Want to go green? Make friends with a compost company.
Hey Clippers! Dave Tucker here with the last installment in our series on eco-friendly lawn care business practices.
Let’s start with a guessing game. We could reduce human-caused greenhouse gas emissions by up to 8% if we did just one thing.
Any guesses?
The answer: If we stopped wasting so much food.
Here’s a doozy from the WWF: “In the US alone, the production of lost or wasted food generates the equivalent of 32.6 million cars’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions.”
Needless to say, much of the food waste problem is the fault of big corporations, not individual consumers like you and me. But there’s one thing that we as individuals can do: Keep food waste out of landfills. And how do we do that, apart from being smarter about how we buy and prepare our food?
(Bear with me: I swear I’ll tie this back to your lawn care business!)
Compost seems easy enough. You put all your food scraps in a pile or a bin and let them decompose naturally. But it’s not quite that simple. For starters, it can be a little gross. Some foods, like meats, don’t do as well in backyard compost piles. And if you’ve got no yard, a small yard, or a racoon problem, it’s pretty impractical.
But there are a growing number of businesses out there on a mission to make composting more accessible for everyday folks. Take a look at these guys in northeast Ohio. They have drop-off spots where their customers can dump their compost. They also offer a cheap pickup service. Each customer gets a bucket with a lid that they can fill with food scraps. Once a week, the compost guys come by to pick up that bucket and drop off a fresh one. Every scrap goes back to their facility for composting on a large scale. It’s a great deal: Individual consumers get to compost without the mess of compost, and the business sells the final product.
So what does this have to do with your lawn care business?
Simple: It’s a partnership opportunity.
We’ve talked before about teaming up with other business owners to bring in a little extra revenue. A composting business is a great option for you! What if a compost company hired you to pick up and drop off buckets on one of your routes or off days? After all, you’ve already got trucks, which don’t need to stay pristine. Your guys are comfortable hauling stuff. And you’re out and about anyway.
One of your crews could spend a day each week on a compost pickup route, or you could build it into your regular schedule. There are a lot of ways you could make it work. And compost services usually run year round. Even if you take winters off, you could still do pickup once a week!
And compost isn’t your only option here. Some compost companies also accept yard waste, as do many cities. You could add yard waste pickup as an extra seasonal service.
Simply put, partnering with a compost business is a great way to:
- Offer a convenient service to your customers.
- Bring in some extra revenue with resources you already have.
- Show your commitment to sustainability by aligning your business with another business offering a sustainable service.
If building an eco-friendly brand is your goal, then a compost partnership might be a great way to achieve that! Do a little research and see if there’s anyone in your area who might want to buddy up. You might even end up buying some of that nutrient-rich compost for your own work. This could be the beginning of a great partnership!
Don’t forget, you can use CLIP’s routing tool to plan the most efficient route from place to place!
Friends, that’s a wrap on our series on eco-friendly lawn care business practices. I’d love to revisit this topic if there are other things you want us to cover. So sound off in the comments! What are your ideas for making a lawn care business more sustainable? Why is it important to you? Tell me everything.
We’re back to regular topics next time. Until then, keep clipping!
Dave