Blondie’s Treehouse has implemented several new green initiatives to reduce its environmental impact and cut materials usage.
Howard K. Freilich, company CEO and president, conducted a top to bottom company review and identified a number of opportunities to reduce and eliminate wasteful practices and improve the company’s bottom line. A landscape company may seem the perfect poster child for the green industry, but as with many industries, there is ample room for improvement.
“One of our biggest operating expenses is gas and electric fuel oil to heat our 30,000 square-foot headquarters, gas to send our fleet of trucks to Manhattan every day and electricity to light our buildings and power our equipment,” Freilich says. “We’ve made substantial improvements in reducing our carbon footprint by overhauling our fleet of truck and tweaking our installation schedule”.
Blondie’s recently purchased several new trucks that feature a dual cab system - two rows of seats rather than a single row instantly doubles the number of people that can be transported to a project in a single truck. The trucks have a larger payload and are more fuel efficient than the previous vehicles, which now are retired. The savings on gas and tolls are substantial and have prompted the company to look at other ways to reduce costs responsibly.
Compact fluorescent bulbs also have been installed throughout the company’s headquarters building to reduce electricity use, and the greenhouse will use less fuel than in previous years for an expected savings of more than $20,000.
In addition, the company is considering other creative ways to realize savings without impacting employees and clients. By shifting the 40-hour workweek over four days rather than five, the company will reduce fuel and toll expenses by an additional 20 percent.