Sustainable landscaping practices are easy to define and implement, in part due to the vast amount of research on how methods impact the surrounding environment and the laws that legislate chemical usage. However, achieving sustainable snow and ice management practices is something the industry is still working toward. For environmentally conscious companies, this means establishing and following our own guidelines in determining what’s best for our customers, our company and the planet.

In the 25 years we’ve been providing commercial snow removal and landscaping services to customers, we’ve prided ourselves on being stewards of the environment. And for the most part, we’ve been successful in this endeavor. Unfortunately, the practice of removing snow and ice isn’t the best for the earth. Ice-management products like salt and liquid deicers are essential to keeping pavement safe for walking and driving. Likewise, each product has a different level of impact on surrounding watersheds and soil, as well as plant and animal life. It’s forced us to do our due diligence and to take a close look at the following.

Deicers and Ice Melt Dangers

Over the years, signs of pollution in our water and soil has caused more people to take a closer look at the exact toll road salt and deicers have taken on the environment.

For example, researchers at the University of Minnesota found that 70% of the salt applied to the roads near the Twin Cities makes its way into the region’s watershed. This impacts not only aquatic life, but it also takes a toll on municipal water systems.

Likewise, research shows bulk salt applied to pavement colder than 15 degrees Fahrenheit has little to no effect. For property managers and snow removal contractors, this means pretreating roads and walkable surfaces before they reach that temperature is essential. When done correctly, the result is less bagged ice-melt material on roads and walkways.

Chlorides Vs. Acetates Vs. Carbohydrate Deicers

In addition to rock salt, there are numerous ways the chemical makeup of your preferred deicer impacts the surrounding ecosystem.

The two main types of deicers are chlorides or acetate-based products. Without getting too far into the chemistry of these products, it’s important to understand that chlorides and acetates are both salts, but they are derived from different compounds – chlorides from hydrochloric acid and acetates from acetic acid. It’s this difference that determines the effect that the deicers will have on the surrounding environment.

Chloride deicers are widely considered to be the greatest polluters because they’re not biodegradable, which means they easily make their way into groundwater and soil. Plants that come into contact with chlorides can have a difficult time absorbing water and nutrients from the soil, causing them to dry out.

Carbohydrate deicers like beet sugars are often praised because they’re a natural, non-salt alternative to industrial deicers. However, they are not immune to shortcomings either.

For a comprehensive table summarizing the properties of deicing agents, enter bit.ly/lldeice into your browser.

Harmful to Animals

Salt and other deicers applied to pavement – regardless of whether they’re chloride or carbohydrate based – can attract animals who like the product’s taste. This can lead to an increase in roadkill accidents. As mentioned, deicers affect the salt content of the water, and when local water sources are polluted, animals are often the first to pay the price. Research indicates that freshwater amphibians like newts and salamanders become stunted and deformed when exposed to waters that are high in salt, and the animals that feed on them suffer as a result as well.

Increasing Sustainability: What Can We Do?

Looking to make a positive change? Then the initial step is to commit to reducing your impact on the environment while maintaining safety as the priority.

Simply put, deicer on the roads and walkways means fewer crashes and slip-and-fall incidents. That being said, there are many practices to implement that are better for the planet. Here are some to consider.

Alternative Fuels

At Schill, we integrate alternative fuels whenever possible. For example, propane fuels our fleet of 100-plus lawn mowers, and many of the trucks and snowplows we use for snow and ice removal run on diesel.

While it wasn’t the case even 10 years ago, diesel is now the most carbon-efficient fuel for more modern, larger vehicles, as they can have 40% fewer emissions than vehicles that run on conventional gas.

Introduce Liquids and Blends

No deicer or ice-melt product is without adverse effects, but liquid deicers and blended products can have a much smaller impact on the surrounding environment.

