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Resources

The Greenscapes Resources section includes:

GreenScapes Cost Calculators

Downloadable Excel spreadsheets that can aid in your decision making and implementation of more sustainable landscape design, construction, and operations and maintenance.

Climate Change Tools

EPA and its partners have developed tools to help individuals and organizations determine the greenhouse gas impacts of their purchasing, manufacturing and waste management actions.

Environmental Management Systems (EMS)

Integrating Environmentally Beneficial Landscaping into Your EMS (PDF) (13 pp, 101K, About PDF)
Developed by GreenScapes and EPA's EMS program, this document provides practical guidance, potential language, and examples of environmentally beneficial landscaping practices for each of the EMS elements.

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Presentations from GreenScapes Workshops Conducted at the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) 2006 Annual Meeting & Expo

Presentations from GreenScapes workshops—Building Sustainable Sites From the Ground Up

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GreenScapes Publications

Image: cover of GreenScapes: Environmentally Friendly Landscaping

GreenScapes: Environmentally Beneficial Landscaping | PDF Version (8 pp, 757K, about PDF)

Brochure describing EPA's GreenScapes program, providing cost-efficient and environmentally friendly solutions for large-scale landscaping.
image: cover of Greenscaping Your Lawn and Garden Greenscaping Your Lawn and Garden (PDF) (8 pp, 1.6MB, about PDF) | en Español (PDF) (8 pp, 3.1MB, about PDF)

Booklet encouraging consumers to grasscycle, mulch, and compost to reduce the amount of yard waste in the waste stream.

Image: cover of GreenScaping: The Easy Way to a Greener, Healthier Yard

GreenScaping: The Easy Way to a Greener, Healthier Yard | PDF Version (16 pp, 2.1MB, about PDF) | en Español (PDF) (16 pp, 2.7MB, about PDF)

Booklet telling consumers how changing their landscapes to GreenScapes can save time and money and protect the environment.

 

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Composting

Analysis of Composting as an Environmental Remediation Technology
Summarizes information on the use of compost for managing hazardous waste streams and for remediating contaminated soil.

Compost Best Management Practices
A series of fact sheets describing various ways to control erosion caused by storm water at construction sites:

Composting
Office of Solid Waste Web site providing information and publications on composting.

Composting at Mine Sites
Contains information on composting technologies applicable to addressing contamination at abandoned mine land sites

Compost in Landscaping Applications (PDF) (20 pp, 68K, about PDF)
Describes ways in which landscapers can use compost to create cost-effective, high quality, and environmentally beneficial projects.

Compost-New Applications For an Age-Old Technology
Series of fact sheets addressing innovative and cost-effective uses of compost to remediate or prevent pollution. Discuss how compost can be used to clean contaminated soils; remove oil, grease, and heavy metals from storm water runoff; destroy VOCs; and facilitate reforestation, wetlands restoration, and revitalize wildlife habitats.

Compost Use Guidelines and Specifications Exit EPA
Web site presenting compiled results of a comprehensive search to identify guidelines for different categories of compost use. Provides information that will help you identify a compost product best suited to your needs.

Compost Use in Forest Land Restoration (PDF) (36 pp, 2MB, about PDF)
Provides examples of using compost to successfully restore lands disturbed by forest management activities in the Pacific Northwest; many can be expanded for use in other environments with consideration of local conditions.

Compost Utilization for Erosion Control Exit EPA
Defines compost and erosion, describes the benefits of using compost for erosion control, discusses application, and provides recommended specifications.

Landscape Architecture/Design Specifications for Compost Use (PDF) (14 pp, 251K, about PDF), US Composting Council
Provides specifications for turf establishment with compost, planting bed establishment with compost, compost as a landscape backfill mix component, compost as a landscape mulch, compost as a soil blanket for erosion control, and compost as a filter berm for sediment control.

Organic Materials Management Strategies (PDF) (58 pp, 451K, about PDF)
Describes seven composting strategies for organic materials and presents an analysis of the benefits and costs of each strategy, the potential for diverting organic materials from landfills or waste-to-energy facilities, and the potential markets for diverted organic materials.

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Green Buildings

US Green Building Council Exit EPA
Promotes buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work.

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Green Landscaping

Sample Contract Language (PDF) (4 pp, 47K, about PDF) Exit EPA

Alameda County [California] Waste Management Authority and the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board provide contact language showing how to apply the environmentally beneficial landscaping principles and practices to specifications for bidding and contract development.

Ecologically Sound Lawn Care for the Pacific Northwest: Findings from the Scientific Literature and Recommendations from Turf Professionals (PDF) (89 pp, 366K, about PDF) Exit EPA
This report consists of three tools for persons interested in environmentally best practices for lawn care: (1) An introduction to the concept of ecologically based lawn care, and a review of the scientific literature that supports a change from traditional chemical-intensive practices; (2) Complete practical recommendations for ecologically sound lawn care in the region west of the Cascade mountains, assembled from interviews with turf scientists and professionals and an extensive review of literature; (3) An annotated bibliography that reviews source documents useful to residents, landscape professionals, and public resource managers.

