Green & Greener

Green & Greener. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. Is there such a thing as a green business going green? Or greener? Allison Hensey, Program Director, Healthy Food & Farms, Oregon Environmental Council says there most certainly is. She is part of a new effort to green up greenhouse and nursery operations. HENSEY: It's really focused on efficiency and a wise use of resources. So we also partner with Oregon State University Extension and a private consulting firm called Ecos Consulting. The purpose is to both get a sense of greenhouse gas emissions from nurseries, help them measure those emissions and sometimes more importantly just what your resource use is and where your costs are, and then to identify best management practices to help folks reduce their resource and energy use over time and therefore reduce their costs and their greenhouse gas emissions. Hensey says they have a new publication for people to use. HENSEY: We just released a great, new best management practice guide that highlights the most cost effective bang for your buck things nurseries can do to reduce their energy and resource use and hopefully reduce costs and greenhouse gas emissions at the same time. And it's available on the Climate Friendly Nurseries website along with information about incentives and resources. As mentioned at the onset, nurseries are already by nature "green" businesses. HENSEY: In a way it's the original green industry because they grow living plants that we then put in our gardens and our streets our parks and that sort of thing. And here in Oregon they have a sustainability initiative that really makes them a leader in the agriculture industry but there hasn't been an initiative within the nursery industry that's been focused number one on energy and resource use reduction and number two on reducing greenhouse gas emissions until this one. Hensey says this is a first. HENSEY: This is the first effort of its kind in the nation. We're trying to just show that things that just make sense also help us slow global warming and so it's really not a radical concept in the end. It's www.climatefriendlynurseries.org and we have the Best Management Practice Guide online as well as lots of information about all the incentive programs you can look to, to help pay for best management practices. For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network. www.harvestcleanenergy.org