.

💡 Evolution
Building our designs around what is appropriate is just as important as acknowledging what is off limits. As we learn more through hands-on experience or in depth research, we are willing to change the way we do things. As we've all heard, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." We know we want different results and aren't at all afraid to evolve our methods leaving behind the results of traditional landscaping/horticulture-- namely sterilized soils, monoculture green spaces and fossil fuel laden landscapes.