Strange Bedfellows

Less than a year after introducing its QualityPro Green certification, the National Pest Management Association is dropping it in favor of a more stringent green pest management program called GreenPro.

The new program, unveiled earlier this summer, is due in part to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) dissatisfaction with QualityPro Green. “We were not very happy about the program that was rolled out late last year,” said Jonathan Kaplan, senior policy advisor at NRDC, which has long influenced the pesticide registration process and helped pass the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996.

But instead of falling into former roles as antagonists, NPMA and NRDC agreed to talk. “We took our concerns to NPMA,” said Kaplan. The industry group responded by saying, “Those are good suggestions. We want to make this program better,” he recalled.

The upshot is a “single, coherent, tough, national green standard” that better minimizes pesticide exposure risk and sets participating pest management companies apart in the marketplace, said Bob Rosenberg, NPMA senior vice president of government affairs.

“It’s a pretty serious standard,” said Kaplan. “In the long run it’s going to help the industry perfect Integrated Pest Management solutions.”

GreenPro certification replaces QualityPro Green on Jan. 1. The 70 QualityPro Green companies and 70 pending applicants have until that date to transition to the new standards. GreenPro certification is a voluntary program available to QualityPro members.

AN UNLIKELY PAIRING. No one’s more surprised by the NPMA-NRDC dialogue than the parties themselves. “We didn’t expect to be here in October of last year,” admitted Kaplan.

“To be honest, we were kind of skeptical,” said Rosenberg, who recalled getting NRDC’s call following the launch of QualityPro Green in September 2008. The environmental group wanted to learn more and NPMA walked NRDC staffers through the program. The best outcome, Rosenberg hoped, would be “they won’t give us a black eye.”

In late October, NRDC staff contacted Rosenberg and said they’d like to find a way to get behind the program — “which was kind of startling,” Rosenberg said — but first they would need to see some changes. The two groups agreed to talk further and began working together in earnest in December.

 NRDC sought changes to four parts of the program, and in three of the four “we pretty much agreed with them,” said Rosenberg.

The first was semantic and a simple rewrite made it clear certified companies that provide the green service are mandated to follow program standards.

NRDC also wanted independent, third-party field audits. “We agreed that we needed to beef up the auditing program,” said Rosenberg. This issue also had surfaced when QualityPro was launched six years ago, he said.

The field audit is the “most noticeable change” to the program, said NPMA Executive Vice President Rob Lederer. Companies will be field audited every five years in addition to a paper audit conducted within the first year of joining the program. The field audit increases the certification’s credibility with consumers shopping for green service providers, said Lederer.

This issue was a challenge to solve, however, because it involved expenses, Rosenberg explained. The field audit will cost professionals $600 for the corporate office and $300 for each branch office evaluated. Fifteen percent of branch offices, not to exceed 30 offices, will be randomly audited to ensure compliance throughout an organization.

The audit process is “one of the cornerstones” of the program, said Tom Brennan, chief of environmental stewardship at the U.S. EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs. It “makes me optimistic that they’re going to pull this off over time.”

The third change was having outside industry representation on the program’s advisory board. NRDC wants to ensure “we walk our talk” and that’s a “reasonable expectation for their endorsement,” said NPMA’s Lederer. Eventually the association agreed to bring in experts from consumer, health, environment and government organizations. The resulting GreenPro advisory board is a “very different kind of a committee than we’ve ever had before,” said Rosenberg.

Dave Tamayo, environmental specialist for the County of Sacramento’s storm water program, commended NPMA on electing committee members with a “very different mindset.”

“Once we realized we had common goals, it really opened the door to making progress on this,” Tamayo said.

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Fast Facts
Organization: Natural Resources Defense Council
Headquarters: New York, N.Y.
Year Founded: 1970
Mission: To safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life depends.
Type of Organization: Not-for profit, tax-exempt environmental action group
Leadership: Frances Beinecke, president; Pete Lehner, executive director; Patricia F. Sullivan, deputy director; Wesley Warren, director of programs; and Felicia Marcus, western director
Staff: 300+ lawyers, scientists and policy experts
Supporters: 1.2 million members and e-activists
Offices: New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Beijing
Web site: www.nrdc.org
Source: www.nrdc.org

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Current members include EPA’s Brennan; University of Florida Entomologist and IPM expert Faith Oi; Sacramento County’s Tamayo; NRDC’s Kaplan; and non-voting member Chris Geiger, manager of green purchasing & Integrated Pest Management programs at the San Francisco Department of the Environment. These people would not be associated with the program “if it were a greenwashing effort,” said Tamayo.

Representing the industry is New England Pest Management Association Past President Bill Siegel; Clark Pest Control Operations Manager Robert Baker; Terminix Vice President of Service Fred Strickland; Rottler Pest & Lawn Solutions President Mike Rottler; ABC Pest, Pool and Lawn Services and NPMA President Raleigh Jenkins; and NPMA’s Lederer.

Ten years ago groups like the NRDC were considered the enemy, reminded Rottler. Through “open dialogue” they’re starting to “understand us better” and the value the industry brings to consumers, he said. “If we can find some common ground we end up helping the consumer and doing a better job for the environment, so maybe we do need each other.”

