green practices for small business

speelyei

speelyei

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currently I am a one-man show with a 3/4 ton pickup. It's not always going to be that way... very soon I will be adding some hardware.
I am interested in some ideas on how to be as "green" as possible. I haven't thought of much so far except:
-Run a used 1 ton diesel truck and chipper and use biodiesel
-Use bio-degradable bar oil
-Utilize waste wood to it's maximum, firewood, slabs, etc.
-Use only paper/waste free advertising options

What haven't I thought of?
 
Think of going green as two things. Being cheap and recycling.

My mom has been "going green" ever since I was a kid by keeping the heat set at 60 in the winter, thus saving energy and some money.

You could always recycle your chips as well and make top soil.

I like your ideas and I've always been interested in the same concept. I'm interested to see what else these folks have to offer.
 
Tree preservation work.


Biodiesel isn't as green as it could be. Often its only B20 or B5. See what your outlets offer, maybe B99.

Salvage veggie oil is probably much greener.



Donate chips to community gardens/ school gardens, people in general for garden beds and paths alike. Helping locally produced, organic food to be grown, with low embodied energy to the product is good.



Not necessarily Green, but socially responsible, might include

Having a firewood pile for people in need. I have a big bin in my wood shed that all the non-standard sized/ shaped pieces go into. Its easier to stack 8 feet tall if all pieces are the right length. All my lumber ends go into this as well. It make it easier to keep the wood for heat for people that are cold, than have it moved one more time to go in with the yard waste pick-up.

I thought about contacting Lyons Club/ Catholic Social Services/ other social service organizations that might have volunteers that would come and load the odd wood and deliver to people needing wood. This would keep people that are too broke to buy wood/ gas from being at my house and seeing all the stuff around that they might get interested in, if you know what I mean.
 
Minimally synthetic is tough... even with proper care ropes and harnesses have a limited life span.

I have debated wood hanger and pruner poles over fiberglass, jury is still out on that one. At Asplundh I always kind of liked the one piece octagonal poles, but I have never looked into buying them myself.

southsound, I pm'ed you about a community wood program I have a lot of experience with already, it's been a really good endeavor.

If I had property I would probably start a tree nursery and sell to landscapers, but I don't have a lot of interest in installing new trees commercially. I am definitely a tree preservation advocate, within reason. But we all know removals are just a daily reality.

I've got my thinking cap on...

One place I am not "green" is saws... I love the older 044, 025, and 066. I will run those until I can't find parts any more.
 
One "green" practice is simply climbing all trees.
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Running a bucket truck has issues with the "green" police. Bucket trucks consume fuel and create exhaust.
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Is the consumption and exhaust enough to be a concern? Dunno. It might depend on the customer's perspective.

I hate to suggest this, but battery powered or a corded leaf blower are "green." I simply like the power of a gas engine leaf blower, but they are not friendly with the "green" police, once again. Heck, if you really want to be "green" during the clean up time of a operation, rake, broom, and a snow shovel are the way to geaux!
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How about investing in converting a regular bike into a E-bike? Video
 
what types of services are you offering right now. This will give more info to give you ideas.

What are the issues in your local market.

You can study up on diseases, treatments, etc and offer some preventative/ treatment services to help preserve the trees.

Being a construction consultant for new development where they want to keep trees can be another angle.

Thanks for the PM regarding the firewood bank. I'll keep it in mind. I haven't been doing as many removals this year, and more people want their wood, or will dispose of it themselves to save money, so I don't have as much wood surplus, and hopefully a wood stove will be installed in the shop, not just taking up valuable floor space.
 
Suggest to your clients that the chips be left behind and spread for mulching thus reducing the amount of fuel used to move material.

Look at organic solutions vs. spraying.

Use handsaws more. Don't leave equipment running such as trucks, chippers, chainsaws. Lowers the noise and air pollution along with saving you money on fuel.


Fully educate yourself on the "green" value of trees and sell more preservation work. It will take time to move away from primarily removals to being the guy to go to for those that truly want to save their trees.

Plan your jobs so they are clustered in one area each day instead of driving all over the place to please customers. Sometimes it's a matter of explaining your scheduling rationale to client's so they see the value in it.
 
