Drought and climate change have people rethinking their yards. One thing to remember is a healthy lawn brings environmental benefits.

Healthy living plants improve your quality of life.

They keep outdoor living spaces cool, help fight allergies, improve air quality, decrease your stress and provide a natural, quiet environment to relax and have fun.

Living plants take up carbon dioxide and release oxygen.

Oxygen is essential for human life, but trapping carbon dioxide is also crucial, as too much CO2 can lead to elevated air temperatures and other environmental dangers. 

Living plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

They also trap dust to keep it out of both the air and your lungs. Less dust blowing around means easier breathing.

A living lawn slows stormwater runoff.

This allows time for the water to seep back into the groundwater system before clogging storm drains, potentially leading to flooded streets and houses, then eventually ending up in creeks and lakes that become cloudy and polluted. 

Lawns help clean and purify the air.

12 million tons of airborne dust and dirt are trapped in lawns every year.

A well-fed lawn acts as an air purifier.

They can remove two times the amount of carbon from the air in a single year than a tree captures in 10 years (source: The Lawn Institute).

Green spaces cool urban areas.

Urban areas with lots of buildings and concrete tend to be significantly warmer than surrounding areas that have more grass, plants and trees. It takes more energy and resources to cool a building surrounded by concrete than it does one surrounded with green space.

Lawns act as a sound dampener.

Lawns may reduce noise by 20 to 30 percent.