The Green Wave: Sink or Swim

“The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.”

Zeno (335 BC-264 BC)

Sustainability is on the minds of every industry as the green movement has reached a critical mass. In the short time frame of fifteen years, green architecture and sustainable technologies have evolved from a radical fringe of ardent supporters to a generally accepted public mandate that is revolutionizing the entire world economy. Below the surface is a monumental shift in corporate thinking which is refining this brave new green world. Every industry will be challenged to make the shift to a new paradigm in order to prosper or even survive. The landscape and nursery industry has always been in the center of the green movement, but is not generally perceived as a leader which consistently brings innovation to the table. There can be no denying the magnitude of the sustainability movement as it becomes increasing codified in our daily life. The time is fast approaching for the landscape and nursery industry to assess its future and decide to either sink or swim in the mounting green wave. The commitment to become leaders in the sustainability movement will require dedication and innovation from both individual businesses as well as trade organizations.

The first question that arises is “what does it mean to be green?” Unfortunately, there are no publicly established policies or guidelines which are definitive, but rather a series of sometimes vague and confusing principals. Being green is easiest described as a way of thinking, in that every action shall do no wrong or diminish the earth’s resources for future generations. The difficult part is that every industry will be required to define these sustainable principals for their specific industry. Be assured that this process will not be simple and the rules will constantly change, but every industry will struggle in defining its role in the new green economy.

The origins of this green tidal wave can be traced back to a single document. In 1992, the City of Hanover, Germany hired architect William McDonough to craft a series of environmental principals to guide architects and planners in the development of exhibits for the 2000 World Expo to be held in Hanover. This short list of environmental goals came to be known as the Hanover Principals. Although over the years these sustainable principals have been expanded, interpreted, defined and debated, they are still the fundamental foundation of the sustainability movement.

As other industries begin to define their role in sustainability, they contribute useful tools which can help the landscape and nursery industry to find its way. Places to look for current thinking and valuable information include the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) www.usgbc.org, which has established the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system. The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) www.asla.org has established a strategic partnership with a number of environmental organizations called the Sustainable Site Initiative www.sustainablesites.org to establish a green site rating system for individual sites. There are a number of organizations such as “Cradle to Cradle Certification” www.mbdc.com/certified.html, which helps customers purchase and specify products that are pursuing a broader definition of quality environmentally-intelligent design. Industry specific guides are emerging such as the Certified Forest Products Council (CFPC) www.certifiedwood.org which provides information about sustainable forestry, and includes a directory of sustainably harvested lumber.

Although these organizations provide some insight in how sustainability is interrupted by other associations, none of the documents will address in detail the needs for the landscape and nursery industry. This will come from within the industry as we begin to look critically at the opportunities for changing traditional practices and replacing them with more environmentally friendly business practices. The initial areas for consideration are easy to identify such as business practices that negatively impact air quality, water quality, biodiversity and consumption of natural resources. Let’s look at each of these four simple opportunities in more detail as they might relate to traditional industry practices, knowing that there are dozens of other subjects that should be considered in mainstreaming sustainability into every aspect of the landscape and nursery industry.

Air Quality

With the emissions from operating and refueling of landscape equipment, vehicles have a significant impact on air quality. Small gasoline-powered engines often produce much greater levels of pollution than that of a full sized car per hour of operation. The estimates can be as much as 1000 times more emissions are produced from small gasoline-powered engines. When these engines are mistuned, or run without air filters, measurements show as much as 50% of the fuel exhausted as unburned hydrocarbons. The EPA estimates that as much as 5% of urban air pollution can be linked to their usage. Considering the entire carbon footprint of the landscape and nursery industry, the consequences are significant.

A sustainable approach would minimize air pollution by investing in hybrid or fossil free vehicle fleets as well as a mileage optimization on how those fleets are deployed each day. Small gas-powered engines can be replaced with electric powered equipment. While electric still has environmental impacts primarily in the manufacturing process, the total embodied energy used during the equipment’s life cycle cost is much less. The most environmentally friendly grounds maintenance equipment is human powered which does not rely on a power source. I believe there could be an emerging niche in the market for a premium priced high sustainability ground maintenance service.

