What is sustainable Landscaping?

Sustainable Landscaping is about taking the environment into account when designing, constructing and maintaining landscapes in a wide variety of applications.
A broad range of desirable landscapes can be achieved while considering environmental impacts and supporting natural environments.

South Australia's water issue!

South Australia's current level of demands on water resources are unsustainable.
The river Murray is experiencing increasing salinity levels and reduced river flows.

 

 
Mannum - Adelaide Pipeline, at Gumeracha

The Mannum to Adelaide pipeline is one of the main 5 pipelines diverting water from the Murray River to South Australian cities and towns.
Between 35000 - 65000 Mega Litres (ML) of River Murray water is pumped along the line every year.
1 ML = 1 olympic swimming pool


Thirsty Adelaide gardens

Garden and outdoor water use accounts for approximately 40% of Adelaide's household water use.

The average Australian household can use 112000 litres of water per year on their garden. This is the equivalent to the carrying capacity of 16 medium sized water trucks!

Water efficient landscaping can make significant contributions towards reducing household water demand.

Adelaide Advertiser 2006
Business review of Urban Sustainable Landscapes (pdf - 500k)
X16

Urban Sustainable Landscapes - sustainability policy

Biodiversity
  • Use appropriate provenance plant species at environmentally significant sites.
  • Never use plants that are considered South Australian environmental weed species
  • Encourage the creation of habitats and food sources for local fauna
  • Use alternatives to materials taken from 'natural landscapes' (moss rocks, river stones etc)
Water conservation
  • Use drought tolerant plant species that better suit local environmental conditions
  • Design landscapes that minimise water usage and incorporate effective use of mulch and sub surface water efficient irrigation
  • Minimise lawn areas and use drought tolerant lawn varieties
Waste minimisation
  • Sorting and recycling of landscape waste materials
  • Use recycled landscaping materials where practical and available
  • Use of recycled paper in all administrative procedure and printed resources
  • Recycling of all office waste (paper, print cartridges, appliances etc)
Pollution prevention
  • Minimise the use of garden chemicals and use best practice application techniques to avoid contamination of air, soil and water
  • Manage work sites and deliveries to avoid stormwater pollution
Delivering unusable irrigation plastics to Advanced Plastic Recyclers for recycling

 

 

 

Posts and retaining wall products made from 100% recycled plastic
 

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