Sustaining Profits

For several years now, “going green” has been the hottest ticket in town. Companies large and small have been touting their eco-friendly initiatives. Some have been little more than costly public relations campaigns. Others have introduced genuine change while also benefitting the bottom line.

Our very own green industry has provided some stellar examples of companies that are going green and making green at the same time. This month we offer a look at three garden centers that embraced eco-friendly initiatives for everyone’s benefit.

Certifiably sustainable
Tagawa Gardens,
Centennial, Colo.

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Tagawa Gardens is the first retail-grower and garden center in the United States to be certified sustainable by VeriFlora, a certification program for fresh cut flowers and potted plants. This rigorous standard means the company’s plants have been grown sustainably with respect for the environment, employees, community and business practices.

Achieving the certification was a major undertaking, said Tagawa Gardens’ manager Beth Zwinak. The company worked closely with the Visions Group (visionsgroupllc.com), a consultant firm that helped Tagawa recognize and meet the many requirements for VeriFlora certification. For customers, the most visible evidence of this long journey is the VeriFlora logo that appears on every tag on plants grown on the premises.

The question is, do customers understand the significance of the certification?

“Some customers, those especially tuned into Certified Organic and OMRI [Organic Materials Review Institute] products, do get it easily and understand the significance,” Zwinak said. “But most don’t notice or have to ask about it. I think that our customers already expect us to be environmentally and socially responsible via our green industry and our reputation. The certification helps us quantify and make official what we hope our customers trust we are already doing.”

Tagawa Gardens’ strategy is to continuously remind customers that they are—and have been—engaging in eco-friendly practices. A store branding effort named in honor of Tagawa’s resident feline offers evidence of this. Products that the company believes have less impact on the environment are labeled “Grey Kitty Earth and Paw Friendly.” The company is so passionate about this program, they had “Grey Kitty” registered as a trademark.

Signage offered background on Tagawa Gardens’ sustainable “Purr-furred Geraniums” package.Grey Kitty recently made an appearance in a special sustainability initiative. This year, Tagawa Gardens offered “Purr-furred Geraniums” in a package that takes eco-friendly to a new level. These sustainably grown geraniums were sold in biodegradable rice-hull pots. Tagawa even worked with John Henry Co. to produce a biodegradable tag. Bench signage provided background on VeriFlora certification and information about these special pots.

Zwinak said they hope to test more alternative pots in the future. In the meantime, they continue to support local container recycling efforts. Garden Centers of Colorado began a garden-plastics recycling program last year, which kept 120,000 pounds of plastic out of landfills. Zwinak serves on the association committee overseeing this effort. This year, Zwinak said, more than 15 independent garden centers served as drop-off locations and assisted with two large community events sponsored by the “Denver Recycles” program, Monrovia and The Denver Post.

For more: Tagawa Gardens; tagawagardens.com

Energy independence
Eagle Creek Garden Center,
Bainbridge, Ohio

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Eagle Creek Garden Center and its sister company, Eagle Creek Wholesale Growers, have undertaken several projects to make their operation more energy-efficient. In 2006, the company installed a Hurst biomass boiler, allowing them to heat the company’s glass greenhouses with environmentally friendly products such as wood waste, sawdust and dried manure.

The following year, Eagle Creek converted its wholesale delivery trucks to run on recycled vege-table oil. And in 2009 the company installed a 50-kilowatt wind turbine from Entegrity Wind Systems. Wind power will help Eagle Creek reduce its annual electrical consumption by 30-40 percent—perhaps more.

“We just got approved for a second set of grants from USDA to install a second turbine,” said company founder Jill Cain.

At Eagle Creek Garden Center, another energy-saving initiative is underway. Cain said they’re looking to change the store’s lighting to a more “green” system. One of the key components will be motion sensors that will dim or turn off lights when areas are unoccupied. Tax credits will help offset the cost of installing the system.

Eagle Creek’s sustainable projects aren’t solely focused on energy, though. The company is also working to expand its offering of organic products, which Cain said have become more appealing to customers.

Wind power will help Eagle Creek reduce its annual electrical consumption by 30-40 percent.“I field a lot of the chemical phone calls,” Cain said, “and a big percentage of people—especially those calling regarding vegetable gardens—are definitely looking for natural products.”

Next spring, Eagle Creek is planning to sell an organic line of vegetables to take advantage of this trend. And, of course, the store will offer a host of eco-friendly garden remedies. Cain said they haven’t gone totally organic in that realm. National advertising campaigns for conventional products still bring in consumers intent on purchasing those items.

"It’s hard to turn that customer away,” Cain said.

Like so many other green-industry businesses, Eagle Creek is also big on recycling. The garden center accepts all makes and models of horticulture plastics from its customers. They’re taken to the company’s growing facility and sorted along with plastic waste produced from growing operations. Eagle Creek works with U.S. Liquids, a local plastic recycling company, to recycle the plastic containers, plastic bailing wrap and other injection-molded materials.

For more: Eagle Creek Garden Center; eaglecreekgrowers.com

Powered by the sun
Lakeview Nurseries,
Lunenburg, Mass.

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Lakeview Nurseries used government grants to help offset the costs of installing solar panels.Lakeview Nurseries’ shouts its commitment to sustainability from its rooftop. On Earth Day 2009, the company threw the switch for its new 7.3 kwh solar electric generator system. It’s a very visible reminder of the company’s long-standing environmental awareness.

“One of our oldest sayings is every day is Earth Day at Lakeview,” said co-owner Michelle Harvey. “We pushed into organics before it was popular. Two years ago, during the energy crunch we were all facing, we decided we wanted to do something else; something different. From that point it was just a matter of whittling down the options.”

It was around that time that Harvey attended an event hosted by the Massachusetts Nursery & Landscape Association and learned about some government alternative-energy grants. The garden center went through the application process and received two grants: an Agricultural Environmental Enhancement Program grant from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and a second grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

“Given the costs of the [solar panel] system, it would’ve been too much of a capital investment to pay down effectively without grants,” Harvey said. “The grants brought the payoff down to four years.”

But Lakeview Nurseries is already reaping benefits, financial and otherwise. This summer, the system overproduced power, allowing the company to send electricity back to the grid and earn a credit that should cover 90-percent of its power usage for the rest of the year. Customers are captivated by this energy-efficient system.

“The great part is it’s so visible,” Harvey said. “You see the panels. We have a meter that runs backwards, and we have signage for it. The customers all look at it.”

Harvey said they’ve become a local hero of sorts. They’ve been asked to speak at community events and chamber of commerce meetings about securing the grants and installing the system. She jokes that the entire staff has had to memorize the system’s specs to answer inquiries from customers and nearby business owners.

“That’s what we were most surprised about,” Harvey said. “The sheer excitement and buzz in our community.”

For more: Lakeview Nurseries; lakeviewnurseries.com