Assessing environmental sustainability of ornamental plant production: a nursery level approach in Pistoia District, Italy

Ornamental plant production exerts considerable impacts on the surrounding environment. To assess the environmental sustainability within this sector, a set of impact indicators, which refer to specific management issues in environmental terms, was selected. By comparing the indicators with sustainable thresholds, we assessed the environmental sustainability of a pool of nurseries growing plants in container production (CP) and in open field production (FP) located in the Pistoia Nursery District of the Tuscany Region. Because of their peculiar production structure, the CP nurseries impacted the environment more than the FP nurseries, and hence need more improvements to reach the minimum level of environmental sustainability.