Water Quality

The landscape and nursery industry applies a vast amount of chemical based pesticides and fertilizers which, even with the best management practices, are subject to leaching into stream ways and water courses. While monumental progress has been made in training grounds staff in the proper calibration and application of the chemicals, it does illustrate the industry’s reliance on preventative chemical use instead of prescriptive treatment of diseases. An enlightened chemical approach which reduces generic broad based preventative treatments in favor of selective targeted solutions would shift the chemical industry’s investment toward development of new softer solutions. A serious discussion in the landscape industry needs to challenge the reliance on traditional chemical approaches and foster greater acceptance of ecological based approaches.

The greatest impact the landscape and nursery industry has on water quality is in the management of construction activities through the primary responsibility for erosion control. Our experience indicates the landscape industry is only marginally engaged in erosion control. No other trade has a greater opportunity to express leadership in managing water quality during site grading and establishment of vegetation. This industry should be the foremost advocate and expert in site erosion control implementation. Accepting responsibility for the site can expand revenues for forward thinking companies.

With the increased development of suburban areas, more frequent and pronounced flooding has occured. This not only results in erosion, stream pollution, and destruction of aquatic habitat, but tremendous property damage and loss of human lives. Several compelling best management practices exist that the industry can use to help to reduce flooding and reuse a precious natural resource. These stormwater based solutions such as rain harvesting, rain gardens, green roofs and bioswales, while not new have garnered a new wave of public interest. The best thing about these stormwater technologies is that they easily fall into the traditional market of the industry. A concerted effort in promoting integrated stormwater solutions within the industry would represent another leadership position the industry could assume.

Declining Biodiversity

The world's biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, with current extinction rates that are at least 900 times higher than natural rates found in the fossil record. Over 15,000 plant and animal species are now considered at risk of extinction representing an increase of 3,330 species since 2003. The landscape and nursery industry may contribute more to declining biodiversity than it does in preventing it. Consider the impacts of introduction of invasive plants into the landscape, clearing land, establishment of lawns, planting too few species that benefit wildlife, overuse of pesticides and dominant use of limited varieties of plants like Bradford pears and junipers.

When non-native plants "escape" from our landscape and take over natural areas they choke out the wide variety of native plants on which wildlife depends. Our desire for large lawn lots results in significant clearance of natural areas which fragments wildlife habitat. While less than 10% of all insects are harmful to plants, most pesticides are harmful or lethal to all insects. The industry maintains a dominant focus on horticultural planting strategies instead of advocating more complex ecological based plantings. We have become our own worst enemy in perpetuating traditional solutions as the basis of most designs.

A dramatic shift in conventional thinking is necessary to address sustainability in the core of the landscape and nursery industry. The industry needs to develop viable solutions to lawns and corporate landscapes in favor of diverse ecological natural communities which value biodiversity. We need to shift the basis of the green economy from low skilled lawn maintenance labor to more technically knowledgeable resource managers. Along with this paradigm shift comes increased market value and revenue opportunities. The need for biodiversity can be a catalyst in reforming traditional practices into a sustainable future.

Consumption of Natural Resources

The world only has a limited supply of natural resources and consumption rates are increasing. The United States is the world's largest consumer in absolute terms for many resources, eleven of the top twenty. Opportunities for using less are limitless when we look at our consumer economy. Principles for reducing consumption of natural resources can be applied to every aspect of business when you look at areas like packaging, recycling, specifying locally produced goods and use of low environmental impact materials.

Looking specifically at the landscape and nursery industry, specific opportunities emerge when we focus on business operations such as reducing fuel for landscape equipment, conserving water when irrigating plants, mitigating soil lost through erosion and eliminating peat moss or other harvested organic materials to amend soils. The green industry is indirectly responsible for 30% of water consumption in urban areas in the eastern United States for watering lawns, and in the West this figure is 60%. Guidelines for reduction or elimination of irrigation water are commonly available, but the environmental ethics need to be embraced by the entire industry. The green industry can be a powerful advocate in promoting sustainable solutions.