Adopt liquid deicer as a pretreatment on the properties you manage. This will not only save your customers thousands of dollars’ worth of bagged material, but you’ll be able to save clients thousands of dollars in plant replacements the next spring by using winter products that are less harmful to nearby trees and shrubs.

Natural products like beet juice and cheese brines – which, again, can still negatively impact the environment – aren’t the most effective for commercial use because they aren’t as effective at melting ice and therefore still need to be combined with other ice melt products.

Instead, use blended products that will allow you to reduce the amount of bulk salt you’re using. For example, the liquid deicer we use is more effective than natural alternatives, therefore allowing us to use much less salt than they would.

Calibrate Equipment

Perhaps most importantly, the professional snow and ice management industry must take responsibility for setting standards for how much deicer is appropriate to use in certain situations.

Therefore, use equipment that’s calibrated to make sure you know exactly how much salt or deicer is being applied, and you’re only putting down what’s necessary.

Calculate how much deicer needs to be used per snow/ice event based on road and ambient temperatures, as well as the efficacy of the product being applied.

Enter bit.ly/llminnsnow into your browser and check out pages 17-19 for Rock Salt Application Rate Guidelines.

We all want to be better stewards of the environment. Therefore, it’s important to talk with existing and potential clients about how sustainability can positively affect a company’s bottom line and improve corporate culture, and how they can partner with you through your best practices to make sustainability a reality in snow and ice management.

The author is the president of Schill Grounds Management in North Ridgeville, Ohio. He is a frequent Snow magazine contributor and a 2011 Snow magazine Leadership Award recipient.

Travels with Jim follows Jim Huston around the country as he visits with landscapers and helps them understand their numbers to make smarter decisions.

Jerry was a new client. He had been in business for over 30 years with his full-service landscape company in the northwestern United States. Annual revenue was in the $2-3 million range. He had been operating at just over break-even for many years, and he knew that he needed to make some personnel changes as well as upgrade some of his software. In addition, his middle managers were under-staffed and constantly in crisis mode. As a result, Jerry and his company were unable to take advantage of a very robust economy. Jerry wanted me to review his operation and give him recommendations regarding his staffing, software and pricing. In addition, he wanted me to benchmark his company and compare it to other companies both locally and nationally.

Pricing: Jerry’s pricing per man-hour was pretty accurate. However, like so many green industry contractors, he wasn’t focusing on the revenue that each maintenance, enhancement and construction crew needed to generate each day. I recommended that he and his managers track every crew’s daily performance to ensure that they were achieving their daily revenue goals.

Staffing: One of the reasons why Jerry’s company was operating at break-even was because his company wasn’t structured properly. Jerry was overworked, and his current managers were insufficient in number. This caused two problems. First, maintenance accounts weren’t properly and consistently monitored. Hence, customer satisfaction was down.

Second, because the current maintenance manager was overloaded, he didn’t have time to sell enhancements. This really hurt profitability because enhancements were (and are) one of the most profitable services that a company provides. The current manager was also too busy to pursue new maintenance accounts.

The solution was to train up and promote a current crew leader to the position of project manager. The project manager would be responsible for selling and managing smaller installation jobs and maintenance enhancements.

This would lessen the load on the current maintenance manager and free up his time to manage existing accounts and sell new business. It would also ease Jerry’s workload and allow him to focus more on his own tasks.

Benchmarks: Company general and administrative (G&A) overhead costs were at 28% of sales, which was 3% above the desired 25% industry standard. However, making the aforementioned management adjustments should increase revenue and bring G&A overhead costs in line. Daily revenue averages for maintenance and installation crews and for the irrigation service technicians were low. The 4-man maintenance and 2-man enhancement crews needed to aim for just under $1,400 and $1,000 (excluding materials) respectively per day. The irrigation service technicians needed to bill $600 each per day (excluding materials).

Software: The company was already in the process of implementing a business software, and I recommended that they fully implement it for managing their installation projects. To manage maintenance accounts, a different business software would be a good fit.

