Fun Companies, Interesting People

I have heard some statistics recently that really made me think twice about lawn care. I've talked here before about reducing the amount of grass in our yard, and you may know that grass is not an environmentally friendly plant because of the water and chemicals needed to keep the lawn green and weed free.

Interestingly, I recently met with Skip Vest from Clean Air Lawn Care. His company is the first in our area to offer zero/low emission lawn care. They use organic fertilizers and soil treatment, and electric lawn mowers that are powered - and here's my favorite part - by solar panels on the truck (I tried to get some photos of the panels on his truck).

Your local Clean Air Lawn Care professional can guide you through decisions to help you accomplish your goals - from reducing noise pollution (without a gas engine, the electric mowers are very quiet) and water consumption (native grasses and how you care for the lawn can impact water consumption), to reducing the chemicals used on the lawn and your carbon footprint.They are taking an environmentally friendly approach to lawn maintenance, and are actually looking at how they can help with the LEED rating system for commercial buildings.

For more information on the impact of lawn equipment on air quality and greenhouse gas emissions, I dug up some information from the EPA website:

According to the EPA website and this EPA release, small engines are responsible for a tremendous amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. Here are a few stats -

• A push mower emits as much hourly pollution as 11 cars and a riding mower emits as much as 34 cars
• about 26% of mobile source VOC emissions
• 23% of mobile source carbon monoxide emissions
• accounts for as much as 5% of the total man-made hydrocarbons that contribute to ozone formation

To address the problem the EPA is implementing new rules to regulate the emissions of small engines under 25 horsepower, such as lawn mowers, edgers, weed wackers, etc. as well as some water craft. The intention of this new standard is to reduce air pollution at the residential level.

Here are some interesting tips from the EPA on 'greener' lawn care.

I knew that gas blowers and mowers were powerful emitters, but I didn't realize just how much they affect the air quality and greenhouse gas emissions. I have been inspired to pursue my options for electric mowers - as these regulations take effect across the country, this equipment should become more affordable. The EPA estimates there will be a minor increase in the price, but the equpiment will last longer and be more efficient - hopefully offsetting some of those upfront costs that typically make the higher price a tougher sell.