Green Industry ECOnomics - LandcareNetwork.org

Chapter 8:
Gain a Competitive Advantage
Landscape and lawn care businesses provide a variety of services that improve
the appearance, enjoyment, and utility of their customers’ properties.
The robust growth of the industry over the past 30-plus years is evidence that
the public appreciates and values these efforts. But, whether the public perceives
the industry’s practices and services to be sustainable or green in the
sense of being environmentally responsible is another matter. Most landscape
and lawn care companies have not actively developed or pursued a
recognizably green strategy.
The industry must begin using products and adopting practices that conserve
energy and other resources while enhancing the ecology, diversity, and sustainability
of the landscapes it installs and maintains.
What moves a company toward greener products and services, or to incorporate
environmental/sustainable issues within its organization While it may
seem crass to suggest that companies are going green because they think it
will make them more competitive in the marketplace, that’s actually an excellent
reason to move in this direction.
Frost & Sullivan, an international growth consulting and research firm, in its
2008 “Going Green” survey of business leaders said that 69 percent of managers
saw going green as a competitive advantage, 67 percent listed it as a
potential competitive advantage, and 62 percent felt it was a general corporate
social responsibility. Curiously, a larger percentage of managers below
the CEO level perceived going green as more of a “growth opportunity” than
did CEOs (34 percent vs. 23 percent).
“Given the potential benefits and seemingly positive support by investors,
executives, and employees, more and more organizations may attempt to
overcome the primary challenge of costs in order to achieve success in an
increasingly green environment,” said Tanya Flower, Frost & Sullivan director
of Competitive Benchmarking Services. “Whether morally driven or growthfocused,
going green is now top of mind for most organizations.”
While you may assume that your customers view the services you provide
them as being green or sustainable, that’s not necessarily the case. In fact,
most of them don’t make the connection between the landscapes you’re installing
or maintaining for them and your role as a steward of the environment.
Or, as Committee member Steve Pattie discovered when he surveyed
his customers, they weren’t interested in additional green services, espe-
Bringing sustainability into focus for the green industry 25