Changing for good

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 considers.

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 percent 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 is -- 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 http://bit.ly/36U0781 into your browser and check out pages 17-19 HERE 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.