What is Greenwashing in the Landscaping Industry?

19/10/2025 - News

Are We Getting It Wrong?

Why the Landscaping Industry Needs to Be Super Careful About Greenwashing, and How Arbour Landscape Solutions Is Approaching This Complex Issue.

Landscaping, by its very nature, seems like the ultimate green industry. We work with plants, natural materials, and outdoor spaces, the very things we associate with sustainability. But scratch beneath the surface, and the picture isn’t always as clean as we’d like to believe.

There’s a growing risk that our sector, in its enthusiasm to appear environmentally conscious, might unintentionally step into greenwashing, making claims of sustainability that aren’t backed by evidence or full understanding. For suppliers, designers, and contractors alike, it’s time to be honest about what “green” really means, especially when it comes to hard landscaping.

The Hidden Footprint of Hard Landscaping

Hard landscaping is often the unsung hero of great outdoor design, it creates the structure that makes a garden work, the framework for planting, and the finish that brings spaces to life. Yet, it’s also the area where sustainability is most complex.

Natural stone, concrete, aggregates, and porcelain all carry significant environmental impacts. Extraction, processing, and transport all contribute to a material’s carbon footprint. And while “locally sourced” is often the ideal, in reality, some of the world’s most durable and aesthetically striking materials come from further afield and surprisingly costs from UK-sourced stone are often untenable for customers. 

That’s why the conversation about sustainability must go deeper than slogans. It’s not enough to call something “natural” and assume it’s sustainable. The real challenge is to understand how that material was quarried, processed, transported, and managed and how the people behind it are treated.

A Realistic Approach: Sustainability Is a Journey, Not a Badge

At Arbour Landscape Solutions, we believe in a grounded, transparent approach. We know that no stone material, by its nature, can be considered entirely “environmentally friendly.” Extraction and transportation inevitably have an impact.

But sustainability isn’t about perfection. It’s about commitment to continuous improvement, transparency, and responsible sourcing. That’s where we focus our efforts.

One Quarry, One Relationship, One Standard

All our natural stone comes from a single, family-run quarry in Egypt, with whom we’ve built a close, long-term partnership. This isn’t just about product consistency; it’s about accountability and shared values.  The same goes for porcelain which we source from one quarry in Italy.  It is only by doing this that we can ensure our values are on track.

With our Egyptian resource, Managing Director, Richard Bickler, works directly with the quarry team to ensure that the operation runs responsibly and ethically. This includes:

• Health and Safety: Ensuring robust procedures and training to protect workers on-site.

• Water Recycling: Implementing systems so that water used during production is filtered, cleaned, and reused, reducing waste and environmental impact.

• Worker Welfare: The quarry’s staff are well-compensated, provided with safe conditions, and live locally - meaning they don’t face long commutes or temporary working arrangements that can often undermine worker wellbeing in global supply chains.

• Community Stability: By sourcing from a single, family-run operation, we support a consistent local economy rather than transient or exploitative labour practices.

This partnership model gives us confidence, not just in the quality of the stone we supply, but in the ethics behind it.

Reducing Carbon Impact Through Smarter Logistics

One of the biggest sustainability challenges for any importer of natural stone or porcelain is transportation. At Arbour, we’ve taken deliberate steps to minimise this impact wherever possible.

We ship in large quantities, consolidating deliveries to reduce the frequency of shipments and therefore the carbon footprint per tonne of stone. Once the materials arrive in the UK, we hold stock locally. This allows us to meet customer demand efficiently without relying on frequent overseas shipments or last-minute air freight, both of which dramatically increase emissions.

This approach not only reduces environmental impact but also supports a more reliable, transparent supply chain. Our clients can be confident that their materials are available when needed, without compromising sustainability principles.

Being Honest About the Limits

It would be easy for us to label our paving as “eco-friendly” or “sustainable.” But that wouldn’t be true, at least not in the absolute sense. The reality is that any quarried product carries a footprint.

What we can, and do, say with confidence is that our sourcing, transport, and storage practices are aligned with our goal: to supply high-quality paving in the most responsible and sustainable way possible.

We prefer to talk in specifics, not slogans. Sustainability is built on evidence, not adjectives. That’s why we focus on what we can measure and control, health and safety, water use, logistics efficiency, and ethical labour, rather than making sweeping claims.

Why Greenwashing Hurts the Industry

Greenwashing isn’t just misleading, it’s harmful. It undermines trust between suppliers, contractors, and clients. It confuses the market and devalues genuine efforts to improve environmental performance.

As awareness grows, clients are asking smarter questions:

If suppliers can’t answer those questions transparently, their “green” claims start to unravel. The best antidote to greenwashing is clarity, sharing the facts, even when they’re imperfect.

Building Trust Through Transparency

Arbour Landscape Solutions believes that trust is earned through openness. We invite clients, contractors, and designers to ask about our sourcing practices, our quarry relationship, and our logistics chain. We’re proud of the work we’ve done, and we’re honest about the work that still lies ahead.

Our quarry partners in Egypt share that ethos, they’re invested not just in producing beautiful materials, but in doing so responsibly. That alignment makes all the difference.

Sustainability, after all, isn’t a label to stick on a product; it’s a value system that shapes every decision, from extraction to export, and from stockholding to final installation.

The Bigger Picture

The landscaping industry has enormous potential to lead on sustainability, but it must start by facing uncomfortable truths.

We can’t assume that natural automatically means ethical, or that “green” design ends with planting. Hard landscaping is where some of the industry’s greatest environmental challenges lie, and where its greatest opportunities for improvement exist.

If every supplier and contractor took responsibility for their material choices, tracing them back to source, understanding their true impact, and being transparent about limitations, the collective effect would be transformational.

Closing Thoughts

At Arbour Landscape Solutions, we don’t claim perfection, but we do claim accountability.

We believe that by working closely with trusted partners, maintaining visibility over our supply chain, and continually improving our practices, we can deliver materials that meet both aesthetic and ethical standards.

Sustainability isn’t about doing everything right from day one. It’s about doing everything possible, being honest about the trade-offs, and never losing sight of the goal: to make the built environment truly reflect the values of care, respect, and responsibility.