Evergreen Foundation Reaches First Goal

NEW PRAGUE, Minn. – The Evergreen Foundation (EF), an alliance of green industry associations and companies providing products and services to the public, has exceeded its targeted goal of $200,000 in seed money. The EF intends to create a national marketing campaign to consumers throughout the United States to promote the economic, environmental and lifestyle benefits of healthy landscapes and green spaces at home, work and play.

The EF re-organized in June with a national meeting in Minnesota. It reached its fundraising goal of $200,000 in seed money before Labor Day to get the organization off the ground. That goal was met in about 60 days.

“We feel strongly about educating the public about the importance of healthy landscapes and green spaces,” says Dale Amstutz, president of the Evergreen Foundation board of directors. “We are gratified that end-user associations and industry suppliers see the value of what we're doing to grow and expand the market.”

Careful use of pesticides and fertilizers, prudent use of water, managing noise and air pollution are among the issues the EF plans to tackle in its campaign. There are coordinated activist efforts in such areas as Canada to New York state, Minnesota and western states to curtail or even eliminate pesticides and fertilizers, severely restrict the use of water and lawns and other efforts detrimental to the green industry and consumers, the foundation believes. The marketing campaign will be aimed at highlighting the positive economic, environmental and lifestyle benefits resulting from creating and maintaining healthy landscapes and green spaces.

The companies and associations that have provided initial funding for this campaign are: the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA), Bayer Environmental Science, John Deere Worldwide Commercial & Consumer Equipment Division, Dow AgroSciences, GIE Media, Inc., Griffin LLC, Lawn Doctor, LESCO, Syngenta, The Davey Tree Expert Company, The Professional Lawn Care Association of America (PLCAA), The Scotts Co., The Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA), The Toro Co., Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA), Trusty & Associates, Turfgrass Producers International (TPI), and Weed Man USA.

A number of other companies and associations are also committed to being part of this alliance, but have yet to determine their level of financial or in-kind services commitment.

“We have a tremendous amount of work ahead,” says Den Gardner, executive director. “This is one step in a long journey to communicate to consumers through one voice. This first-of-its-kind effort can go a long way to demonstrating the long-term economic and environmental advantages consumers have by creating and maintaining healthy landscapes and green spaces.”

Over the course of the next year, the EF will initiate a fundraising campaign to finance the communications effort by working with end-users and service providers in the industry. It plans to implement a consumer communications campaign in the fourth quarter of 2004 or early in 2005.

“Now that the organization is funded for a year, we need to develop an innovative funding formula and recognition levels to do the kind of national campaign that gets us the biggest bang for the dollars invested,” Gardner continues. “We have a fairly clear idea of how much is needed to do a national campaign. We need the major support of end-users - those companies with their local businesses at stake - to step forward and endorse our plan.”

For more information about the EF, please call 1-800-758-4835 or e-mail evergreenfound@aol.com.