LID Landscapes Sustainable Initiatives

LID Landscapes is a company that knows about implementing sustainable initiatives and practices. Our General Manager Scott Natter has been in the landscape industry since he was a teenager. After earning his landscape management degree from Brigham Young University, his career led him to Boulder in 2013, where he’s played a vital role in the evolution of LID Landscapes as a successful, sustainable landscape design and maintenance firm.

Gardening techniques that avoid chemicals

While most people understand the broad definition of organic as being chemical-free, the term sustainable varies a bit more depending on who you ask. “Sustainable landscapes mean something different to many different people. For one person, sustainable might mean ‘hey, I don’t want to be out weeding on a weekly basis,’” says LID Landscapes GM Scott Natter. For those with this mentality, sustainable means having a landscape that requires little upkeep.

“For others, it has more to do with the overall impact on the environment.” To these folks, weekly weeding might actually be seen as a sustainable practice since it avoids the use of chemical weed killers.

How does our GM Scott Natter define sustainable landscaping?

LID Landscapes GM Scott Natter says his definition of a sustainable landscape is “a landscape that’s happy where it is, with plants that are planted in the right environment, and using practices that allow minimal maintenance while the landscape continues to flourish.”

LID Landscapes takes the definition of sustainable even further. “It’s how little can we put into a landfill? How much can we recycle so we’re not contributing to waste?” says Natter. He adds, the company’s motivation for using sustainable practices is twofold. “One is being good stewards of the land. We want to protect it, and it’s why we’re in the industry we’re in. We like making beautiful landscapes. Part of that is protecting the overall landscape we live in.”

Creating better VALUE for our customers and OUR land!

The second part is creating better value for the company and its customers. “When we’re being sustainable and finding ways they can be sustainable, it cuts down our costs for them — maintenance, water costs, whatever it happens to be,” he says.

Recycling at its core

The core of LID Landscapes’ sustainable practices is recycling. It composts all of the organic matter it hauls away from job sites. Instead of taking branches, grass clippings, sod, soil, and other yard waste from its projects to a landfill, the company recycles as much of it as possible. These composted materials are then used as amendments in new landscape plantings on both residential and commercial properties. Natter says that using recycled mulch adds healthy nutrients to landscapes, saves room in landfills, and reduces the emissions necessary to transport and dump materials.

In addition to organic matter recycling, LID Landscapes recycles old concrete and flagstone scraps from project removals and demolitions. Rather than hauling these materials to a landfill, it crushes the materials into a small size, similar to gravel, which is then used for sub-bases under patios, driveways, and other landscape hardscapes.

“If we can eliminate [the need for] 80 percent of [new materials] and recycle everything that comes off of our sites, that’s definitely a big gain for us.”

See the original source of this interview featuring our General Manager Scott Natter in Irrigation & Green Industry magazine.