MPS Expands Certification to Garden Centers

The international organization MPS announced last week that from June 1, 2010, the environmental scorecard MPC-ABC is also available for garden centers. For 15 years growers worldwide have been certifying their operations on sustainability with the levels MPS-A, B or C. Now MPS has developed an MPS-ABC program for garden centers. Several existing MPS members in the United States, who have both production facilities and garden centers, had already requested the ability to certify their retail operations.

Participants can easily add the garden center as an additional registration to their current accounts, which gives them the opportunity to show the sustainability of their garden centers. Among the parameters that have to be recorded are use of chemicals, energy, water, and the recycling of used plastic and paper.

MPS participant Doug Cole from DS Cole Growers explains why they have requested for an expansion of the MPS-ABC for their garden center: “Since we are certified as an MPS grower, we are able to show out wholesale customers that our products are grown in a sustainable manner. Our customers can then use this information to show the consumer that they are purchasing sustainably grown. When it comes to our garden center, we will now take on the new MPS program focused on garden centers. With the new program geared specifically for garden centers, we will be able to add more legitimacy to our actions and to our marketing.”

To learn more about MPS, please visit www.my-mps.com.