Low Impact Development Technologies from the Whole Building Design Guide Exit EPA
Presents an alternative site design strategy that uses natural and engineered infiltration and storage techniques to control storm water where it is generated.

Natural Yard Care Exit EPA
Seattle Public Utilities Web site providing five easy steps to a great-looking, easy-care yard that’s also healthier for kids, pets, and the environment.

Plant Conservation Alliance Exit EPA
Consortium of ten federal government agencies and many non-federal members whose mission is to protect native plants by ensuring that native plant populations and their communities are maintained, enhanced, and restored.

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Recycled-Content Products

Plastic Lumber in Landscaping Applications (PDF) (22 pp, 64K, about PDF)
Plastic lumber, a product made from recycled plastic, is ideal for use in landscaping applications. By using plastic lumber, landscapers can create cost-effective, high quality, and environmentally beneficial projects.

Recycled Rubber Products in Landscaping Applications (PDF) (19 pp, 63K, about PDF)
Rubber from scrap tires is a waste material that is ideal for use in landscaping applications. By using recycled rubber products, landscapers can create cost-effective, high quality, and environmentally beneficial projects. The landscaping market is potentially large enough to recover all the scrap tires that are currently discarded in landfills or tire piles.

EPA's Comprehensive Procurement Guideline (CPG) program helps organizations "close the loop" through buying recycled products. EPA published a series of fact sheets summarizing information on recycled products for various applications. Four CPG fact sheets relate directly to GreenScapes and can be found online.

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Waste Reduction

WasteWise Update: Building for the Future (PDF) (16 pp, 2.2MB, about PDF)
Features the materials efficiency aspects of green buildings, including the reduction, reuse, and recycling of construction and demolition (C&D) debris, and the use of recycled, reused, and otherwise "resource-efficient" building products.

WasteWise Update: Closing the Loop (PDF) (13 pp, 1.6MB, about PDF)
Focuses on issues associated with buying recycled products, such as benefits, common myths, case studies, and resources.

WasteWise Update: Recovering Organic Wastes (PDF) (16 pp, 1.2MB, about PDF)
Explains the composting process, offers various outside resources, and highlights a number of organic waste diversion and recovery options implemented by WasteWise partners.

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Reuse/Recycling

Glass Reuse and Recycling Directory (PDF) (137 pp, 454K, about PDF)
A compilation of noncontainer alternatives for reusing and recycling glass, especially glass bottles and jars, the information was gathered from state and provincial governmental agencies of the United States and Canada, as well as the respective state and provincial recycling organizations, and from articles from magazines and conferences.

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Water Efficiency

The Enchanted Xeriscape: A Guide to Water-wise Landscaping in New Mexico (PDF) (3 pp, 2.1MB, about PDF) Exit EPA
Provides information on using native plants and efficient water use in arid climates

National Management Measures to Control Nonpoint Source Pollution from Urban Areas (PDF) (518 pp, 5.4MB, about PDF)
Provides guidance to help citizens and municipalities in urban areas protect bodies of water from polluted runoff that can result from everyday activities. These scientifically sound techniques are the best practices known today.

National Menu of Best Management Practices for Stormwater Phase II
Provides guidance to regulated small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s) as to the types of practices they could use to develop and implement their stormwater management programs.

Using Water Efficiently: Ideas for Residences
Defines water-efficient landscape irrigation.

Water Efficient Landscaping: Preventing Pollution & Using Resources Wisely (PDF) (19 pp, 1.6MB)
Describes the benefits of water-efficient landscaping; includes several examples
of successful projects and programs, as well as contacts, references, and a short bibliography

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Soil Best Practices

How To: Soil Best Management Practices, Tools, & Specifications Exit EPA
Provides information on preserving native soil and restoring soils disturbed during development with organic amendments like compost to reduce stormwater runoff and pollution; to reduce landscape maintenance needs for water, fertilizer, and pesticides; and to make healthier, more attractive landscapes.

Resource Efficient Natural Landscaping: Design, Build, Maintain (PDF) (8 pp, 817K, about PDF) Exit EPA
Provides design, building, and maintenance tips for professionals.

The Use of Soil Amendments for Remediation, Revitalization, and Reuse (59 pp, 1.7MB, about PDF) Exit EPA
Describes soil amendments, the advantages of using them, the types of environmental problems and contaminants they can address, the types of sites where they can be used, and regulatory and other issues related to using them. It focuses on the use of amendments on sites dominated by inorganic contaminants, although they also can be used to address volatile and semivolatile contaminants that have left sites barren of vegetation.

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Air and Energy

Your Yard and Clean Air (PDF) (2 pp, 16K, about PDF)
Addresses the emissions from lawn mowers and provides suggestions for pollution prevention in your own backyard.

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Ordering EPA Publications

Paper copies of EPA publications may be ordered from the National Service Center for Environmental Publications (NSCEP) by any of the following means:

Internet

By Mail
US EPA/NSCEP
PO Box 42419
Cincinnati, OH 45242-0419

By Fax
Send your order via FAX, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
(301) 604-3408

By E-Mail (nscep@bps-lmit.com)

By Phone
Call 1-800-490-9198 (Speak to an operator Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM, E.S.T.) Leave an order 24 hours a day.

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