Here is an article from our friend Keith Harper from www.startalawncarebusiness.com

Global Warming. Carbon Footprints. Al Gore. These words are on the lips of many Americans today. As a Lawn Care Business owner, if those words are not on your lips, they should at least be on your mind.

We live in an age of environmental conservatism. I will not step foot into the debate as to whether global warming is a man-made phenomenon vs. a natural cycle which man is powerless to counteract. I will, however, make a statement that all lawn care business owners can benefit by being environmentally aware.

By the very nature of our jobs, we alter our environment. We cut grass, we shape shrubs, and we chop trees. Doing so does not have to be environmentally harmful. Smart lawn care business owners take steps to increase profitability alongside being good stewards of our Earth.

Most lawn care customers want an air of environmentalism from their lawn care provider. This isn’t to say an LCO must give each tree in their yard a name before hugging it but it does mean following conventional standards and being smart about business practices is essential.

Think for a moment how a negligent lawn care operator might damage the environment on a daily basis. Each morning he starts his 5.7 liter Chevy Van, loads his trailer noticing both tires have low air pressure, and drives to the gas station. He fills each of his 5 gallon red plastic gas containers to the rim and drives away without closing the lids completely. Arriving at his first customer’s yard, he lowers the lawn mower blades on his 22″ push lawn mower to the first position and cuts the grass as short as possible. Starting his 5 year old string trimmer is a chore and he fiddles with the fuel mixture settings. It starts with a steady stream of visible blue/grey exhaust. His leaf blower starts in a similar fashion. From excessive exhaust fumes he has breathed, he feels dizzy as he reaches for his 2.5 gallon pump sprayer. He hasn’t bothered to read the weed killer directions and just guesses how much water to add after dumping half the container into his sprayer. After this job is finished, he loads up and drives back across town knowing he will be here tomorrow to do the neighbor’s yard next door.

Wow, what a mess. Without completely tearing this guy apart, we can come up with methods of better performing his business.

Let’s begin with his van. If an LCO is doing large scale work, he probably has a Z-rider and a commercial walkbehind lawn mower or two. At this scale, it is easily understandable that he needs a trailer to haul his equipment and a large engine to pull it. The LCO in our example is just doing 1 yard with a small push lawn mower. Even if he doesn’t have another vehicle available, he can leave the trailer at home and load his lawn mower inside the van. From experience, I know a drop gate trailer can easily cost you 3 miles per gallon from wind drag and extra rolling resistance. Additionally, this guy’s tires have low air pressure. He stopped at a gas station but didn’t bother to air his tires to an acceptable psi. Under inflated tires can quickly drop fuel mileage another 2 miles per gallon.

Fuel containers are not meant to be filled to the rim. On every fuel container there is a fill line. On a 5 gallon container there is 5 gallons of volume up to that fill line. More fuel added is likely to be lost to expansion escape during heating of the day or spillage from the fuel sloshing around. Caps to these containers are often cumbersome to replace properly. Take the effort to keep them snapped securely at all times.

He cuts the grass too short. Most fescue lawns are not meant to be cut ultra short. Tall fescue grows thick when it is allowed to maintain a height of 2 1/2″ to 3″. Thick grass chokes out unwanted weeds and allows for greater drought tolerance. This, in turn, reduces need for weed killers and expensive watering during dry summer months. Speaking of weed killers, our example LCO above did not bother to read the label on his weed killer. Most weed killers will do their jobs at the prescribed mixture levels. I am not sure why we think adding an extra cup of solution to a sprayer will kill weeds faster. However, we have all done it (me included). Next time you mix weed killer, read directions and follow them carefully. You will be amazed they actually work as prescribed and you will save money by not pouring unnecessary chemicals into the earth.

His 2 cycle motors are maladjusted. Any lawn care operator in business for any amount of time knows the difficulty keeping trimmers and blowers tuned year after year. We have all fiddled with the adjustment knobs thinking we were getting it just right. Out of tune motors pour massive amounts of pollution into the atmosphere. If you have any doubt in your ability to adjust a 2 cycle motor, take your equipment to a trained technician.

The last obstacle our LCO faces is a routing problem. It pays to plan your route intelligently. If you have two customers close together, service those clients on the same day. If you have neighbors getting their grass cut, park your van or truck and do them both at the same time. Not only will you reduce travel time and additional fuel expense, you will also reduce the time it takes to load and unload your equipment.

It never ceases to amaze me that if we operate our businesses with an understanding of environmentalism, not only will we help protect our environment but we will also very often reduce expenses while increasing profitability.

Oh, there’s also one other benefit to being environmentally aware…it will keep Al Gore off all of our backs.

About the author:
Keith Harper started his lawn care business in 1992.
He runs the website: www.startalawncarebusiness.com
to provide training manuals, software, and advice to lawn care business owners.
email: LawnCareBusiness@gmail.com