How green is your garden center? Is it safe to say that green is the issue of the year? Call the category what you will -- Earth friendly, organic, sustainability -- this is a topic you will stumble across time and again. Just take a glance through our May issue. Orchard Nursery & Florist owner Tom Courtright, who likes chemicals that perform, talks about how important it is to sell organic products. Two of three of Bachman's favorite non-plant products are organic goods. And Larry Thalmann III of Chalet in the Chicago area, spoke at length about how his store is striving to operate in a more sustainable way. The green movement has fully arrived for the green industry. An Innovator's take on green Let's take a close look at what Thalmann is doing in his store. Like any retailer, he wants to make money. But I think most garden retailers will say that if money was all they'd wanted, they would have gone into another career. It took a trip to Costa Rica for Thalmann to make sustainability a focus in his store. It had always been important to him, Thalmann told me. But on that trip to Costa Rica, he and his wife took a back-roads eco adventure. As they hiked, biked, rafted and zip lined under the rainforest canopy, the Thalmanns were struck by how attentive Costa Ricans have become to their environment and to proper ecological processes. "On the plane ride home, I realized it's something we need to be aware of. What better proponent is there for this than someone like us in the green industry?" Thalmann said. During that plane ride, Thalmann asked himself what Chalet was doing already. "Like any other good garden center, we have organic goods. The lawn-care division has a full complement of organic treatments." But he knew they could go further. Last year, Chalet converted its fleet of diesel trucks to biodiesel. The store recycles as well. Movie and a cause Say what you will about Al Gore, his movie based on global warming has won widespread respect, including Thalmann's. He plans to air "An Inconvenient Truth" on three occasions for his employees. He'll serve popcorn, and as a concession to the pre-store hours when it will play, donuts. "I want to make it clear I'm not trying to sell Al Gore," Thalmann said. "I thought one of the most telling things was his chart on how CO2] is relative to temperatures. Yes, there are cycles, but when you look at modern-day levels, it far exceeds anything in history. It's pretty frightening. "We're not tree huggers," Thalmann said. "We don't confess to be squeaky clean, holier than thou. But we do profess to be conscious of it and do what we can about it." Send this article to a friend Enter your e-mail address: Enter your friend's e-mail address: Click the image below to send: © 2007 Branch-Smith Publishing