But this green thing is different.
It has arrived with such a flourish and has occupied the media like the latest Hollywood movie. Yet the focus has lasted months, not a weekend.
It’s a complex issue
The green phenomenon has created new phrases such as greenwashing and carbon footprint. TV programs, from “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer” to “Access Hollywood,” use vague inferences about saving the planet on a daily basis. We are urged to reduce our carbon emissions.
Should I shrink in horror when I hear that my coast-to-coast flights put 1.3 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere? What is a ton of CO2? I think I am a reasonably aware person but I haven’t a clue how much space a ton of carbon dioxide would occupy. Would it
fill my car, my garage, my local baseball stadium? Has anyone a clue?
But whether you believe that your car, lawnmower or that flight to a garden center tour is dooming the polar bears or not, we can all see the effects of urban sprawl on the air we breathe or on that field you played in as a kid. You may have noticed a lack of bees in your perennial department, while other people notice that some types of fish are missing from restaurant menus.
This green thing doesn’t feel like a market fad such as marbled poinsettias, nor a demographic trend like outdoor living. This is different. This is a sea change.
This green thing is also different because it brings a political aspect right into the core of our daily business. Consumers across the political spectrum interpret scientific data in different ways, linking it to existing beliefs and positions. Garden retailers learned long ago to separate their politics from their business operations or risk alienating some of their customer base. But with the green issue, this separation is very hard for some retailers, while others embrace the green message like a long-lost brother.
It’s time to face the green facts of life
Retailers who are uncomfortable going along with the green message of reducing carbon emissions and preserving the Earth’s biodiversity will miss a huge business opportunity. Owners and managers who respond to the green juggernaut with disdain or denial, and think of green advocates as pinko tree huggers will alienate and lose many good customers, especially the younger ones.
At the other end of the spectrum are retailers who feel they have been green for years and can now come out of the closet. They risk becoming so intensely, finger-waggingly green that they too could alienate the majority of consumers and also remain on the fringe of the opportunity.
Corporate America, which can spot an opportunity in total darkness, will ignore the politics and grab the market from under the noses of the self-appointed “original green industry.” This has already happened across the pond. The first home-improvement retailer to source tools with handles made only from certified sustainably harvested wood wasn’t Joe’s Hardware; it was B&Q, Britain’s Home Depot lookalike.
This year, Britain’s biggest retailer, Tesco (with a staggering 12 percent of UK retail — think about that market share and leadership position), began labeling selected products with the amount of carbon released in their manufacture and shipping. The trial is to see if consumers will care and pay more for products that are more green than others.
The reality is that we are in a society dominated by sound-bite oriented, 24-hour media that have interpreted the data or embraced a position and made green their issue. As far as the media is concerned, green is a done deal, which is why corporate America is scrambling to greenwash itself.
So the original green industry had better get on the train, even if individual owners and managers don’t believe or align with the message now resonating through the media.
2 choices for deniers
Those retailing leaders who are in the disdain/denial camp have a choice of reaction to the green situation. One reaction would be a huge, never-ending public relations campaign to offset the realities of using all that plastic, greenhouse heating, rain-forest teak furniture and hauling “green” plants 2,500 miles on a truck. We may be the original green industry, but our dirty laundry is there for consumers and the local media to see every day.
The other direction for the naysayers is to see green as another inexplicable trend, put on their public face and go with the flow. Accept it and make some money out of it.
Going green in retail is not just selling products that are kinder to Mother Earth. It is behaving green, too — and then shouting about it to consumers, the local media and local government.
Here are some examples:
• Buy hybrid cars and a delivery truck. Paint a big sign on the side telling your town what you are doing.
• Convert your diesels to biofuel (but check on cold-weather operational issues first).
• Replace power-hungry electrical appliances, but don’t tell the public
the money you saved, tell them the
CO2 reduction.
• Carry locally grown plants as much as possible and tell shoppers about the carbon saved by reduced shipping. Adopt plant-miles, like some supermarkets are adopting food-miles.
• Tell your customers how your recycling has changed and about your plans to impact landfills less.
• Calculate your store’s carbon footprint from the many dedicated Web sites, showing the public that you are aware and that you are reducing it.
• Involve customers through surveys and focus groups for ideas on making your stores more Earth friendly; make it a community issue.
• Stop carrying plants that you know are an invasive species (and again tell the community) before some nonelected official in your state does it for you.
• Walk the walk and let the staff develop real product knowledge to add value to your team. Many retailers promote organics to the public but don’t use them in their own operation.
• Offset your carbon footprint by investing in alternative energy or reforestation programs (locally if possible) and shout about it.
• Use carbon savings or Earth-friendly tips on your POP with regard to water use in the garden, electricity saved by shade trees, beneficial insects that live on some of the perennials you carry.
• Sign up your center in the National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Habitat Program. We all know that nurseries are full of birds and butterflies, but does the customer? Then link the program to selling bird-friendly plants and landscape designs.
• Enroll your center as a Monarch Way Station (www.monarchwatch.org) to show how homeowners with even tiny gardens can help these iconic creatures make it to their winter destinations. Then sell a whole bunch of plants that Monarchs use to feed and breed.
Show environmental leadership
The generation most passionate about this green issue (Gen X and Gen Y) is coincidentally our industry’s future. Their position is a paradox. These generations were reared on malls, brands and global shopping. But the early adopters in that group are already wondering how to reconcile their love of national brands with their desire to save the planet by buying local. Local garden centers could be their salvation.
They know that the world for their kids is very different from the one even their own parents came into. They know that their shopping and lifestyle choices now are the inheritance they leave their own kids — food miles, CO2, biodiversity, clean air and so on.
To those generations, the independent garden center industry seems middle-aged and barely relevant. Behaving in a green manner promises to change all that for those owners and managers who are bold enough.
My declaration of interest
For the record, my wife Lisa and I drive a 2007 Mercury Mariner Hybrid and are studying which reforestation cause to support in order to offset our airline miles each year. Thanks to a very progressive local utility company in Sacramento, we have powered our all-electric home by Greenergy, (generated from biomass, hydro and wind) since 1996. We buy as much local produce as possible and, thanks to our donkey, have lots and lots of organic home-grown veggies most of the year. Living in California, we are also advocating and practicing a strict policy of reducing “wine miles.” Sorry, Australia.