| If you've been following the shenanigans in | | | | or spirit of a place - because actually, if you really |
| Copenhagen over the past couple of weeks then it's | | | | think about it, what is Indian stone doing in a |
| inevitable you will have been thinking about your own | | | | Cotswold garden or a London terraced street? |
| carbon footprint and as a garden designer, that | | | | If that's not enough to persuade you to persuade |
| means thinking about the carbon footprint on clients | | | | your clients to source their hard-landscaping materials |
| too. | | | | locally, then get them to think about the other, often |
| They may have set their hearts on that Indian | | | | hidden, political, social and environmental implications |
| sandstone that seems to just shimmer in the sunlight | | | | of imported products. How has that Indian stone |
| but can you (or they) really justify transporting | | | | been quarried or that hardwood been logged? Can |
| exotic landscaping materials half-way around the | | | | you be absolutely sure child labour has played no |
| world just to satisfy an aesthetic whim? Similarly, can | | | | part? What has been the impact of that process - |
| we really justify the use of hardwoods, which take | | | | including pollution - on an already |
| centuries to mature, when a softwood would do the | | | | environmentally-sensitive landscape? |
| same job and can be replaced in half that time? | | | | More and more of us - designers and contractors |
| As garden designers, we have a responsibility to | | | | both - are now making more environmentally-friendly |
| make the right choices for both our clients and our | | | | choices when choosing our landscaping materials and |
| own consciences. And it's no good arguing genus loci | | | | that's a trend that is only set to increase over the |
| - a design concept that refers to the very essence | | | | next decade. |