  | The inaugural Green for Life Award will be celebrated on Oct. 20, at the 10th Anniversary Garden Party of Garden & Floral Expo. The Green for Life Award promotes, recognizes and rewards environmentally responsible retailers and growers in the horticulture and floriculture industries. Part of Landscape Ontario’s public mission, Green for Life, promotes the joys and benefits of plants and green spaces. The new award program is open to retailers, wholesalers, and growers across Canada. It is designed to raise awareness and recognize those in the grower and garden centre sectors whose actions demonstrate continuous improvement in environmental stewardship, including responsible environmental practices in the management and operations of these businesses. Strategies for successful environmental stewardship are detailed in the Environmental Scorecard, a self-evaluation tool developed by Landscape Ontario’s Environmental Stewardship Committee. By completing the Scorecard (click here), companies get a snapshot of their environmental scores, and a blueprint for progress. Now, they are also are automatically entered into the Green for Life Awards. Entries are open for the Green for Life Awards. Green industry members can now take part in a short self-assessment survey to see how their environmental practices measure up. |
Participants, who complete their scorecards by Oct. 1, will receive a graded report and be eligible to win one of three $500 cash prizes courtesy of Turf Revolution, a manufacturer of 100 per cent organic and natural turf and horticultural products.
Garden & Floral Expo takes place at the Toronto Congress Centre on Oct. 20-21, 2009. All participants are invited to the 10th Anniversary Garden Party in the Sutherland Room at 5 p.m. on Oct. 20th when the “Green for Life” winners will be announced.
Garden & Floral Expo is Canada’s fall buying show for the green and floral industries. Over 3,400 buyers will attend the expo, which showcases new products, recent plant and floral introductions and product demonstrations.
New breakfast symposia
Two new breakfast programs have been added to this year’s Garden & Floral Expo: Landscape Designers’ Breakfast and Interiorscape Breakfast. Both events include exciting speakers, great networking opportunities and admission to the trade show. The Landscape Designers’ Breakfast takes place Oct. 20th, while the Interiorscape Breakfast takes place Oct. 21st. Both events run from 8 a.m.-10 a.m. at the Toronto Congress Centre. Tickets for the breakfast series start at $25 and include free admission to the trade show.
The Landscape Designers’ breakfast will launch the first official show day. Keynote speaker, Ross Campbell will lead breakfast goers on a fascinating and exciting journey to ‘Finding the Dream Client.’ With a track record of attracting and keeping close relationships with dream clients for over 30 years, Ross brings his fresh perspective on how it’s done – one step at a time! Landscape, interior and floral designers, along with event planners and garden centre and nursery retailers should all attend this informative session.
The Interiorscape Breakfast on Oct. 21st will present keynote speaker, Robert van Aerts, vice-president, Westplant Green Facility, Plants First Choice Canada and Green Select of Mississauga. Robert will outline different approaches to the use of plants in offices in the past, present and in the future through his ‘Peering into the Future-Learning from the European Experience’ address. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Canada from the Netherlands, where he worked in the interior landscape industry for more than 25 years. Interior and exterior plant landscapers, garden centre personnel, indoor plant wholesalers/retailers and interior designers/decorators will not want to miss this event.
Detailed information and on-line registration are available at www.gardenexpo.ca. Members of Landscape Ontario, Canadian Nursery Landscape Association and Flowers Canada receive special discounts.
Each year the Garden & Floral Expo attracts in excess of 3,400 industry professionals — retailers, growers, garden centre owners, florists, gift and mass merchant retailers from Canada’s largest horticultural marketplace. The 2009 Expo is a great place to discover industry trends, attend informative workshops, source new suppliers and network with industry experts from all different sectors of the business.
