Environmental Leader

Businesses wanting to adopt “greener” landscaping in their office complexes increasingly will find more products and companies offering such solutions.

Landscape maintenance companies are implementing eco-friendly practices. As an example, Team Innovative Inc. uses an inverter inside its equipment trailer to charge reusable batteries while getting power from a battery charged by the truck, reports Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal. The set-up is described as similar to using solar power but the energy comes from the truck.

Team Innovative has been offering organic fertilizers and other products to customers for some time, but wants to expand its sales in organics, reports Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal. Owner Ken Perry told the newspaper that it only costs about 10 percent more to go organic.

“You can make money in a green industry, but as a businessman and a developer, I am always looking at the impact on the Earth,” Perry said in the article.

Despite declining overall lawn and garden sales over the past several years, the “green” sector of the lawn and garden industry is growing. Packaged Facts said the number of players in the organic lawn and garden sector has expanded in recent years, and organic sales grew 12 to 14 percent annually between 2003 and 2008, according to Mediapost.com. Despite the economy, organic sales are expected to grow 5 percent, to reach $485 million in 2009.

After steadily declining growth since reaching its peak in 2003 and 2004, the U.S. market for lawn and garden products is projected to reach $26 billion in 2014, according to the report by Packaged Facts. The researcher expects the availability of more organic products and growing trend in home food gardens to help drive annual growth between one and two percent.

The report, Lawn and Garden Products in the U.S., 8th Edition, finds that several factors are driving growth, including the food gardening trend, which was driven by numerous food scares, food price inflation, growing fears over food security, and positive responses to the edible yards and “locavore” movements.

The reports finds that Scotts Miracle-Gro (SMG) brands continue to increase their dominance in lawn and garden supply categories, including lawn fertilizers, plant foods, potting soil, herbicides and insecticides, and is starting to become a major player in organics, reports Mediapost.com.

Other factors that could impact the market include homeowners sustaining property values through lawn appearance and health; a bottoming out of housing around 2011 or 2012; the industry’s greening momentum; and aging Baby Boomers engaging in at-home pursuits such as lawn and garden activities.