Fortune 500 companies are using a surprising new measure to cut costs: 'These little impacts add up'

Companies great and small across the United States are ditching their traditional lawns and embracing more natural landscaping designs that both save them money and offset their emissions.

Rewilding has been steadily increasing in popularity in recent years. 

Companies like Yardzen help homeowners transform their yards into havens for pollinators and other wildlife, increasing the biodiversity of local ecosystems, absorbing more carbon dioxide, and strengthening the soil with long root systems. Rewilding is attractive to homeowners because native plants tend to require much less watering than lawns, according to the United States Forest Service.

Now, businesses are getting in on the rewilding trend for similar reasons. According to the New York Times, companies like Ford and HP are embracing natural landscaping to cut both costs and emissions from mowing. 

Like homeowners, businesses can save substantial money on rewilded landscaping because of decreased water bills. Since they require less maintenance from gas-guzzling equipment like polluting leaf blowers, rewilding can also help companies reduce the emissions generated by the physical spaces they occupy, according to the Times.

In 2021, the American Society of Landscape Architects reported that in a survey of over 500 of its members, 75% observed increases in requests for climate-friendly landscaping from their clients. Part of that change has been spurred by new legislation from city and state governments, which have increasingly penalized excessive water usage and promoted alternative landscaping via rebates, according to the Times.

Overall, acceptance of more biodiverse, rewilded landscaping has seen undeniable growth. "People are beginning to understand that these little impacts add up," said Patrick J. Garay, the vice president of strategic products at Air Products, a company that recently adopted a native landscape in its new office.

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