Practice

Product Manufacturers' Perspective

48 landscape architecture product manufacturers also responded to a survey issued in June 2023. ASLA estimates there are an estimated 6,000 manufacturers that create products specified by landscape architects.

What products / industries do you represent?  

Companies representing 30 different products / industries responded. The top five were:

Furnishings
Concrete and concrete products (block, pavers, cast stone, etc)
Fencing or metal fabrications
Green roof, green wall products
Software

What kinds of product impacts are landscape architecture clients requesting information on?

Climate impacts - 44%
Water use impacts - 29%
Other - 27%
End of life impacts - 25%
Health impacts - 19%
Water quality impacts - 15%
Biodiversity impacts - 12%
Air quality impacts - 10%
Not applicable - 8%
Labor / equity impacts - 6%
None of the above - 17%

Additional comments from product manufacturers:

“We get requests for the carbon footprint, composition/ingredients (no red list chemicals), and EPDs, which include all of the above."

What types of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon storage associated with your products has your company measured?

None - 47%
Emissions from the product manufacturing process (Scope 1/A3) - 30%
Emissions from sourcing raw materials (Scope 2/A1) - 26%
Storage of carbon in wood materials (Scope 3/D) - 13%
Other - 15%

What best describes your company's approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions?

We already have a plan and have been investing in decarbonizing our products or manufacturing process - 34%
No plans yet; we need time and resources to understand what decarbonization involves. - 20%
We plan to start this investigation this year. - 15%
We have no current plans to decarbonize our products, but are open to learning more. - 10%
We have no plans or interest in decarbonizing our products - 10%

These product manufacturers provided their sustainability goals and plans:

Earthscape Play
Hunter Industries
Kompan
Landscape Forms

Please describe where your company currently is in terms of these strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing process:

Already implemented:

Increasing durability of products - 40%
Reducing material waste - 27%
Increasing efficiency in the manufacturing process - 22%
Reusing more materials - 20%
Increased use of recycled materials - 20%

Have committed to implementing:

Increasing efficiency in the manufacturing process - 42%
Reusing more materials - 40%
Reducing material waste - 38%
Increased use of recycled materials - 29%
Reducing material use overall - 27%
 
Considering implementing:

Replacing petroleum-based plastics with alternatives - 33%
Switching to low- or zero-emission ways to transport materials to customers - 31%
Switching to low- or zero-emission raw material sourcing - 29%
Switching to low- or zero-emission ways to transport materials to manufacturing sites - 29%
Replacing petroleum-based inputs with alternatives - 29%

What does your company see as the #1 barrier to producing more third-party verified sustainability assessments?

Cost of third-party verification - 30%
Lack of relevance to our product line - 17%
Lack of customer demand - 17%
Lack of clear benefit (ROI) - 12%
Inadequate or incomplete science or data - 12%

What is most needed to advance progress on decarbonizing materials over the long-term?

Low carbon/energy efficient manufacturing approaches - 27%
Research into existing materials and products - 20%
Basic research into low- and zero-emission alternative materials - 20%
Affordable renewable energy approaches for manufacturing - 20%
Research into new materials - 13%

What kind of collaborative research and knowledge sharing with landscape architects and educators would best advance the goals of decarbonization?

Regular knowledge sharing sessions with other product manufacturers and landscape architects at the ASLA Conference - 28%
Free webinar series - 23%
Grants to prototype low- and zero-emission materials, manufacturing processes - 21%
Trend analysis on what is happening in low- and zero-emission product manufacturing more broadly - 21%
Funding industry-wide EPDs - 19%

What kind of collaborative research and knowledge sharing with landscape architects and educators would best advance the goals of biodiversity protection?

Trend analysis on what is happening on reducing biodiversity impacts during product manufacturing more broadly - 34%
Regular knowledge sharing sessions with other product manufacturers and landscape architects at the ASLA Conference - 23%
Grants to prototype low and zero biodiversity impact manufacturing processes - 23%
New materials educational conference track at ASLA Conference - 21%
Free webinar series - 21%