OPPORTUNITIES WITH SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPES

In the early winter months of every year things slow down enough for me to catch up on some office work and take a bit of time to attend industry events. The late winter/early spring of 2010 had several pond/landscape industry seminars traveling the country and one seminar, “Creating Opportunity with sustainable Landscapes” being held by Ed Beaulieu of Aquascape Inc., came into my area. I always seize an opportunity to see Ed Beaulieu speak, and often times have the opportunity to work with Ed on projects he builds around the country.
Ed is the Chief Sustainability Officer for Aquascape Inc. His focus currently, is on product development for Aquascape Inc. to keep them at the forefront of today’s market in creating sustainable landscapes, with a heavy emphasis on water conservation. The seminar tackles many sustainability issues and technical data in a way that allows the landscape professionals who are attending; to digest the technical information in a way that the landscape professional can then bring these concepts and approaches to a level that the typical homeowner can now understand and implement on their own properties.
It is generally agreed that water is, if not currently, will be the biggest resource challenge that the planet will deal with in the near and distant future. Water is the new oil, and our grandkids could potentially see wars over water in place of today’s wars over oil. Water is becoming exceedingly scarce and highly regulated in many parts of the world. Even here in our own backyards, we see that attitudes have changed about everyday water use, laws are changing too. Soon all new construction may/will be required to keep stormwater ON their properties instead of sending it out to our sewers and local waterways. We will become rainwater harvesters by choice or by law. So with this knowledge in hand and changes on the horizon, what do we do?
We educate ourselves, and make the changes we need to make. That is why this seminar is so valuable for landscape, sustainability, and water harvesting professionals to be a part of. This seminar event helps to equip the professional to handle this burgeoning market of the green economy by presenting the current state of sustainability practices, upcoming possibilities of how sustainability will affect the landscape industry, and how to take advantage and prepare for the future service demands the public and private sector will have. The seminar provides listings of resources from reading material to websites and groups, discussion of current and developing projects to be aware of, and discussion of materials and equipment in use and development, that the landscape professional can easily adapt to their current service offerings; opening a whole new revenue stream to their businesses. It is also a golden opportunity to network with other like minded professionals.
Ed Beaulieu’s one day presentation is engaging, thought provoking, and informative; done with a sense of humor about a very serious topic for many of us. Not to mention, a few interesting tangents always pop up when Ed is at the head of the discussion. The attendees will leave with resources available to them for: information, materials, training, and a whole lot to think about. In the world of professionals who deal with water issues be it from ornamental use to stormwater management, rainwater harvesting to general sustainability Ed Beaulieu is a gem in this industry. I recommend this seminar highly and will always take the opportunity to spend some time with Ed; you’ll always leave with a bit more than you came with.
To see Ed Beaulieu’s upcoming seminars and topics go to www.aquascapeinc.com for scheduling.