New Guide on Sustainable Park Operations

An example of turf conversion in the city of Henderson, Nevada / City of Henderson, courtesy of NRPA and Sasaki

By Jared Green

"The guide is designed for park operators - everyone from mayors to ground crews," said Chris Hardy, ASLA, PLA, senior associate at Sasaki.

Environmentally-Friendly Park Management: Case Studies and Best Practices for Sustainable Public Space Operations is a comprehensive new guide for park operators seeking to reduce the impact of maintaining, powering, and watering parks.

Published by the National Parks and Recreation Association (NRPA) and authored by Sasaki, a multidisciplinary planning and design firm, the 160-page resource demonstrates how low-emission operations can yield climate and biodiversity benefits and a positive return on investment.

The resource provides practical introductions to 24 key topics - covering everything from land, soil and water management to lighting, buildings, and waste - and then offers links to additional resources. Each topic includes a case study from park districts across the U.S. "We picked best practice examples, and the goal is to make them typical," Hardy said.

More than 150 park experts reviewed and contributed to the guide. The feedback helped the co-authors Chris Hardy and Alison Nash with Sasaki keep the focus on solutions to "pain points" in park maintenance. And it also helped ensure it is accessible to the park operators who will use it.

The guide outlines how replacing park lawns with meadows, wetlands, or native habitat is one of the best ways to provide climate and biodiversity benefits and reduce maintenance costs.

The vast majority of parks apply a "low-budget approach" to lawn maintenance, but this approach is not actually low budget or low maintenance, Hardy explained. It often involves gas-powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers, which are "actually costly when ground crew personnel, equipment, fuel, and time are factored in."

Transforming more park lawns into restored ecosystems reduces the need for this kind of maintenance and provides a good return on investment. "Parks can then transfer to higher-skilled maintenance teams and create truly low maintenance landscapes."

Restored prairie and boardwalk at Sylvan Rodriguez Park in Houston, Texas / Houston Parks and Recreation Department, courtesy of NRPA and Sasaki

But Hardy also cautioned that maintenance workers need to be trained for this kind of transformation in advance. A park operator can turn a lawn into meadow but if the maintenance team still mows it like a lawn, the climate, biodiversity, and financial benefits will not accrue. "Slow, incremental change over time" is the best way to increase return on investment for new native habitats.

Electric landscaping equipment / City of Boulder, courtesy of NRPA and Sasaki

Priming the public for this kind of change is important too. Some communities may not immediately appreciate the "shaggy" quality of native grasses and plantings, Hardy said. Signage about the benefits of these landscapes, along with walking tours by park docents, have been proven to help community members in Denver, Colorado understand the value of biodiversity.

And he noted there is a place for lawns if they are actively used and not just part of the landscape. But in too many cases, the "imported English lawn concept has crowded out native ecosystems. And they require vast amounts of water and chemicals to maintain."

LED lightning is another way to get a return on investment in just 2-5 years. "There are the obvious benefits from lower energy use and cost savings," Hardy said. And reclaiming and reusing water also creates a positive return for those parks that pay water bills.

The new guide for NRPA goes hand in hand with the ASLA resource he and others developed in 2024 - Decarbonizing Specifications: A Guide for Landscape Architects, Specifiers, and Industry Partners. Landscape architects can use both resources to "design for low-maintenance landscapes in the future."

"Not all parks can be the super high-maintenance urban destination parks. For the majority of our park clients, we need to design lower-maintenance spaces that require lower operational inputs and have reduced energy costs," Hardy said.

Smarter park management can reduce operational greenhouse gas emissions, which can account for 5-30 percent of total park emissions. These emissions come from maintaining and powering a park.

"The typical regional park today - with open spaces, trails, and a visitor center - will generate less than 5 percent of its emissions from its operations. But a destination urban park with lighting, fountains, and kiosks, could see 25-30 percent of its emissions from operations." (The other larger share of emissions will come from embodied carbon - material extraction, transportation, and construction).

Hardy said the guide also outlines new opportunities for landscape architects. "In new parks, we can ease the infrastructure for architecture. We can design higher-performing park facilities that integrate geothermal and optimize solar power placement."

Also check out a companion website, Climate.Park.Change, also created by Sasaki for NRPA.