The company’s current software would work well with both programs; however, I recommended that the chart of accounts being used be revised to show revenue and direct costs (materials, field labor, field labor burden, truck and equipment, rental equipment and subcontractors) for each division.

Implementation. Jerry knew that during the season he was facing the “tyranny of the urgent” and that he needed to detach himself from the daily minutia and gain a more comprehensive perspective for his company.

So, he and I implemented a budgeting and benchmarking process to compare his business to similar ones. These tools also gave us the ability to review all of his pricing and to establish daily, weekly, monthly and yearly revenue goals. They also gave us the ability to make the necessary management personnel adjustments.

The winter months provide an excellent time for many Green Industry contractors to step back and analyze their businesses – to gain perspective of what worked, what didn’t, and make necessary changes.

It’s a great time to make long-term adjustments that can significantly improve short-term performance. Short-term crises aren’t fixed with short-term (quick) fixes. Take time this winter to do some long-term planning and amplify your vision. Throughout 2020, you’ll be glad that you did.

Contact Jim Huston at jhuston@giemedia.com

Photo courtesy of Mario Malagisi

Mario Malagisi is a well-rounded student, and that’s not just by chance. He’s set himself up to learn as much about the industry as he can.

The senior at SUNY Delhi in New York started out with a two-year degree program studying landscape design and management. Malagisi wanted more than two years of education, so he switched gears and entered the Golf and Sport Turf Management program at the university – a four-year educational track. But, he didn’t drop the landscape design program altogether, so he plans on graduating in 2020 with a double major.

“I’m basically double majoring, taking my design classes as I am taking my turf classes,” he says. He’s pretty much done with class work, so the rest of his time in school is going to be spent at a six-month long internship.

Part of his curriculum at SUNY Delhi requires him to secure an internship every semester for more hands-on experience. His six months, starting in February, will be spent with Femia Landscaping. Malagisi has previous experience with the company, and this time around, he will be focusing on pesticide management.

“I’ve always loved the outdoors between fishing and hiking, going out on the boat. So having the ability to work outdoors and being immersed in nature is awesome. But I think the biggest driving force of this was actually my father,” he says.

Malagisi’s father is a landscape contractor and observing him at his job has encouraged Malagisi to branch out and explore more facets of the industry. “Seeing what he does has allowed me to build on what more we can do,” he says. He hopes his knowledge in both design and turf management will help to accelerate the industry.

He’s worked at a garden center since he was 15, which has only built on what he’s learned inside the classroom.

“Not just at the garden center, but at every other internship site that I’ve worked at, I’ve applied something from school,” he says. He was able to combine in-class knowledge with field experience on a recent drainage project. Malagisi stood out amongst other employees at his previous internship because he was able to set up a laser level, set up a transit and knew how to shoot elevations. Plus, his design background has taught him how to read landscaping plans – all of which is one less skill an employer will have to teach him.

He’s got an eye on the future of the industry, too, and is all too familiar with the issues plaguing landscaping companies across the country.

As far as labor goes, Malagisi sees technological advancements in equipment as one way to soften the blow of a shrinking work force. He’s seen equipment implemented that can perform the job of half a crew with just one machine

“It’s about better equipment, newer equipment hitting the market that is going to be the new trend in lieu of labor,” he says. And, he’s got his sights set on owning his own landscaping company some day with plenty of experience to back those goals.

“I’m pesticide certified in two states, so basically I can be a one-stop shop to my customers,” he says. “I can offer design, maintenance, ornamental and turf care, as well as everything else.” L&L

We’re officially collecting submissions for the 2020 Top 100 list! If you think you may make the list, be sure to send us your information through the survey we set up here: bit.ly/2020Top100. Or, you can download a paper questionnaire here: bit.ly/Top100Download. The list will be published in our May issue, so you can find out where your company and other businesses in the industry rank.

Don’t wait! The deadline for submissions is Friday, Feb. 7, 2020.