Grass Looks Greener as Colleges Pursue Carbon-Neutral Policies

Chicago — The LEED standards for sustainable construction discourage lawns because they require not only watering but also mowing — and gas-powered lawn mowers are a significant source of air pollution. But as colleges begin thinking in terms of reducing their carbon footprints, grass doesn’t look so bad after all.

Grass — like trees — does a great job of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, according to landscape architects who took part in a session on open space at the annual meeting of the Society for College and University Planning, which began here Sunday evening. In hot weather, they added, grass helps keep an area significantly cooler.

“Lawn is good” from a carbon-reduction perspective, said Cathy Deino Blake, a landscape architect who is assistant director of the university architect’s office at Stanford. But like others at the session, she was concerned that the LEED standards — which influence more and more planning and construction on campuses — assume otherwise.

A landscape architect who spoke at the session said he had suggested to several institutions that they begin using areas of taller grasses as landscape attractions on their campuses — which would let them adopt some “reduced-mowing regimens.”

The open-space session attracted a number of people who said that SCUP should put more emphasis on protecting campuses’ open spaces, which they said are always in danger of being taken over for building sites or parking lots. Participants at the session said they sometimes resorted to defending open spaces not for the pleasure they offer or for their role in establishing a campus’s sense of place, but because they contribute to storm-water management and sustainability.

Ms. Blake said open space at Stanford is so limited, particularly around student housing, that the university had recently decided to redefine some open spaces as small neighborhood parks for six housing areas. Administrators are debating whether each park must have the same amenities — picnic tables, a grill, a basketball or volleyball court, for instance — or whether amenities can vary from one to the next.

She also said the university needed to find another name for the parks, so as not to suggest that they are open to the general public. But whatever term is chosen, she said, needs to have the same strong resonance as “park.”