EQUIPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
Continued from page 32 battery powered tools, we saved 10-15 minutes per person per day, and that multiplies.”
“ With two-strokes, most manufacturers recommend higher octane fuel and that’ s more expensive, if gas stations even have it,” said Joe Langton, owner of the Langton Group of landscapers in northern Illinois.( Note: Stihl and Echo, for example, recommend the use of 89-octane gas, and that’ s often 25 % more expensive than regular gas in most places.)“ And water in gas cans is a big problem for us.”
California, with its mandated transition to electric equipment, created the CORE program, which incentivized the purchase of zero-emission landscaping equipment. Chris Angelo, CEO of Stay Green, a landscaping company covering Southern California, said,“ There were some very rich incentives that we took advantage of.” It not only let them acquire new battery-powered equipment but it helped them dispose of gas-powered equipment.
Greyson Walldorff, founder and president of Lawn Capital in Atlanta, Ga., was not as lucky, with no state-sponsored incentives.“ We got killed,” said Walldorff.“ There’ s no secondary market to unload four crews worth of handheld gas equipment. We lost it. And we don’ t want to give it to our guys who will then work Saturdays and Sundays on their own routes.”
The accounting impacts are real, too.“ Gas-powered equipment typically has been disposable, like handheld equipment,” said Angelo.“ Our branch manager is the one making the decision. He’ s buying it and then we’ re telling him don’ t keep repairing it. With batteries it’ s a balance sheet discussion; it’ s longer term. We look at it differently than we did in the past.”
4. Workers’ acceptance This topic is an important one to Gao, who believes that battery-powered equipment can improve the health and quality of life for pro users. He discussed potential problems from fumes, noise and vibration from gas motors, plus the frustration of pull starting or fouled spark plugs.
“ I didn’ t realize the amount of dissatisfaction our crews had with the fumes and the exhaust of gas equipment,” said Justin White.“ I thought, these are landscapers, they get their hands dirty every day, these guys don’ t care about gas fumes. The truth is, they really do care.
“ As we started to get more feedback of the change [ from gas to battery power ], you notice how much those fumes got soaked up into your clothes and soaked up into their lives,” he added.“ The feedback loop has been really positive. Their quality of life has increased.”
According to White, it also impacts hiring as younger generations are placing higher value on their health and wellbeing.
White’ s shift might have been simpler since California is mandating the shift to batteries. Not the case for Walldorff.
“ We had a pretty tough time in Atlanta,” he said.“ No one is forcing us to switch to batteries. We’ re an outlier. And we lost a lot of employees— management, operations people, people in the field. Every time we converted [ from gas to battery ] or added battery equipment, we lost people.
“ Today though, it’ s established, proven and working with the workforce,” he added.“ It’ s in our culture; we are an electric-based company. For that reason, we have higher retention. People appreciate it now. It changed the workforce. It changed who we hired. It changed our culture.”
Left to right: Carlos Teles, Joe Langton and Todd Reinhart.
ROBOTIZATION Robotic mowers are building a history in America, and it started primarily with Husqvarna Automowers, the robots originally bound by boundary wires buried in the yards of early adopters. That technology is quickly being replaced by satellite and GPS control, or other vision-based services.
34 SportsField Management | May 2025 sportsfieldmanagementonline. com