Participating in MPS ABC and GAP programs on sustainability have helped D.S. Cole Growers in Loudon, New Hampshire, cut costs. The company recently was honored for its 10-year commitment to the programs.
Two longtime members of the Society of American Florists have been recognized by an international agency for their sustainability efforts. During Cultivate ’17, the trade show and education event last month in Columbus, Ohio, Metrolina Greenhouses in Huntersville, North Carolina, received its MPS-A certification, while D.S. Cole Growers in Loudon, New Hampshire, was honored for being a participant for MPS ABC in North America.
Metrolina’s Abe Van Wingerden and Mark Yelanich were at the conference to receive their MPS-A certificate from MPS’s CEO Yolande van den Boom.
Van den Boom also recognized D.S. Cole Growers for being a “sustainability pioneer and innovator over the past 10 years, and an inspiration for other growers.” The company was the first U.S. participant in MPS ABC, which is the environmental arm of the group that focuses on pesticides, fertilizer use and energy use. Owner Doug Cole said he was inspired to enroll in the program more than a decade ago after visiting Europe.
“I kept hearing about MPS and how this certification helped growers be more sustainable, by lowering their pesticide use and/or using more environmentally friendly pesticides,” he said. “This was originally a reaction to bad publicity about the horticulture industry in Europe. The growers got together to create the certificates to show the public that they could be good stewards of the environment.”
Working with MPS created concrete goals to work toward, Cole explained.
“This is not just about philosophy, this is about attaining a score each period and attaining an A level based on the points received,” he explained, adding that, since then, the company has also taken on the MPS GAP (Good Agriculture Practices) certification. “The process can also save our company money. For example, we receive more points by limiting our phosphorous. We then realized this is not that hard to do. We found that we can control mites without any chemical sprays and actually get better results.
We invested in a new boiler that uses the waste flue gases to pre-heat our water. Would we have done this anyway? Maybe, but our focus has changed when making decisions.”
