The challenge of relevance

Tom Intven
LO President

One of the many challenges that our green industry will face in the next few years is to keep our activities relevant.

In 2007, the greenhouse industry was asking, “Is gardening dead?” This ominous thought was entertained because seven to ten years ago, gardening was the number-one pastime in North America. Two years ago, it did not even register in the top 10.

In October of 2008, Anna Ball addressed the Canadian Greenhouse Conference on all the negative trends working against gardening. The urban and computer savvy generations X and Y are the first generations to not be in direct contact with soil and nature. They appeared to have little, if any, interest in gardening. The baby boomers began demonstrating more interest in cooking, entertainment, personal health and golf, rather than gardening. If you listened to the visionaries of the time, one would not be very confident about investing in our industry.  
 

Renewed interest in gardening

Since the great recession, however, things seem to have turned around for the better with respect to the relevance of some of our industry activities. Led by a renewed interest in grow-your-own gardening, heightened environmental concerns and staycations, society is just beginning to understand the huge and profound benefits of green space, gardens, landscapes and plants.

The front page headline article in the Globe and Mail on this past Victoria weekend, stated, “A Nation of Gardeners.” It spoke of the return to gardening in the last two years by all generations, including Xers and Yers, who are now finding that gardening can be a pleasant outdoor break from indoor computer time.

A recent article in Greenhouse Grower magazine suggests that the recession is changing our value system. There has been a collapse of greed and self-indulgence and a new culture of giving, creating and collaborating that is emerging. Some have argued that we are entering into the ‘Reflection Economy,’ where sharing a passion and receiving recognition will replace taking as the new status symbol. In the new culture, espoused by Barack Obama, volunteerism is rising, and a shift from me to we will trump greed. “The ascendant generation of GRUPS (30-to-50 something grownups) are redefining adulthood with their young-at-heart lifestyle, driving demand for products made from recycled materials in sync with their focus on social and environmental issues. Mindful is in. Bling is out,” states the article.
 

Keep the ball rolling

It seems the recession has tipped things in our industry’s favour. Now it is our job to keep the ball rolling and raise awareness for the economic, environmental, energy reduction, carbon trapping, oxygen production, air quality improvement, social, recreational, tourism, therapeutic and social benefits of our green industry.

This is what the Green for Life campaign is all about. Interest is building right across Canada as you read this article. Make sure you do your part to build this brand.
 

Tell your story

So what can you do to tell your story in a way that raises awareness for the benefits of what we do for a living? While it varies slightly from sector to sector, engagement is the key (Sounds like a good theme).
Here are some ideas:

• Become more environmentally sustainable, while at the same time remind the public we are the original green industry and that we generate green jobs.
• Display your Green for Life logo everywhere you can (truck decals, letterhead, website, promotional literature, advertisements, signage, etc.)
• Find ways to encourage young people to garden. Get involved in your local school. Donate a tree, visit a classroom, participate in a community garden project, support the local slow food movement, and support local farmers’ markets.
• Support your local Communities in Bloom program by donating plants, offering tours, or volunteering on the committee.
• Garden centre operators could start a Kids’ Garden Club. This is a great way to get the next generation interested in gardening, as well as influencing the parents.
• Landscape contractors must understand that the new generation may not be into gardens, but they are into creative, well designed outdoor entertainment spaces. Sell the garden as the outdoor living and entertainment venue – the outdoor room.
• Décor is as important as plants. Colour, design themes, furniture, spas, etc. are all important components of the garden. Your job is to help green their life.
• Irrigation contractors must stress water efficiency. Water conservation has become a very important issue. The image of irrigation systems running in the rain must disappear. The benefits of using water to maintain our green infrastructure must be front and centre of your customer communications. The use of rainwater and cisterns must be encouraged to replace treated water as a source for irrigation.
• Lawn care companies must continue to stress the many societal benefits of turf, while at the same time focussing on cultural practices to grow healthy turf.
• Learn how to use social media tools, such as Facebook and Twitter. These are the communication tools of the next generation. Ikea gets it – they have made it a mandate this year to spend over 50 per cent of their marketing budget on Facebook.  

 

Healthy green spaces

We must all push the fact that healthy green spaces are a necessity and have high societal priority! We need to convince our customers to make the paradigm shift from luxury
to necessity.

Let’s tell our story — get it out there. The whole point of our Green for Life program is to raise awareness for the societal benefits of green space. It is designed to leverage the collective communication power of our membership. Millions of impressions are possible if we all collaborate telling our story or better yet shouting our story.

We need to strike while the iron is hot — get our message out there NOW. Reclaim the green of the green industry. Let’s create a green future together.

---

Tom Intven may be reached at 519-631-1008, or tintven@landscapeontario.com.