Attention, lawn owners: Cast off your cone of shame!
Yes, your lawn uses water—more about that later—but when you sense judgment from the smug neighbor who replaced her lawn with colored rocks and succulents, don’t lower your eyes and slink inside.
Instead, stroll over, sadly toe a few rocks and note how your lawn is combating the urban heat island effect by making the neighborhood cooler and reducing the state’s demand for electricity, most of which—ahem—is produced using water.
“Turf has become this four-letter word, but our position is that turf doesn’t waste water,” said Jim Baird, a turf grass specialist at the University of California Riverside’s Turfgrass Research Facility. “By removing turf, we’re creating a situation that requires more energy to cool the environment and about two-thirds of energy production in the state requires water.”
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