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Plants At Work
At the last NIPA executive meeting (April) it was
agreed that we require a slogan for a marketing banner under which to
promote the activities of the National Interior Plantscape Association
(NIPA), its professionalism and the need for our supply and demand
chain, our customers and clients, to better understand the economies
and benefits of interior live plants. It was decided to utilise the
same program that is operating in the United States namely "Plants
at Work". The Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA),
who cover both the exterior and interior landscapers, are currently
promoting Plants at Work as a service mark of the interior
industries growth initiative. This initiative was formed by a group of
concerned interior industry professionals who recognised that the
interior plantscape industry, while experiencing growth, could
potentially see a down turn in the future. Their initial views were
based on a member survey, which showed that the majority of interior
plantscape members felt the industry had reached a critical plateau.
This Plants at Work initiative was born in 1998 as a result of
those meetings.
The NIPA Executive believes that the mission of the Plants
at Work initiative fits well with what our Association has as its
primary goal so there is no reason to reinvent the wheel and it would
be far better from a critical mass perspective and an international
coverage to promote the Plants at Work initiative as those
three words cover all aspects of what NIPA is attempting to achieve.
The American initiative is a three to five year
national marketing campaign to educate corporate and facility managers
about the value of the interior plantscape industry.
Primarily this was a result of outcomes of the survey
namely the top three reasons for using interior plants were:
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Colour
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Employee attitude and retention
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Making an environmental statement
Almost 50% of the facility managers said that they use
interior plants in 75 to 100% of their buildings.
The 50% that were not using plants cited the following
three reasons namely:
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Cost
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Maintenance
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Lack of knowledge, which is believed to be the
case of not understanding the value of the plants.
The NIPA Executive will be working on this project
over the next six months and will keep our members informed
accordingly in our new "E" Newsletter that will be coming
out shortly as a benefit to members only. Obviously as this assists
all those operating within the boundaries of the National Interior
Plantscape Association your membership is extremely important to
support the industry that benefits everybody and do not leave it up to
the selected enthusiastic few. Please consider strongly applying for
membership in the Association that is helping you and developing the
interior plantscape industry.
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