Going Green
Managing grounds, and the resources that keep them.
A landscape company that works with living things all day should tread lightly. We do it in ways that also make us a better-run operation: composting the waste a property generates, recycling what a color program leaves behind, routing a lighter fleet efficiently, and designing landscapes that do real environmental work. None of it is a marketing badge; all of it is how we operate.
Why it matters to you
Good for the environment, good for the operation.
The practices below are not a separate green program bolted onto the side. They are how the company runs day to day, and most of them save resources and cost at the same time as they cut waste, which is exactly why they stick.
- Less waste Plant waste and seasonal-color flats are composted and recycled instead of hauled to a landfill, closing the loop on the material a landscape naturally generates.
- Fewer trips GPS-planned routes and larger crews on fewer trucks mean less fuel burned and less traffic, and it keeps your service predictable and on-schedule.
- Lighter fleet Efficient 4-cylinder trucks for our managers cut fuel use across a fleet that covers nineteen counties every week.
- Real projects From storm-water bio-swales to water-wise plantings, we design landscapes that do environmental work, not just look green.
What we actually do
Seven practices, applied every day.
Each of these is a real, standing practice, and each one matters to a property owner as much as to the environment: less waste hauled, less fuel burned, more predictable service, and landscapes that work harder.
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We compost our plant waste into mulch
A landscape generates a constant stream of clippings, prunings, and leaves. Instead of hauling all of it to a landfill, we compost plant waste and turn it back into mulch. That mulch goes back onto beds, where it holds moisture, suppresses weeds, and feeds the soil, so the material a property produces becomes the material that keeps it healthy.
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We recycle our seasonal-color flats
Rotating annual color through the year means a lot of plastic growing flats and trays. We collect and recycle them rather than throw them away, so a program that keeps your entrances looking their best does not leave a pile of plastic behind every season.
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We route the fleet with GPS
Every crew is dispatched on a GPS-planned route. Tighter routing means less fuel burned, fewer miles driven, and less time crews spend in traffic instead of on your property. It is better for the environment and it is exactly why a property on the far side of the metro still gets a reliable, on-schedule visit.
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We send larger crews, not more trucks
It is easy to put more trucks on the road to cover more work. We would rather send a larger, well-equipped crew on fewer vehicles. Fewer trucks means less fuel and fewer emissions for the same work done, and a full crew finishes a property faster and more thoroughly than two half-crews shuttling between sites.
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Our managers drive efficient trucks
Our account and area managers drive fuel-efficient 4-cylinder trucks. Across a management team covering nineteen counties every week, choosing the lighter, more efficient vehicle for the people who are constantly on the road adds up to a meaningfully smaller footprint, without slowing anyone down.
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We build landscapes that manage storm-water
Our design-and-installation side builds features that do environmental work. The bio-swale we constructed with New South Construction at Pace Academy captures and filters parking-lot runoff naturally, slowing storm-water and cleaning it before it reaches the storm system. Landscape can be infrastructure, and a firm with a landscape architect on staff can design it that way.
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We reuse our old cell phones
Even the small things get a second life. Our retired company cell phones go into a reuse and recycling program rather than a drawer or a dumpster. It is a modest practice, but it reflects the same habit that runs through everything above: use what you have well, and waste as little as possible.
Landscape as infrastructure
A bio-swale that cleans the water it catches.
With New South Construction, we built a storm-water bio-swale at Pace Academy: a planted, engineered channel that captures parking-lot runoff, slows it, and filters it naturally before it reaches the storm system. It is the clearest example of what we mean when we say a landscape can do a job, not just look like one, and the kind of work a design team with a landscape architect on staff can plan and stand behind.
Good questions
Questions about sustainability.
Does going green cost me more?
No, and often the opposite. Composting our own plant waste, recycling flats, routing efficiently, and running a lighter fleet are cost-control practices as much as environmental ones: they reduce disposal, fuel, and vehicle costs, which is part of how a well-run operation keeps your pricing competitive. Sustainability here is good operations, not a premium add-on.
Can you make my property more water-wise?
Yes. Beyond how we run our operation, we can design and maintain your landscape to use less water: drought-tolerant and perennial plantings, right-plant-right-place bed design, and irrigation tuned and monitored so it is not watering the sidewalk. Ask us about lower-water options during the site walk.
Seasonal Color →What happens to the green waste from my property?
Wherever practical, the clippings, prunings, and leaves from your grounds go into our composting stream and come back as mulch, rather than to a landfill. It is the same closed loop we run across the operation, applied to the material your specific property generates through the season.
Environmental Services →Want grounds managed responsibly and well?
Tell us about your property and an owner will scope a program that keeps it looking its best while wasting as little as possible.