In Australia, the nursery and garden industry provides significant economic, cultural, social and environmental benefits to the community (NGIA, 2014). The production nurseries support a diverse array of industries and end users, including retail outlets, landscapers, cut-flower growers, orchardists, vegetable growers, interiorscapers, sustainable forestry and revegetation enterprises.
Overall, the gross value of production (GVP) of the broad 'nursery, flower and turf' industry in
Australia is A$1271 million, which is 17% of the total GVP of Australian horticultural industry (ABS, 2013).
Amenity horticulture is currently one of the fastest growing industries in Australia (NGIA, 2009). Energy use efficiency has also become increasingly important due to the increasing cost and scarcity of energy sources and also the associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions causing
global warming (Bundschuh and Chen, 2014; Chen and Baillie, 2009a). The horticultural sector contributes about 6% of the total agriculturalGHGemissions in Australia (Deuter, 2008). Nursery operators are thus under increasing pressure to reduce their energy and carbon footprint. By improving energy efficiency and using clean energy sources, the nursery industry can drive down their carbon footprint (Abeliotis et al., 2015; Beccaro et al., 2014; Lazzerini et al., 2014; Russo et al., 2008), and also simultaneously increase their bottom line
