The World's Ugliest Lawn

Shailene Woodley and Gotland challenge the world to share ugly lawns

The Swedish island Gotland exports its successful water conservation initiative globally. Together with actress and environmental activist Shailene Woodley it is now launching the competition The Wold’s Ugliest Lawn.

Last year’s competition ”Gotland’s Ugliest Lawn” helped decrease domestic water consumption on the Gotland with 5% compared to previous summer.

With The World’s Ugliest Lawn-contest Gotland now challenges the world to share images of ugly dry lawns. The purpose is to save water globally by changing the norm of green lawns. We want to show that sustainable behaviour can be fun, and that everyone can do it. It only takes a change of mind!

In this video Shailene Woodley and last year’s winner Marcus Norström launch the challenge: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZi0PDR-lBc 

"This challenge is a great way to influence people around the world to use less water"
Shailene Woodley

”If more people can see the beauty in an ugly lawn, the world can save a lot of water”
Marcus Norström

ABOUT THE WORLD’S UGLIEST LAWN-CONTEST

We are coming out of a summer with new heat records, extreme droughts, floods and wildfires around the world.

Huge amounts of water are used every day to water lawns for aesthetics. As the world gets warmer, water scarcity is a growing problem. By not watering lawns for aesthetic reasons, we can protect the availability of groundwater. 

This is why Gotland in Sweden now is launching The World’s Ugliest Lawn-competition, with the aim of saving water on a global scale by changing the norm for green lawns. 

Campaign site:
https://gotland.com/worlds-ugliest-lawn/

People can enter the competition by simply sharing a picture of their ugly dry lawns on Instagram with the hashtag #worldsugliestlawn. Or by emailing the picture to Gotland at uglylawn@gotland.se

Entrants can submit images of their ugly dry lawns taken during 2023. The winner will be selected by a jury and announced in December 2023.

The first price is a pre-owned t-shirt with the text ”Proud Owner of the World’s Ugliest Lawn”. It’s the t-shirt Marcus wears in the launch video.

BACKGROUND FACTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND WATER SCARCITY

UNESCO warns of ”Imminent risk of global water crisis” and states ”The global urban population facing water scarcity is projected to double from 930 million in 2016 to 1.7–2.4 billion people in 2050”. 
https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/imminent-risk-global-water-crisis-warns-un-world-water-development-report-2023

Earlier this year french president Emmanuel Macron forecasted that climate change will deprive France of 30% to 40% of available water by 2050. 
https://apnews.com/article/france-macron-water-climate-change-93a317f55359d7bf8f7eaad0daeec954

July 2023 was the hottest month recorded on Earth. 
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3279/nasa-clocks-july-2023-as-hottest-month-on-record-ever-since-1880/

Australia’s winter of 2023 was the warmest since official records began in 1910. 
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/01/australia-records-warmest-winter-caused-by-global-heating-and-sunny-conditions

Since March 2023, parts of Canada have experienced severe drought and wildfires.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/06/world/canada/canada-wildfires-drought.html