The Double-edged Green Sword

You can’t deny it: The "green" movement appears to be here to stay. I don’t know if the "Al-meister" is to be credited or blamed for it, but he certainly has brought it to the forefront. And unlike his alleged invention of the Internet, this one may be truer.

The bottom line is, whether or not you buy into the green carbon-footprint thing, it is on the minds of many - and I believe it is here to stay.

So, being in the green plant biz, we are obviously in a beautiful position to gain from this grassroots movement, right?

Not so fast.

Just as we might catch ourselves dancing in the streets, thanking heaven for our good fortune, we need to take a careful look at this.

Believe it or not, we may actually be cast as the bad guys in the green tomorrow. It’s up to us to be aware of how this could backfire on us, and how we could proactively deal with it.

Much to my initial surprise, some in the green building movement view our wonderful air-cleaning tropical foliage as energy-wasting, carbon-footprinting monsters from the Everglades! Some see our products as a great evil, grown with - according to them - polluting chemicals and wasteful irrigation. Then, to top it off, the foliage is transported in fuel-guzzling monster trucks.

You begin to see that what we hope to be a boon for ’scapers could end up being a bust. As an industry, we must both publicly and privately work to counterbalance green extremists. More moderate, rational thinking will position our industry as the good guys we truly are!