A lot of good ideas so far.

I email my estimates and invoices, and make a point of letting clients know this practice is green.

I use organic sprays when I can. I also give the client a choice between green pest control, or others.

With clients who want green, I'll use veg. oil in my chainsaws. How will veg oil effect the life of the chain or bar?
 
I use this Stihl BioPlus.

Works well.

Its more expensive per gallon, but you can use less and still get adequate lubrication. Explain the use to the customers through your marketing, and pass the small increase in cost on to them. Offer a $10 surcharge per job to use Bio vs. petroleum bar oil.

The bar oil atomizes into the air. You breathe the air. even if you are not charging customers more, consider it a saving with your health.

Others swear by canola/ rapeseed oil for bar/ chain oil. No other oil works as well, from what people say. No experience, but it sounds like it doesn't have the tackifiers (sp) that hold the oil on the bar better. More fling, more mess.
 
Here is my prototype for limbwood cutting. I'll get the dimensions worked out and use an angle iron frame and stake pocket tubing welded to the frame to hold the uprights, giving me portability.

In the Pacific Northwest the Doug-fir are a main source of fuel wood. I generally cut 4" and over, chip 4" and under. This saves wear and tear on the chipper, which is harder to work without than the wear and tear on the saw. Maybe less work for the worker, maybe more.

In any case, this more efficient (I think) way of cutting small straight limb wood might make me cut 3" and over for firewood. Some people would prefer wood that doesn't have to be split, not having as much weight per piece (elderly/ infirm??), more firewood per tree, less bark mess.

For firewood haul-off jobs, I've even though of just having a sign that says "Free 16" firewood here today". People would probably stop and get some of it, preventing me from having too much limb wood myself, and save space in my trucks/ woodshed. Good opportunity to have more public contact.

This can mean one trip instead of two (i've been MAXING OUT my chip truck recently, wishing that the groundmen would have cut more branch butts off) almost making us have to make additional trips (save costs, time, fuel, pollution).

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I don't find it dangerous. If a person engages the chain into the wood close to the dogs, with the tip up, the force on the pieces doesn't really kick them up. The smaller the more likely, so if this is a problem, stack larger pieces on top.

I wear a mesh faceshield (for chips mostly) and glasses, my earmuffs to double up with my ear plugs are mounted to the helmet.

I've seen many people cut wood by standing with one foot on the pile and nose down. Very, Very dangerous!

In the finished model, I think that I'll have uprights with 2x2 stake-pocket tube-steel material brackets that are capable of sliding side to side, so you can cut 12", 16", 24", 13.75", or whatever. There will be an upright at each end of each length. Also to make it safer, it is easy enough to lay a section of light rope in the bottom of the frame at the midpoint of each length. Stack it in, and a quick tie would secure it.

I think that small pieces of firewood flying at the sawyer is your concern. I think that it can be easily engineered out in a user friendly way.

I can see it being 4-6' long, 1.5' wide, with about (16) 2x2 wooden uprights of whatever height is desirable. I'm not sure what the weight will be like, but I imagine the metal frame and metal brackets to be around 15 pounds, and the uprights weighing about 8-10 pounds, so it can easily fit in the truck. Even on the heavy side at 40 pounds, it will easily reduce the amount of material transported offsite in the form of chips. (pictures will come.)

Here, in Olympia, WA, there are a lot of people that will want firewood cut and left, and brush chipped and dumped.
This can translate to more firewood for the customer's benefit/ potential benefit, less chipper wear and tear, less chips to dispose of, less fuel consumption based on less weight being hauled/ dumped.

Perhaps it will be not worth it for a number of jobs, but well worth it on others.
 
The real issue with firewood is the number of times each piece has to be handled. My hat is off to you for maximizing the potential for the by-product of a tree removal. If the client wants to pay you for bucking fire wood, all the more power to ya.

Don't forget you have a lot of high priced equipment sitting NOT making you money,while your bending over staking and cutting wood. Build the racks and sell 'em to your clients, they can cut fire wood. I hope you are being well reimbursed for your time.

