Green companies eager to grow support, workers

TURNING LEAVES: Jose Velasquez, of Bartlett Tree Experts, prunes bushes and trees at a home in Portsmouth. The company's regional manager, Chris Fletcher, would like to see the arborist industry grow in R.I. / PBN PHOTO/CHRIS SHORES
TURNING LEAVES: Jose Velasquez, of Bartlett Tree Experts, prunes bushes and trees at a home in Portsmouth. The company's regional manager, Chris Fletcher, would like to see the arborist industry grow in R.I. / PBN PHOTO/CHRIS SHORES

Chris Fletcher, manager for the Westerly to Newport region at Bartlett Tree Experts, loves to see interns from the University of Rhode Island come each semester, eager to work and learn within the arborist industry.
But he hates to see them go, which they inevitably do, he said, for greener pastures across state lines. “When they figure out the situation, they put in for a transfer. The draw for more money is elsewhere [and] we find it hard to hold good, quality people,” Fletcher said. “It’s this cyclical, downward spiral of holding ourselves in the same place all the time.”
Fletcher is talking about the green industry – in this case businesses in the field of garden, lawn, golf course and park installation and maintenance – a low-profile industry in the Ocean State with limited government support.
But that doesn’t have to be the case, according to the Rhode Island Nursery & Landscape Association, a South Kingstown member organization of horticultural, agricultural and landscape businesses ranging from vegetable and flower growers to landscape architects and designers, as well as arborists and nurseries.
The association, with the help of several partners and state agencies, recently published a preliminary 2012 economic-impact study that reported that the sector is a $1.7 billion industry in the state.
“This is really the first time that all these groups came together and said you know, it’s time that we show Rhode Islanders that we are a significant part of the [state’s] economy,” said Shannon Brawley, the association’s executive director. “What we want to do is show that we are not invisible.”
The idea is that the study, for which data was collected and analyzed by Tom Sproul, an assistant professor in environmental and natural economics at the University of Rhode Island, will lead to active engagement with state lawmakers in order to facilitate better green-business planning and resource protection.
Only preliminary findings so far have been released, though a final version is expected soon.
Agriculture, according to the study, isn’t even the biggest piece of the green industry. Of the $1.7 billion in impact, just $268.2 million is attributed to the agricultural sector. The biggest generator is landscaping, which is said to contribute $573.3 million, followed by retail supply and florists at $510.3 million. Golf courses were reported to contribute $265.3 million, and other industries made up the remaining $178.9 million.
Landscaping also contributes the greatest portion of the industry’s 12,370 jobs, at 4,010. Golf courses provide 2,810 jobs and retail supply provides 2,460. Agriculture contributes 2,330.
And the numbers may be conservative, says Tim Cole, senior strategy and research manager at the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, who served the study in a technical advisory role.
That’s because not every green-related industry was considered in the study.
While most such surveys, Sproul said, use a population sample and statistical methods to calculate data, this study did a “bottom-up approach” by counting numbers at the business level.
“[The green industry] was being severely undercounted by these traditional methods and [it wasn’t] working in Rhode Island,” Sproul said. “Obviously, we didn’t count every business, but we got a much larger sample than has been done in any previous study.”
To that end, some sectors, including forestry and wood products, were not included because Sproul could not achieve “good information” on them but the study was able to encapsulate indirect economic contributors within the industries that other studies have not.
The study was built off a survey originally started between the RINLA and the Rhode Island Turf Grass Foundation that found funding through the R.I. Department of Environmental Management’s farm viability grant program. Sproul hopes that similar funding can be secured to expand on the study and maintain an industry database that will keep such numbers current.
Increasing awareness of the need to protect the land that provides green-related industry jobs and revenue is a top priority going forward for all organizations involved.
“[The industry] receives little play and it’s not well-understood,” said Ken Ayers, division chief at DEM. “There is a very direct connection between our natural resources and the economy, which is substantial. That’s the one thing this report clearly shows.” •

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