New Hampshire Landscaping Company Earns Green SnowPro Certification
Manchester, NH (PRWEB) June 29, 2015 -- Recently, three members of Giant Landscaping, LLC became Green SnowPro certified through a voluntary training and certification program sponsored by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services and the University of New Hampshire.
The program was a collaborative initiative started in 2010 between the NHDES and UNH for the purpose of training state and municipal salt applicators to use efficient ice melting techniques on roadways, with the ultimate goal of reducing the water pollution that occurs through excessive salt use.
The program kicked in some real benefits for the private sector, however, thanks to a law passed by the New Hampshire state legislature in November of 2013. This new law provides NHDES certified contractors - and those who hire them - with liability protection from damages arising from slip-and-fall claims resulting from snow and ice conditions (RSA 508:22). The liability protection is available to any contractor who has completed and passed the Green SnowPro training course, and became certified by NHDES as a Certified Salt Applicator.
“It’s a win-win for us, really,” explains Tim Boyle, co-owner of Giant Landscaping. “It makes us more competitive as a company that provides snow and ice management services. We are able to reduce our costs by managing our salt use more closely; we see a reduction in our insurance rates because of the certification; and it provides real value for our clients who want the additional liability protections. It could make the difference between winning the bid and not winning the bid.”
Boyle adds, “We are very serious about our snow and ice management services because they represent nearly 50 percent of our gross annual revenues. Anything that makes us more competitive as a company in this area helps our bottom line.”
Tim Boyle, Jeff Lavigne, and Roger Lavigne attended the training event, which covered a range of topics related to snow and ice management: equipment calibration, pre-wetting pavement techniques using brine solutions, calculating temperature-based salt requirements, best practices for snow plowing, as well as how to incorporate consistent record-keeping and salt-use tracking systems throughout the season. The training also included a hands-on portion field test on calibrating equipment. All three trainees completed and passed the exam that immediately followed the seminar.
“As members of our community, we feel we have a responsibility to the environment. There is no need to dump excessive salt when temperatures are high,” offers Jeff Lavigne, Tim Boyle’s business partner and co-owner of Giant Landscaping.
“We also have a responsibility to our clients to keep their parking lots safe and ice-free. This seminar has given us some good tools to accomplish both. All three of us came out of the training excited about ways we can fine-tune our snow and ice management techniques this coming winter season.”
About Giant Landscaping, LLC:
Giant Landscaping, LLC is a full-service landscaping company that offers landscape maintenance and construction services to both residential and commercial clients in southern New Hampshire. For more information, please visit http://www.giantlandscaping.net/
Tim Boyle, Giant Landscaping, LLC, http://www.giantlandscaping.net/, +1 (603) 625-0094, [email protected]
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