Firstly, if you've not nominated your dealership or a member of your staff for a Service Dealer award yet, today is your final, final day to do so!
The team extended the deadline from last Friday until now (October 15th) due to receiving a flurry of late entries after publicising the closing date last week. In order for entries to be supported by any assets such as images and video, an extra week was granted.
However, I'm reliably informed that's it now! There can't be any more extensions after today I'm afraid. So please, if you would like to be involved, get your nominations in today. You know just how hard - and how smart - you and your team have worked during these past 18 months, so why not get your dealership in the running for public acknowledgement of that?
Having that award hanging on your wall and displayed on your website is another tool in your arsenal to let your customers know just what great customer service you are committed to delivering.
Also we shouldn't forget that the job of the dealership is to ultimately contribute to the care and improvement of our natural environment - and that's something that deserves praise and celebration.
Value of green space maintenance
Related to this notion, I heard from a couple of respected sources this week emphasising just how crucial it is, the upkeep of our gardens and urban green spaces.
Firstly, I read some strong words from the The Lawn Association, stressing how vital naturally grassed areas are, especially for biodiversity.
David Hedges Gower, the founder of the Lawn Association issued a statement saying, "Remove your lawn, and you instantly reduce your garden’s biodiversity. It’s as simple - and as devastating - as that. So, if you replace your lawn with plastic grass or hard core, you remove the habitat, food and safety of numerous creatures above and below ground. And when they go, so too do the other animals that rely on them."
David went on to state that lawns also help to maintain healthy soil, another vital part of the ecosystem as well as contributing to making garden air healthier. "So, with modern lawn care so easy, quick and free of plastics and toxic chemicals," David explained, "maintaining your lawn is one of the best things you can do to make sure your garden supports our imperilled biodiversity."
This principal of maintaining natural green in our urban environments, was one that I also heard plenty about in an online presentation I attended. Husqvarna's HUGSI initiative (which stands for Husqvarna Urban Green Space Index) is the manufacturer's attempt at measuring how green worldwide urban areas are. Its ambition is to not just quantify these spaces, but to help safeguard and improve their maintenance. A job for which specialist dealers are integral.
The company have been running the initiative for five years now, so they have acquired enough data to pose the question are our cities getting any greener? Unfortunately the answer appeared to be 'not really'. During the period that HUGSI has been measuring urban green space it seems that the greened area of the cities they hold data on, has pretty much stayed the same. If anything, said Husqvarna, there had been a small (0.08%) drop from green to hard spaces.
Whilst this isn't horrendous news and the percentage figure is rather small, that does actually equate to a significant real-world loss of green space. Hopefully with a system like HUGSI monitoring and publicising these losses though, awareness of what that means for our wider ecosystems will stay towards the forefront of public consciousness.
Also one would like to hope it can contribute to keeping the notion of greening up our cities, high on the political agenda - at both local and national levels. Any successes for campaigns such as this, can only be positive news for dealers of domestic and commercial equipment - which alongside a genuine altruism, will be Husqvarna's raison d'être for creating the initiative.
In the past, the machines used for urban green maintenance might have been accused of exacerbating environmental problems, what with their emission levels and high noise outputs. However, dealers know only too well that argument can be somewhat countered today via the advancements that have been made with both the cleanliness of petrol products and, more obviously, with the proliferation of battery and robotic machinery.
Increased legislation
With legislation becoming ever-keener for environmental stewardship tools, manufacturers will be forced to keep these technological advances coming through dealer showrooms. A case in point, I read with interest this week that California is to pass a law banning the sale of new petrol (or gas as they would say) lawn care care equipment - perhaps as soon as 2024.
Specifically banning equipment using "small off-road engines", it's a broad category that includes generators, lawn equipment and pressure washers. California's Governor, Gavin Newsom, has signed off on the new rule which could come into force by January 1, 2024, or as soon as regulators determine is "feasible," whichever date is later.
I remember speaking to the OPEI's head Kris Kiser a couple of years ago who told me this move was coming down the line. He also said that what California do in terms of environmental legislation, the rest of the US tends to subsequently follow. And then potentially, the rest of the world?
Progressive dealers however, are already embracing the move to more environmentally friendly machinery - and know that it is inevitable that further shifts of what types of product are on display in the showroom will be required in the coming years.
Getting ahead of that curve now, must be good business?
