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UK Landscape and Turf Bodies seek to Enshrine Water Efficiency Credentials
- 28 June 2012
As a result of the recent positive engagement with the water industry over Temporary Use Bans, landscape and turf professional bodies are committed to embedding best practice on water efficiency amongst their members.
On 21 May, the seven water companies with Temporary Use Bans in place announced an exemption for members of professional landscape and turf bodies. This followed the record rainfall in April which had created sufficient headroom in water resources to allow the professional concession. This was of great relief to the industry, which had already seen a negative impact following the introduction of the bans.
The industry groups are currently surveying all members to more accurately capture the commercial impacts across the entire sector. However, initial feedback from turf growers demonstrates significant loss of earnings. Those questioned by the Turfgrass Growers Association have reported lost sales of between 25% and 40%, compared to the same time period last year, with some companies estimating a fall of up to 60% of sales within the affected regions.
The concession was granted partly because of the Codes of Practice drawn up and promoted by industry bodies to ensure their members use the minimum amount of water necessary, and as wisely as possible. In the most recent meeting with the water industry on 29 May, the professional bodies shared a proposal to embed best practice on water use by creating a training programme around water efficiency. The initial concept is to create an e-learning programme with input from independent experts on water-efficient techniques and equipment. This would both enshrine water efficiency within individual companies, and provide for greater water sustainability for the industry as a whole. The landscape and turf group will now work up a more formal proposal, and seek feedback from the water industry and from Waterwise, the water efficiency organisation.
The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA)
The HTA is the voice of the gardening and horticultural industry. We have 1,600 grower, retailer and landscaper members, with approximately 2,500 retail garden centres across the UK. The industry is worth £9bn per annum and provides nearly 300,000 jobs in serving the domestic market of 20 million gardeners.
The Association of Professional Landscapers (APL)
The APL was founded in 1995 as a specialist national group within the Horticultural Trades Association. APL members adhere to a strict Customer Charter and the scheme is accredited to Trustmark, the Government endorsed initiative promoting professional trades people to consumers.
British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI)
BALI is the UK's largest trade association for professional landscape designers, landscape and grounds maintenance contractors and suppliers of industry products and services. Established in 1972, and this year celebrating its Ruby anniversary, it has a membership of over 700. It is the UK's representative body within ELCA - the European Landscape Contractors Association - and uses its influence to lobby the European Parliament on EU directives that have the potential to negatively impact UK landscaping and grounds maintenance businesses.
Turfgrass Growers Association (TGA)
The Turfgrass Growers Association (TGA) is a national association of companies involved in turf production and affiliated industries such as machinery manufacturers and seed companies. It also includes stockists and distributors of turf. The industry sells around 12,000 hectares of turf per year and which is worth £360m to the UK economy. www.turfgrass.co.uk Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/TGATurfandWater
Society for Garden Design (SGD)
The SGD has membership of 1150 Garden Designers and Design and Build Companies.
The Landscape Institute
The Landscape Institute is the Royal Chartered body for landscape architects. As a professional organisation and educational charity, we work to protect, conserve and enhance the natural and built environment for the public benefit. We accredit university courses and promote professional development to ensure that landscape architects deliver the highest standards of practice. We work with government to improve the planning, design and management of urban and rural landscape. We champion landscape, and the landscape profession, through advocacy and support to our members, in order to inspire great places where people want to live, work and visit.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)
The RHS is the UK's leading gardening charity dedicated to advancing horticulture and promoting good gardening. The RHS has 380,000 members, including 12,000 professional gardeners.
The Institute of Groundsmanship
The Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG) is the leading membership organisation representing grounds managers, groundsmen, grounds maintenance managers, greenkeepers and all others involved in the management of sports pitches, landscape and amenity facilities in the UK. As well as maintaining the IOG Performance Quality Standards and providing a consultancy service for sports grounds, lawn maintenance and amenity horticulture, the IOG's extensive Training and Education programme includes cricket, football, tennis, horseracing, bowls, artificial surfaces, turf science and many other specialist subjects. It also stages the annual IOG SCOTSTURF and IOG SALTEX exhibition, Europe's leading show for the open space profession. For more information visit www.iog.org