I don't want to sound like a dick, but most people can cut firewood, NOT many can remove a large tree. I guess it depends who your clients are.
 
Selling the brackets is part of the idea.

Using them strategically is an important part of the idea.

Part of the idea is a stepping stone for people that are just getting going in business, have a small rig, small chipper or are taking brush to the dump, may not have a dump bed yet (as I was for my first year), want to have more versatility of being able to have a small rig and big rig.

Its by no means a large company must have, but more for the small guy.

I have a job to bid to remove 6 doug-firs that are 45+" dbh on average in a small area (remnant forest trees in an urban, high density Olympia neighborhood. I could be putting 6-8 inch limb wood in a bunch of these frames, quickly cut them evenly, and leave them out of the way for the homeowners friends to take nightly. I don't want the wood, so groundies would just cut the limbs on the ground to a manageable weight and put them in the racks, meanwhile I'd be rigging the next piece.

Again, more for smaller operations, and people that aren't up to their desired workload.

Compensation would have to be adequate, of course.
 
Sean, the Green movement can and is a complex thing. There is NO set definition, so it means different thing to different people, as well as small and large companies.

I applaud all those that do what they can to minimize the impact on the environment. One thought I had after my last post was a couple news headlines from my closest major city. There is a group of people who want ALL fire pits banned, the second one was the respiratory impact of wood smoke from chimneys in that city!

I often ponder how I could become MORE fuel efficient. Should I buy a forestry unit to replace a bucket truck and a 1 ton pulling a chipper? This would increase the fuel efficiency, at the cost of the piece of mind, having a smaller faster truck to get to the hospital? I am in a very rural area, ......ya don't move victim.....ambulance never finds you.... I am gonna hang it up IF I ever have to use a misery whip!
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There is an opportunity for everyone to be MORE green. On the bald old prairie (where I can watch my dog run away for 3 days) you would think firewood would fetch a premium. Doesn't appear to be the case. Now fence slabs, thats another story. We bought a bandsaw mill 2 yrs ago, it will take a while to pay for itself, BUT it adds value to a bunch of "tree debris".

It all about location, some places we couldn't give chips away, other places people fight over them. The best I can offer is to know what your clients want, fill the niche.

Again, all tree companies have different ideas and specialties, at the end of the day it is what we do and how we do it the puts groceries on the table, food in our bellies, and a roof over our heads. Being happy doing what we love (tree work) sometimes has to come at the expense of the enviornment, sometimes NOT!
 
very true about filling the niche in the local market.

I hear you about the wood smoke. We have occasional winter burn bans for air quality when we get an inversion. People that have other sources of heat can't burn in their wood stoves/ fireplaces. A part of this is inevitable. A part of it is people's ignorance about the importance of dry wood. So many people want to burn wet wood, or have the secret system worked out that uses dry wood to get it going and wet wood to mix in, as though that works.

A smaller rig with a same sized trailer/chipper doesn't make sense, as you point out the safety issue.




I wonder about the new rayco 8" chipper. looks a lot lighter than my 4400 pound 70's chuck and duck, not that I'm going to be buying a new chipper, or different chipper any time soon. If I did have a smaller chipper and could get away with a one ton dump instead of a F600, it could be great for fruit tree season and smaller pruning jobs. Even a 6" chipper vermeer-type with feed wheel would work for me for a lot of the dormant season.


I think that a good Green practice is simply maintaining your machines and have newer ones with more pollution controls. Maintain tire pressure.

Also, avoid leaks and spills. I was surprised when I crawled under my 1990 F600 and found how many pan bolts were loose throughout. A little snugging of bolts can reduce drips here and there. Filling over grass/ soil can help with the occasional overfilling spills that are unavoidable. The soil organisms can break down minor amounts, whereas impermeable surfaces mean runoff with the rain into storm drains and into streams.

As you say, the green movement can be complex. A customer was telling me about how they cut down a lot of trees nearby to build a "green" house.

We are going to a milling demo today--bandsaw, chainsaw, and a Lucas mill. We'd like to get a mill in the next 5 years. How is the work involved in milling? Seems like it could be boring, or satisfying, or some of both.
 
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