The World’s Ugliest Lawn
REGION GOTLAND
In 2023 Region Gotland scaled its water-conserving ugly lawn initiative to a global contest. It generated an earned reach of 2 billion, entries from around the world and made people question the norm of green lawns. The World’s Ugliest Lawn is now an annual contest. Enter the 2026 contest by sending a photo of your dry lawn to johan.gustafsson@differ.se
The summer of 2023 was the hottest ever recorded on Earth, and water availability is decreasing around the world. Gotland had decreased its water consumption the previous year by celebrating owners of ugly dry lawns and saw the need to scale the initiative globally.
Gotland launched The World’s Ugliest Lawn contest – a competition with the purpose of saving water globally by challenging the norm of green lawns.
Gotland joined forces with the Hollywood actress and environmentalist Shailene Woodley. Together, they challenged the world to save water and share images of ugly dry lawns. In a recorded Zoom call with the winner of "Gotland's Ugliest Lawn 2022” she challenged the world to save water and share images of ugly dry lawns.
Ugly lawn entries were submitted from the USA, Germany, France, Australia, the UK, Canada, Croatia and Sweden.
In January 2024 an international jury announced the winner – Kathleen Murray in Tasmania. Leading international media reported on the initiative and the first-ever winner of The World’s Ugliest Lawn contest.
Some examples: The Guardian, The Washington Post, CNN, CNN Arabic, BBC Breakfast, The Drew Barrymore Show on CBS, Forbes, New York Post, Have I Got News for You on BBC1, The Weather Channel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der Spiegel, Le Figaro, Le Parisien, Business Insider, Business Insider Africa, The Telegraph, CBC Radio, NPR Radio, The Sun, The West Australian, ABP Sanjah, New Dehli TV, Times Now, Hindustan Times.
In January 2026, The Guardian announced Jarno Coone’s win of The World’s Ugliest Lawn 2025.
You can be the next champ! Enter the 2026 contest by emailing a photo of your dry lawn to johan.gustafsson@differ.se before December 25 2026.
The initiative has had an extensive impact: Local ugly lawn contests have popped up in Canada, the USA and Sweden. The Guardian has since 2022 published 5 articles on the ugly lawn initiative. It has been featured on the start page of The Washington Post as ”Top Story” with 950 reader comments, and twice in the Washington ”Climate Coach” newsletter. The initiative has been lauded by the OECD and the European Union and has been included in school books in the Netherlands and the USA. Brown is the new green!
Want to read more?
Want to read more?
> Article in The Guardian 2026
> Article in The Guardian 2025
> Article in The Washington Post
> Article in The Guardian 2024
> The Guardian Australia on Instagram
> Article in Frankfurter Allgemeine
> The webpage for the initiative
Awards
Shortlisted in the PR category of Cannes Lions. Silver in Spinn, Second round in One Show Green Pencil and a European shortlist in the ANDY Awards.
For more information, contact:
Johan Gustafsson
+46 70-632 90 20
