Sustainable Landscape Design: Sage’s Way Landscape & Design of Salt Lake City

Spring is in the air, and in many places, it’s the time to start planning the garden for 2009.  A terrific green business opportunity exists for aspiring eco-entrepreneurs to do landscaping work.  Landscape Design refers to the design and setup of a landscape environment around a house or other building.  By designing a landscape with eco-friendly and green building elements in mind, you can help reduce water and chemical use, produce food, and reduce heating and cooling costs for the building as well.

As the work is seasonal, it’s a slightly different business model and attracts a different kind of entrepreneur.  But the work is outdoors/get your hands dirty/shovel-ready kind of work that many people enjoy.  It takes a strong back and a willingness to work hard, but it just might be a terrific opportunity for you to help green your community, one yard at a time.

In today’s spotlight, I interview Chase Fetter, founder of Sage’s Way Landscape and Design of Salt Lake City. Chase has been doing permaculture in arid Salt Lake City for a half dozen years, and just entered into the market to do landscape maintenance in an eco-friendly manner as well, but that is a subject for another article.

SC:  When you design and install a landscape for someone, what are you mainly hoping to accomplish for them?
CF:  We focus on waterwise perennials, trees, and shrubs.  We also try to incorporate edibles to encourage people to reconnect with their back yards.

SC:  The focus on waterwise plants–how helpful is that to homeowners looking to cut water bills?
CF: We can cut water bills by half [for many people].

SC:  In a water limited state like Utah’s, that must be quite a seller.  How else can you help people save money while doing good for the environment?
CF: We can also block winter winds and/or cool the house in the summer with tree plantings.

Find more information about Sage’s Way Landscape and Design at www.SagesWay.net.

Scott Cooney is the author of Build a Green Small Business:  Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill), and hopes that someday the green economy will simply be referred to as…the economy.