The world is shifting towards an environmental paradigm which fundamentally changes how we conduct every aspect of our lives. This green wave of change is upon us and it is our decision to sink or swim. We can allow the wave to overwhelm the industry or we can choose to participate as leaders riding the wave to a prosperous future of limitless opportunities. The future will be best defined for our industry internally by creative, innovative professions who have a passion for environmental change and civic commitment. By embracing the challenges to redefine our businesses practices at the most basis levels the industry will be guaranteed a meaningful front row seat in the new green economy. There is a lot of work to be done and a short amount of time available, so let’s get started in building a new green foundation for the future.

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In The Shadow Of The Future

A thick fog rolled over Logan Airport painting the windows in the terminal white like an abandon building. The flight is delayed three hours and counting. I reflect on the past four days in Boston which has been a blur of activity and enlightenment. I’m embarrassed that during the entire time in Boston I failed to exit the hotel to secure a breath of fresh air or to touch my feet to the city. A continuous driving rain was not the reason for my self imposed imprisonment. The source of my captivation was engrossing dialogues with leading visionaries which were intellectually inspiring. I attend a lot of conferences listening to a lot of keynote speakers, but it is seldom that a series of speakers can challenge me to reconsider my fundamental precepts about urban design and reveal paradise lost.

A simple conversation about nothing in particular during the social hour prior to a gala dinner obtained me an invite to the speakers table. I tend to shun social climbing at these types of events, so the offer to join the guest of honor for dinner came as a complete surprise. A few simple introductions and I found myself seated next to Time Magazine’s "Hero of the Planet Award" or "Bioneer", the father of the modern sustainability movement, as well as recently named one of the 20th Century's top thirty-five inventors.. Typically it is bad planning to seat an individual next to the keynote speaker, who has almost no knowledge of the speaker’s accomplishments. Social climbing requires detailed knowledge of all possible celebrities in the crowd so targets can be acquired. My total lack of interest in media personalities leaves me at a severe disadvantage in these situations. I must have been on vacation the month in 1999 that the guest speaker was made famous. Or least that’s what I told him. He smiled broadly as I asked him if he carried a copy of the Time magazine which I could borrow to catch up on current events.

Dinner was an elegant grilled salmon with pawns which was exceptional for banquet fare. The dinner conversation was congenial and refreshing. Our speaker was small in statue with thin blond hair and a fair ruddy complexion that gave him the appearance of a weather worn seadog. His thick Bostonian accent punctuated good natured cantankerous comments. His wife was frail in body with jet black dyed hair, but boisterous with a confidence cultivated from many generations on Cape Cod. In youth she was a professional ballet dancer, but a back injury earlier in the week confined her to a wheelchair which was uncomfortable and restrictive to a body that once moved with such grace. She tugged and pushed at the wheelchair resisting its embrace, never at ease.

At one point a clever joke by his wife about Tom Cruise caused the speaker to blush. As the table toyed with his bashfulness the blushing guest folded his hands over his face and began to glow red like a hearth of hot coals. His boyish mannerisms were endearing and disarming placing the entire table at ease as if we were old friends. The conversation turned to the subject to his work. His wife chided his for not returning a call of a former student. As it turned out the student was calling to ask him to write chapter seven in her book on “bio- mimicry”. He never got around to returning the call and as it turns out the book was a huge professionally acclaimed success. Smiling sheepishly he grudgingly admitted it was probably a mistake.

Drifting from the table discussion, I scanned the huge ballroom surveying all the tables filled with accomplished professionals of waiting to hear the shared wisdom of our guest speaker. Not listening, I hear a part of a conversation that snapped me back to the table with a huge laugh. “She had arms like lamb chops.” Unable to keep from laughing I said “She had arms like lamb chops? What the hell are you talking about?” Apparently the image it evoked in me was captured by the group as the table erupted into a side splitting roar. I never did get an explanation of what the conversation was about, leaving me to wonder through a sleepless night why “she had arms like lamb chops? “

A woman from our table ascended to the podium to introduce our speaker. She was an executive director from a prestigious environmental organization in New York City. Her graceful elegant introduction described a vast array of accomplishments over an amazingly diverse and varied life. He was trained in agriculture, parasitology, and tropical medicine, and received his doctorate in fisheries and oceanography. His early work involved the behavioral ecology of fishes. At one point she identified our speaker as an ‘bio-alchemist” which made him chuckle and blush. The crowd offered him an extended warm welcome as he effortlessly glided to the podium. He placed his hand on the microphone and pulled it down horizontal with the top of the podium, then quietly joked that he was unable to see over the top of the damn thing. As if being struck by lightening he immediately took command of the room. His diminutive statue and boyish mannerisms melted away as he demonstrated a powerful and formable intellectual presence before ever uttering a word.

