What’s Your Yard’s Carbon Footprint?

New app by Sonoma landscape designer makes it easy to find out

Most people today have come to understand the term “carbon footprint,” used to describe the amount of climate-change-inducing carbon emitted as the result of the consumption of fossil fuels by a particular person, group, industry or nation. Armed with this consciousness, many of us have taken action to reduce our own carbon footprint, like driving an electric car or supporting “carbon offsets,” such as reforestation programs offered by many major airlines to ameliorate the effects of flights. But how often do we think of the landscape surrounding our homes as a carbon producer—or as a vehicle to draw carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it in the soil?

Recognizing that built landscapes may significantly harm, or support, local ecologies (and impact global climate change), Sonoma County—based landscape designer Rick Taylor recently developed a software application he named the Carbon Calculator, a tool that enables designers and builders to help homeowners, businesses and public entities measure and manage the carbon impact of their landscape projects.

We sat down with Rick to find out more about what drove him to create the Carbon Calculator, and the difference he hopes it will make.

Edible Marin & Wine Country: What in your background led you to landscape design and sustainable practices?

Rick Taylor: I was born and raised outside of Flint, Michigan. I had a strong draw to ecological design before I knew what that meant. My family were gardeners, and by the time I was 10 I had to have my own garden because I couldn’t deal with my mother’s [use of ] Miracle- Gro, and she couldn’t deal with my complaining about it. My mom used both manure and Miracle-Gro. The manure made sense to me, but even then I knew that if that blue stuff [Miracle-Gro] was making my plants grow, it was going to remain in those plants [and the food they produced]. I had already found the path to organic.

As an adult, I fell in love with the built environment—living in cities and towns is where I want to be. This is where most of the [climate change] problems are arising and therefore is where most of the solutions lie. My landscape design firm, Elder Creek, specializes in a deep understanding of “embedded energy,” meaning all of the carbon dioxide and materials that go into creating a place, including transportation, installation, waste, etc.

What prompted you to create the Carbon Calculator?

A few years ago I was at the pinnacle of my career in landscape design, but I wasn’t happy because I wasn’t part of the larger [climate crisis] solution. One firm and its clients can have a significant impact, but my hope is that our entire industry will adopt carbon-conscious practices. I wanted to share my understanding of how built environments can be a part of the global climate solution, so I created the Carbon Calculator app to make it easy for others to calculate the carbon footprint of their own projects.

The calculator analyzes landscape emissions and sequestration rates, including how long it will take to sequester the carbon emitted to build it. It’s very granular—it takes it all the way down to a drip emitter, and the six-inch metal staple that holds your drip hose to the ground. If you enter the square footage of your plant material by phenotype, it will tell you how much carbon those plants are pulling from the atmosphere each year, sequestering it in the soil.

Who should use the Carbon Calculator?

Technically, a homeowner can use it themselves, but more often they will ask their designer or builder to use it. We are also pushing it out to municipalities and counties. Public spaces and right of ways are great opportunities for carbon sequestration.

What are your big-picture goals for the Carbon Calculator?

I believe that offering people a detailed understanding of how the choices they make in landscape design significantly impact the climate crisis, positively or negatively, will make them more likely to make what may be psychologically challenging changes.