S05 - Session P3 - Preferences for sustainable urban landscapes: Investigating the interplay between financial incentives and environmentally friendly lawn attributes

Authors: Hayk Khachatryan *, Xumin Zhang

Conventional turfgrass lawns may cause negative environmental impacts, including water resource depletion, chemical run-offs, or water quality reduction. Regulatory agencies are therefore interested in promoting resource-efficient landscape practices. Financial incentive programs such as rebates for lawn modifications have been used to encourage homeowners to adopt environmentally friendly and water-efficient landscaping practices. However, there is a lack of understanding about the extent to which homeowners with different environmental attitudes are interested in rebate incentives. It is also unclear how different rebate rates would affect homeowners' landscape preferences. This study links homeowners' environmental attitudinal measures and rebate incentives to investigate homeowners' preferences environmentally friendly landscapes. Using a random parameter logit model, the results revealed that rebate incentives can positively affect homeowners' adoption likelihood. However, homeowners with different environmental concerns showed heterogeneous responses to rebate incentives. Better understanding of the interplay between rebate incentives and environmental attitudes can be used to predict homeowners' engagement in proenvironmental landscaping practices and attract the environmentally conscious homeowners by offering environmentally friendly landscapes with attributes that mitigate environmental issues. We will discuss practical implications for policymakers and landscape industry stakeholders interested in sustainable landscaping practices in the urban environment.