Penn Medicine Radnor meadow gets township’s corporate Eco-Friendly Yard award

RADNOR – Radnor’s Environmental Advisory Council recently announced that the meadow at Penn Medicine Radnor designed by Jonathon Alderson is the first corporate recipient of Radnor’s Eco-Friendly Yard Award.

“We focus on the health and wellness of our staff and of the community we serve. This meadow is a big part of that. It aids in keeping our drinking water clean and reduces storm water run-off into our streams and rivers,” said Tracey Commack, associate executive director of Penn Medicine Radnor. “Because it is self-sustaining, it requires very little maintenance, reducing pollutants to the air and reducing Penn Medicine’s use of fuels and chemicals. Health care has a disproportionate planetary burden, and we want to do everything we can to reduce that.”

The township’s EAC launched the Eco-Friendly Yard Program earlier this year and has since distributed over 20 awards to qualifying residential yards. Penn Medicine Radnor is the township’s first corporate yard designated as eco-friendly.

With the Eco-Friendly Yard Program, the council hopes to change the face of the typical suburban lawn. The award was given during a ceremony outside of Penn Medicine earlier this week.

“Using gardening and landscaping practices that harmonize with nature, Penn Medicine Radnor is diversifying their plantings, improving wildlife habitat, and reducing lawn mower noise, air and water pollution, and yard waste,” said Margaret Reinhart, council chair. “We are excited to honor Penn Medicine Radnor as the first corporate, eco-friendly yard award winner in Radnor Township. By highlighting the meadow at Penn Medicine Radnor and other eco-friendly yards in our community, we are hoping to model what is an ecologically friendly yard. This involves a change in a person’s sense of aesthetics.”

The meadow design was a collaboration between Penn Medicine’s sustainability and wellness initiatives, Jonathan Alderson Landscape Architects Inc., LEED engineers, and Radnor Township’s stormwater management requirements. When the Penn Medicine Radnor campus is fully completed, there will be 2 miles of walking paths so patients, staff and the Radnor community can get outside in a parklike setting.

“The landscape design comprises of planted courtyards, terrace areas, and a healing garden,” said Jonathon Alderson, Alderson Landscape Architects, Inc. “A native drought tolerant plant palette was selected for its ecological benefits, to help reconnect the site to the native landscape, and to provide wildlife habitat.”