Sustainable Landscaping Materials

Sustainable landscaping and building processes have become very popular over the past few decades. This is mostly due to increased awareness and concern for the environment and major environmental issues, such as global warming. There are a variety of materials that can be used to make landscaping practices more sustainable.

Low-energy Input Materials

These materials are selected based on the low amount of energy required to produce, use and maintain them. Many low-energy input materials come in the form of recycled products, as recycling a material often requires less energy than finding and producing new landscaping materials. Other low-energy input materials include durable, long-lasting materials that do not need to be replaced frequently and multi-purpose materials.

Renewable Materials

These materials are produced from renewable sources; meaning that the energy sources and/or parent materials used to make the landscaping material will be naturally replaced. Common examples of renewable landscaping materials include the following:

• Materials made from energy produced from solar, wind, water or geothermal sources.


• Materials that come from quickly reproduced sources, such as bamboo.


• Materials that are harvested in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Local Materials

Local materials are considered to be more sustainable that imported materials because they require much less energy to transport. The various forms of transportation are major sources of energy consumption and pollutant emissions. Developers are also much more likely to practice sustainable-harvesting practices in areas that are near their homes or places of business.