Oregon nurseries seek efficiencies

The Oregon Association of Nurseries and the Oregon Environmental Council in August announced the launch of a project intended to help Oregon's largest agricultural commodity, the ornamental horticulture industry, become more sustainable. The Climate Friendly Nurseries project aims to help nurseries track their energy and other resource use and then create best management practices to use them efficiently, reduce costs and lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

So far, seven nurseries, which account for 14 percent of the state’s industry, have signed on to the $200,000 demonstration project. Using a tool originally developed by project partner Ecos Consulting for wineries to track their resource use and emissions, the nurseries will catalog their energy, fuel, water and fertilizer use, says Allison Hensey, Healthy Food and Farms program director at Oregon Environmental Council.

The remainder of 2009 is expected to be spent finding efficiency opportunities, which would be implemented based on each nursery’s ability in 2010. The following year, the group plans to track resource use and emissions again to understand which efforts had the greatest effects. These results would inform best management practices to be shared with the public starting in 2012.

The Climate Friendly Nurseries project is expected to help nurseries find grants and low-interest loans to implement efficiency strategies. “Climate change will mean more expensive and more scarce energy, water and fertilizer,” Hensey says. “We’re trying to position nurseries to weather that better as businesses by using resources more efficiently before they become more scarce.”

The agricultural sector accounts for 7 percent of Oregon’s GHG emissions, Hensey says. Oregon's ornamental horticulture industry, with annual sales of nearly $1 billion, is the state's largest agricultural commodity, according to Wilsonville-based Oregon Association of Nurseries.