Let That Green Lawn Turn Brown!

Cross-posted from The Green Suits:

In my book, Tailoring the Green Suit: Empowering Yourself for an Executive Career in the New Green Economy, I offer The Green Suit–the intrepid green business executive–suggestions for extending his or her “sphere of influence” well beyond the company gate.

And one meaningful, if not entirely provocative, way of showing your commitment to green is to let your lawn turn brown.

Here in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. we have two seasons: winter and August. And “climatological August” begins around the Memorial Day weekend, when suddenly, daytime temperatures often exceed 90 degrees.

The Washington D.C. suburbs are affluent, home to constellations of well-tended subdivisions. Mornings begin with the sound of irrigation heads spraying millions of gallons of water onto (our) rich green lawns. And those lawns are pretty; for sure, they remain an indelible symbol of The American Dream.

But, those green lawns sprout at the expense of reduced groundwater and watershed capacity. A sudden string of 90-plus degree days–and automatically-set irrigation systems–can severely deplete our water supplies.

That is why I urge The Green Suits to turn off the irrigation system, shut it down for the entire summer, and let their green lawns turn brown. Actually, brown lawns are not dead; during hot summer months lawns go into a resting phase when they extend their roots deeper into the soil to extract moisture. Irrigation might yield a pretty green lawn, but in summer months heavy watering actually weakens lawns, making them more susceptible to root stress, and insect damage from grubs and other nasties.

As The Green Suit with the brown lawn you may get some not-so-approving looks from your neighbors. But, you will be doing the planet a big favor by cutting down on your water usage. Furthermore, you will enjoy big reductions in your monthly water bills.

So this summer, go green by committing to a brown lawn. Get your household to buy in to a solid triple bottom line strategy: turn that green lawn brown to help the planet conserve water, aid people (by making water available to more residents of your community), and impact the pocket book with considerable utility cost-savings.

photo h/ts California Water Alert and Rutgers University.