Brennan, who brings EPA’s perspective on IPM and regulatory issues to the committee, said input from different stakeholders will move the program closer to achieving its goals. “I think it’s smart of NPMA to set up a diverse team like that to get feedback and allow themselves to be influenced from a few different directions.”

“We’re not going to agree on everything; We all realize that,” said Kaplan, but the advisory committee’s make up is a “significant step forward.”

NRDC’s last request — for an approved products list — almost ended talks. Besides being difficult for an association to approve and disapprove members’ product choices, creating a toxicity rating system isn’t “sound” because “there are dozens of different ways to think about toxicity,” Rosenberg said.

NPMA countered that the program had never been about toxicity reduction, but rather reducing the risk of pesticide exposure. If NRDC dropped this requirement, NPMA would tighten standards to eliminate or minimize exposure. NRDC agreed “which I think was a real breakthrough,” Rosenberg recalled. The resulting three treatment steps rely on sanitation, harborage reduction, and physical, mechanical, cultural and biological controls; contained baits; crack and crevice applications of gel, dust, and low-pressure, low-VOC liquid formulations, and spot treatments using EPA-exempt products or, indoors, insect growth regulators. Professionals can make exceptions to these steps only with the written or verbal permission of the customer. Firms with a history of making “exceptions” as found during the audit process risk losing certification.

Because of this, the product scorecard and worksheets used by California professionals under QualityPro Green will be eliminated.

The program reflects “a lot of the things we’ve learned from each other over the years,” said Brennan, noting NPMA’s long-standing membership in EPA’s Pesticide and Environmental Stewardship Program.

A major challenge will be getting customers to recognize the value of doing their part in managing pests, said Sacramento County’s Tamayo. It’s “going to take a lot of education,” and the program recognizes that upfront, he said.

GreenPro was designed to be fluid and professionals can expect changes moving forward, committee members said.

KEY DIFFERENCES. So how much different is GreenPro from QualityPro Green? It depends on who’s talking. According to Kaplan, the new program incorporates “substantial revisions.” But Rosenberg said, “No one’s going to be shocked,” though it will require in-house training to bring employees up to speed on the new standards. “It’s not something that will or could occur overnight,” he explained.

Companies already offering green services won’t find GreenPro certification difficult because they “have the culture in place,” said Siegel. That’s the case for members of the New England Pest Management Association’s IPM Registry, which is merging into GreenPro, he said. “We’re well on the way to getting everybody on board.”

As for the audit process, Rottler said it’s an opportunity to “learn some things” to improve service and increase value to the consumer.

GreenPro is not for every company or customer, but for firms offering green pest management, “this is a way to do it with a third-party endorsement,” said Lederer.

Tamayo feels more strongly. Professionals “who choose not to go this route eventually will find they’re being left behind,” he said.

TAKING CHARGE. The industry never took ownership of IPM 25 years ago, said Rosenberg. With green pest management, “we don’t want to make the same mistake.”

GreenPro defines what the industry says is green and creates a “uniform system” so everyone is “on the same page” when providing and regulating green pest management, said Siegel.

“When everybody says they do IPM, you need a certification like this,” said Kaplan. “There’s a real need to distinguish legitimate green services.”

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Market Demand for GreenPro
NPMA’s GreenPro certification gives professionals “a meaningful credential” to take to the marketplace to tap into demand, said Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Policy Advisor Jonathan Kaplan.

And demand is there. According to an October 2007 Harris Interactive poll commissioned by NPMA, 76 percent of adults prefer to eliminate pest problems in their homes with “green” products, and 64 percent would pay more for products or services that are environmentally friendly. In addition, 61 percent seek out pest control services they perceive as “green,” and 82 percent want the products they use at home to be safe for the environment. But those products also must be extremely effective since efficacy is critical to customer satisfaction, regardless of the target pest.

Green pest management doesn’t make up a large part of Rottler Pest & Lawn Solutions’ business but President Mike Rottler is getting “more and more requests” for the service. One example: The service “opened a door that probably wouldn’t have gotten opened” with a customer who was dissatisfied with the results of a single service but hesitant to sign up for a conventional quarterly program.

“Community Integrated Pest Management is a big part of the future” from EPA’s perspective, said Tom Brennan, chief of environmental stewardship at the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs. GreenPro is “a very good fit.”

While four of five homeowners don’t know what IPM is and the fifth can’t explain it, according to public opinion research commissioned by the Professional Pest Management Alliance, “green” does have meaning to them, said Rottler. “When we talk about green, we’re creating a dialogue with the consumer at a better level than we have in the past.”

To help professionals market the re-branded certification, NPMA has developed a marketing hit list, sales talking points, press release template, consumer brochure, door hanger, service ticket and sales contract. It also created a consumer Web site — www.certifiedgreenpro.org.

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Time will judge GreenPro’s success, Brennan said. A lot will come down to how the program’s run and if it’s well adopted. He’s optimistic that NPMA is “on the right path.”

Rosenberg is even more optimistic. “I truly believe this is a game-changer for the pest management industry.”

The author is a frequent contributor to PCT. She can be reached at anagro@giemedia.com.