The other day, I was talking to a garden center manager about America in Bloom. The manager knew of the program, but when I asked why they had not brought the program to the city, the manager replied, "I don't want to come across as self-serving." "Self-serving?" I asked. When he replied, "Well, it could help my sales," I countered, "And the lives of all your fellow citizens!"
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Congratulations to the winners of the inaugural "Planting Pride Photo Contest: Capturing the Spirit of America in Bloom" sponsored by GIE Media and AIB. The photo contest was designed to celebrate efforts to beautify and improve communities. The photos represent efforts in the residential, municipal, and business sectors to showcase floral displays, landscaped areas, urban forestry, environmental efforts, heritage preservation, overall impression, and community involvement. 
A London-based company was recently granted the first industrial-scale cradle to cradle demonstration grant. What's cradle-to-cradle, you ask? It's a business model that takes products that might have otherwise been contributed to a landfill and use them to make new products that can again be recycled - a method that not only reduces greenhouse emissions, but also reduces cost. The demonstrator will turn by-products from an office park into an aggregate material that can be used as a green roof drainage substitute, a job typically reserved for gravel. 
If you think about it, a number of the problems we see in today's urban sprawls can be directly attributed to its citizens losing touch with nature. Whether it's confronting obesity head-on by encouraging outdoor activities or even simply touting the mental health benefits of being outdoors, the effects of a nature-based city are real (and sometimes tangible). 