He began with a tribute to a dear friend, a famous visionary architect who recently pasted away. The darkened room filled with images of private sketches and drawings of green visions of a possible fantastic future. Many of the images were obliviously private and deeply personal having never been seen before. The tenderness in which the work was described conveyed a lifelong collaboration with a trusted and valued peer. The speaker then deftly transitioned on to his early work and inspiration.

Images of a futuristic glass and steel building cover in green flashed on the screen. With great affection he described the building he designed as the first totally off-the-grid self sustaining living structure. The wind and solar energy systems were described in detail. The lush exotic garden in the center of the structure was bio-composter. Every system and material in the structure was carefully selected for zero environmental impact. He fondly described the many years of teaching thousands of students about biological technologies. Finally, he told the crowd how the institute fell in disrepair and how the building suffered neglect. With great pride he informed the crowd how the World Congress identified the institute as a world cultural historic site and listed the structure as one of the most important architectural achievements of the past century. They considered the site as the start of the sustainability movement. Without warning or tempering he informed the crowd that within three months of receiving the world historic designation the structure was demolished. The audience gasped in disbelief.

As he delved deeper into his body of work his genius became apparent. He designs what he now calls “living machines”, very sophisticated biological engines composed of plants and animals that restore degraded bodies of water. These large floating islands containing only biological living organisms are many times more effective and efficient than modern sewage treatment plants. Photos of horribly desolate industrial wastelands being transformed into lush beautiful clear water lakes flashed on the screen. He described the process “Acting as chemostats, Restorers utilize the widely recognized benefits of fixed bio-films to accelerate the natural processes found in a river, lake, pond or constructed lagoon.”


Images flash on the screen from somewhere in China showing a foul putrid canal which untreated raw sewage flows directly from the adjacent skyscrapers. The water in the canal is so turbid and thick you could walk across it. He offers an apology for the image while the crowd finishes dinner. Glancing at the screen he discusses the topic of the microcosm as a tiny mirror image of the macrocosm. “This ancient hermetic law applies to ecological design and engineering. As much as possible, global design should be miniaturized in terms of gas, mineral, and biological cycles. The big system relationships need to be maintained in the living machine”. The next images show the canal with lush green floating rafts in clear blue water with people walking along the constructed gardens. It is a truly amazing transformation.

More than an hour has flown by and the presentation is about to conclude. “The biggest challenge will be the waking up of the larger public to the fact that we need to shift from an extractive society to one that is restorative. There needs to be an increased local awareness to create viable communities - that's a very different model than what we've seen in the 20th century. I don't know what it will take to wake us up; we're kind of numb to species extinction and other environmental crises. It would be nice if we could change course without a major ecological disaster.”

In closing he indicates that there are two camps of humanity “Those that will sleepwalk into the future unaware to the impending disaster or those which will see the shadow of the future and be spurned to act.” The applause of the crowd rolls on for minutes without end. He is swallowed by a mob of faithful with questions and congratulations as steps down from the podium. The diminutive man and boyish mannerisms reemerges as he politely answers each question one by one. Walking from the ballroom I glance over my shoulder only to see the crowd around our speaker growing.

Inspiration comes in many shapes and sizes. Inspiration emerges from the realm of the everyday and common when it is least expected. This week inspiration came from a diminutive seadog with the ruddy complexion. I have spent the past two days since the gala dissecting and savoring the message in exquisite detail, examining each word as a jeweler examines precious gems. I look out the windows of Logan as the fog begins to clear. The flight attendant announces that we will begin boarding the flight home. In enter the plane with a renewed spirit. I need to wake those sleep walking and point out the shadow of the future.