The Climate Friendly Nurseries Project

We’re pleased to announce that the Oregon Environmental Council (OEC) and the Oregon Association of Nurseries have launched a unique partnership –the Climate Friendly Nurseries project. This is a common sense initiative to demonstrate operational efficiency and the wise use of resources. We hope to show that the very steps that lead to long-term costs savings in nursery operations also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Climate Friendly Nurseries project will help nurseries use energy and other resources more efficiently, reduce costs, and lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while achieving greater economic efficiency and profitability.

"By the end of this project, we'll know what types of things our growers are already doing that constitute sustainable practices and what sorts of things we can do to improve our current practices," said John Aguirre, Executive Director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries.

 Through the Climate Friendly Nurseries project, Oregon nurseries can quantify their energy and resource use and greenhouse gas emissions, and identify specific ways to reduce them. The project team will help participating nurseries secure grants, low interest loans and tax credits for energy and resource efficiency upgrades, and provide technical assistance for the upgrades. Ecos Consulting and Oregon State University will serve as resources for the Climate Friendly Nurseries project. The project starts in August 2009 and will run through 2012.

 Eleven nurseries have already committed to participating in the project, representing about a fifth of the industry. Participants will collect and enter data into an online tool created for this project by Ecos Consulting. The tool inventories energy, fuel, fertilizer and use of other resources, and measures that use and related GHG emissions. These measurements will allow the project team to identify cost-effective opportunities to become more energy efficient and to reduce the use of other resources. Inventories will be conducted after participating nurseries have taken steps to become more efficient. This will enable the team to identify the most effective best management practices to reduce GHG emissions, and those that provide the most cost savings to nurseries.

Lessons learned from the Climate Friendly Nurseries project will be shared with other nurseries. This project builds on the experience of OEC and Ecos consulting in leading the Carbon Neutral Challenge for Oregon wineries with the Oregon Wine Board. Additional information is available at www.climatefriendlynurseries.org.

The participating nurseries include:

• Bailey Nurseries Inc.
• Blooming Nursery Inc., Cornelius, OR
• Brooks Tree Farm, Salem, OR
• Evans Farms, Oregon City, OR
• Eshraghi Nurseries LLC, Hillsboro, OR
• Fisher Farms, Dayton, OR
• Heritage Seedlings, Salem, OR
• J Frank Schmidt & Son, Boring, OR
• Monrovia, Dayton, OR
• Northwoods Nursery, Mollalla, OR
• Tree Frog Nursery, Silverton, OR

Project Timeline

The Climate Friendly Nurseries project begins in August 2009 and will run through 2012.

2009:

• August 2009: identify all CFN project participants, launch project.
• Sept 2009: Project planning, create GHG inventory tool for nurseries.
• October 2009– Jan 2010: participating nurseries conduct data collection and entry into inventory tool to measure energy and resource use and GHG emissions.

2010:

• Feb 2010: Measurements completed for participating nurseries.
• Identify and develop best management practices to increase input efficiency and reduce GHG emissions, and identify incentives and technical assistance to enable adoption.
• Nurseries begin implementation of best management practices of their choosing and continue to input data for 2010.

2011:

• Continue data collection among participating nurseries
• Continue GHG inventory for participating nurseries to assess effectiveness of best management practices in reducing energy and other input use, lowering GHG emissions and increasing efficiency. Assess cost-effectiveness of best management practices.

2012:

• Draft findings from project and share results with industry. Data for individual nurseries will be kept anonymous unless specific permission is given by participating nurseries.