Editor's Focus: Oct. 1997

Let the cynics scoff. "Landscapers are just a bunch of long-haired guys with cut off T-shirts and a lawn mower."

Indeed, in some cases this is true. But as our 1997 State of the Industry Report clearly illustrates time and time again, the green industry is in reality a $45 billion compilation of businesses employing some of the most ambitious, hard working, and intelligent professionals that can be found anywhere.

I understand the cynics’ ignorance, because it wasn’t that long ago that I was on the outside looking in, basing my misconceptions on assumptions and ignorance. For the last two years, however, I have had the opportunity to be continually surprised by the professional caliber of the individuals who are the essence of the green industry. Encountering such individuals today no longer surprises me; it instills pride in me.

So I have come full circle. However, that does not mean my journey is complete. The truth is, my journey just now begins, with a renewed sense of duty and consequence.

The duty is to take that pride in this industry, which I now find myself a part of, and share the truth about our industry with those doubting outsiders. The consequence is the future of the green industry. Obviously, I alone will not alter the future of an industry employing some 630,000 in approximately 70,000 companies.

But as part of the larger whole, I can help educate a public that oftentimes looks down its nose upon this industry and accepts living with a mediocre lawn surrounded by a lacking landscape. By taking the green industry’s message of growing professionalism and dedication to service to these people, each one of us can work to move the industry forward.

Lawn care companies estimate they have penetrated 15 percent of the potential market, which is probably a safe estimate for the entire green industry. How much of the other 85 percent elects to care for their own properties or plant their own beds because of the attitudes they hold about this industry?

Those people are the future of the green industry. Those people are the customers and the employees of the future.

The key now is for the industry to avoid collective complacency. Individuals and companies can’t afford to relax lest they chance becoming fish food for a larger competitor. Well, the same holds true for the industry as a whole. Consumers can only spend their money in so many places, and they can only work in so many professions.

The green industry needs to continue working every day to convince Joe and Jane Consumer that this is not an industry of men and women to be scoffed at. It is an industry to be respected. But no one will know that if we don’t tell them and prove that to them day in and day out.