Green: Color of the Year Every Year

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Need one more reason to believe that green is in the hearts and minds of your customers right now?

The Pantone Color Institute just named greenery as the 2017 color of the year.

What this means for those of you who don’t follow the color authority’s annual announcement is that this shade – a fresh yellow-green – is expected to appear prominently in fashion, products, designs and everyday life this year, as well as reflect consumers’ prevailing mood and sentiments.

“Very stressful and very tense,” is how Leatrice Eiseman, Pantone Color Institute’s executive director, describes the mood of the world in which we currently live.

Greenery as a response to this is “the color of hopefulness and of our connection with nature.”

Greenery speaks to regeneration, refreshment, revitalization and renewal, Eiseman explains. “Every spring we enter a new cycle and new shoots come from the ground,” she says. “It is something life affirming to look forward to.”

This is not new news to us in the landscape industry. What maybe even Pantone doesn’t realize is how many more benefits come from the color green.

Being in nature, or even viewing scenes of nature, reduces anger, fear and stress and increases pleasant feelings. Exposure to nature not only makes us feel better emotionally, it contributes to our physical wellbeing, reducing blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension and the production of stress hormones. It may even reduce mortality, according to scientists and public health researchers.

One of the most intriguing areas of current research is the impact of nature on general wellbeing. In one study in Mind, 95 percent of those interviewed said their mood improved after spending time outside, changing from depressed, stressed and anxious to more calm and balanced. Other studies show that time in nature or scenes of nature are associated with a positive mood and psychological wellbeing, meaningfulness and vitality.

Most of us today live in cities and spend far less time outside in green, natural spaces than people did several generations ago. Creating and maintaining backyard pockets of greenery is essential to your clients’ wellbeing.

Green is in our DNA. It’s not just this year’s color; it’s every year’s color.