Trade associations are taking a leadership role in developing sustainability standards for their member companies and often leading the charge with their own association operations. One such association is the OFA. OFA is an Association of Floriculture Professionals -- a national organization of greenhouse growers, garden center operators, nurseries, retail and wholesale florists, interior plantscapers, green industry suppliers, students, and educators.
They have implemented sustainable methods in their own offices, promoted the topic in education courses and cosponsored a national conference on sustainability.
On October 29-30, 2007, the Leonardo Academy and Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) co-hosted a meeting to start soliciting stakeholder input on SCS-drafted language to create a national standard for producers and handlers (including retailers) who want to make a claim of engaging in sustainable agriculture (includes ALL crops, including greenhouse and nursery crops) practices. The intent of SCS is to get these draft standards adopted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) no later than April 2010. However, plans sometimes go awry. The US Department of Agriculture has challenged the process undertaken by Leonardo Academy.
OFA's website also provides a wealth of information about sustainable practices for their member companies.
And the OFA Short Course, July 11-14, 2009 has a theme of "Make It Your Business". The Monday sustainability sessions will cover everything from the proposed sustainability standard to methods for marketing sustainability to practical ideas for becoming more sustainable.
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