Mike's Blog

The City of Richmond, Virginia's Department of Urban Forestry and Grounds Management has created a great Adopt-A-Tree program that I think could benefit urban areas throughout the country. For a $50 tax-deductible donation you can adopt a tree to be planted by the city. Additionally participants agree to water the tree for the first two years.

Included in the $50 donation is a "Treegator"installed by the contractor. A "Treegator is essentially a drip irrigation system in a bag. Designed specifically for trees, it slowly delivers water directly to a trees' root system over an extended period of time; allowing for deep water saturation with no runoff or evaporation.

I learned about this program after some research into why the city had tagged several trees for removal. In urban areas trees offer shade, food for animals and birds(something severely lacking in many cities) and of course free oxygen. So I had to question why the city would be removing well established trees. I was somewhat relieved to find out the trees were indeed being replaced through the Adopt-A-Tree program.

This is a great program- if your urban leaders are not doing this- I would push for it. If only 10% of the major urban localities across the country would institute a program like this- imagine how many new trees we could plant. Think big...

It seems every summer I hear of more and more localities imposing water restrictions. There have been several articles written about the coming water crisis. So whats the concerned landscaper/gardner to do?

Check out rainwater harvesting. I remember as a kid, I had family that farmed for their food. And they always harvested their rainwater. So you can say they did it before it was cool.  Rainwater harvesting is a easy and practical approach to reducing your city water bill or well water use for landscaping.   Water can be stored to supplement irrigation with city or well water.  I plan on adding a few to my house this winter to supplement my irrigation.

Rainwater harvesting systems can range from the very simple to overly complicated. A simple system consists of a barrel, many times an old whiskey barrel made to fit existing gutters. They typically have have a crude screen filter to screen out large sediment. I would also recommend an overflow valve that drains back into the gutter system in the case you get an extremely large rainfall. If you're really ambitious you can link 2 or 3 barrels together to store more water. In order to utilize the water- you would want a hose bib fitted to the bottom of the barrels.  It also helps if the barrels are elevated somewhat to aid in the gravity flow without having to use pumps. 

More complex sytems exists that utilize huge cisterns with pumps and filtrations systems that are designed to supplement the entire household water supply or systems that use rainwater for toilet flushing.  These systems add considerable cost but also help to make the building less dependent on city water grid...saving water...and money.

But quite honestly- adding a rain barrel or two can go a long way to decrease your dependency on city water supplies. This is a very sustainable option that helps us live off of what we already have without using more resources. I never thought I could learn something from my family of farmers- but I guess they understood sustainability long before I realized its importance.

If any of you have any experience with rain barrels or any other rainwater harvesting system- I'd love to hear your experiences.

There have been a ton of articles written about Guerrilla marketing. If you need an explantion of guerrilla marketing search the ActiveRain blogs- there are tons of references to it. For those EcoBrokers and others trying to reach the green niche here are a few ideas for you:

1. Recylced door hangers: Spend a couple hours a week walking your target area leaving door hangers. Make sure your printer is utilizing recyced paper and that fact is printed on the hanger along with your message.

2. Post-it Notes: 3M just came out with a line of 100% recycled Post-It Notes. Have your printer print your message on Post-It notes and leave them on car windows(they come off easily), on mailboxes, etc.

3. Seminars: Offer seminars on improving energy efficiency, eco friendy cleaning products, waterless landscaping. Partner with Green businesses and have your speakers come from those businesses. Offer a benefit to your target market- dont try to sell to them at the seminars. Make it a monthly event.

4. Keep CFL's in your car: When you meet a prospect to show a home, or get introduced to a potential client- give them a Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb with your business card attached.You can usually buy a bulk order of CFL's for $1.00- 1.25.

5. Green Topic-of-the-month: generate a list of green topics and distribute a monthly flyer that discusses a green topic (i.e. improving indoor air quality, No VOC Paint reviews, How to test your insulation, Testing for Radon).

Richmond agents...what are your thoughts on green marketing in Richmond? Is the Richmond mass market ready for terms such as sustainable, eco, green, IAQ, etc?

Here's my thoughts- in Richmond we must take the green language out of green marketing. We must instead focus on the benefits provided by being green and leave the jargon behind. Instead of marketing "environmentally friendly"...market energy saving....instead of marketing "Sustainably built cabinets" market healthy homes made in formaldahyde free cabinets that eliminates off-gassing. These are just two examples- my point...take the jargon out and focus on the benefits.