Our Environment
As a company, we are constantly working towards improving how we work to help the environment. The strategic aims as well as the day to day running of TopGrass have the environment at its focus, to make our services as safe and environmentally friendly as possible. The environment is included in our Company Mission Statement so that it is always a focus for our team:
"Our aim is to provide a professional, effective and trustworthy service through expert advice, a friendly approach and high standards.
To provide a dynamic working environment where staff feel motivated, valued and trained to be the best they can be.
Above all, to put customer, employee and environmental interests at the heart of everything we do to make a difference to each and every individual."
Below are the ways that we have an environmental focus and the list is ever growing!
SME Climate Hub:
We are members of SME Climate Hub and are pledged to be net zero by 2050. You can see our commitment on the SME Climate Hub website by clicking here. We report on our Net Zero progress annually to the SME Climate Hub and employ their useful resources and tools to help us along our journey to Net Zero.
Locally situated Lawn Care Technicians:
Our employees live and work locally to you. Our planning team have worked hard to make the routes that we carry out day to day efficient and environmentally friendly. The technicians who live locally to you will, wherever possible, visit you for your every visit of the year. This means that our vans and technicians are not driving the length and breadth of the country, but rather travelling to the local area to treat local customers.
Going electric!
We are gradually changing our fleet over to electric vehicles. So far, we have two electric company cars and one electric van in use and we are looking to further increase this in the future.
We are also continually looking into the use of electric machinery - such as electric leaf blowers, aerators and scarifiers - and attending machinery events every year, so that we are at the forefront of using these machines in lawn care once the battery power is sufficient for daily usage.
At TopGrass, we are members of the Amenity Forum and are a accredited by The Amenity Standard and Basis Lawn Assured. This is a voluntary accreditation and auditing system that ensures that we are following best practice in our use of chemicals and implementing environmentally responsible procedures and methods within our lawn care. Our very own founder Tom Arnold was made a Director of the Amenity Forum Board in May 2024.
Part of this accreditation includes an annual audit and inspection to ensure we are continually following best practice within the lawn care industry. We are also invested in using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods in lawn care. This is the process of reducing the use of chemicals and promoting an integrated approach to the management of green spaces. We employ methods such as spot treating instead of blanket treating weeds to reduce weed killer usage and promoting cultural methods (scarifying and aerating) for reducing the likelihood of lawns suffering from grub infestations, prior to using chemical solutions.
We are also a founding member of the UK Lawn Care Association (UKLCA), Tom Arnold has been the Chairman of this association since 2023, and Shirley Arnold and Katie Arnold have headed up working groups within the association to further develop the association's positive impact within the lawn care industry.
This association is dedicated to bringing independent lawn care companies together from across the UK and promoting good practices and schemes such as the Amenity Standard and BASIS Lawn Assured. TopGrass were amongst the first UKLCA members to implement these schemes within their business.
It is thought that globally, paper and cardboard consumption has increased by 75% in the last few decades, according to Statista.
At TopGrass, we are continually working towards going paperless. We have already gone paperless with digitising invoices and are working on further reducing our paper use with digital quotations, surveys, payments and customer lawn advice.
Eco-Friendly Finance:
While going paperless, as a company, we are working towards reducing the number a cheques payments that we are receiving and eventually phasing these out. Not only does this reduce paper usage, using payment methods such as online payments also helps to reduce carbon emissions. Transport and expenditure contribute to payments such as cheques having a higher carbon footptint.
Carbon Balanced Paper:
When we send out communications to our customers via the post, we do so in an environmentally friendly manner. The unavoidable emissions of paper production and distribution has been offset through the World Land Trust's Carbon Balanced Programme.
The Carbon Balanced Programme allows print distributors, printers and those making paper to balance the impact of carbon emissions of the paper used.
TopGrass deliver carbon blanced paper through our mailing supplier. By sending 6pp leaflets, our mailing supplier has balanced the equivalent to 1208 KG of carbon dioxide. This contribution helps to enable the World Land Trust to protect 846m2 of tropical forests that are critically threatened.
Carbon offsetting is a process whereby a company or an individual pursues to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
The World Land Trust: Carbon Balancing is provided by the World Land Trust who protect the world's most biologically critical and threatened habitats.
The World Land Trust established Buy an Acre, a concept of buying land and conservation since 1989. Since this time, the World Land Trust has supported ground-breaking habitat protection for more than 30 years.
While our lawn care products are provided to us in plastic packaging, we ensure that these are recycled and repurposed. Our waste disposal suppliers are able to recycle these bottles and bags into products such as benches, gates, bins and animal pens.
Produces daily oxygen and removes carbon from the atmosphere:
Besides the aestetic appeal, keeping your lawn healthy can have a world of benfits for you and the environment. The Lawn Institute estimates that an area as small as 50 square feet of lawn can provide the daily oxygen required for a family of four. The area being treated and maintained by TopGrass in a year is therefore providing enough oxygen for the daily oxygen required for over a million people.
A yellowing or diseased lawn does not reap the oxygen benefits stated above, so providing TopGrass treatments to keep lawns green, healthy and disease free is vital in supplying this environmental benefit.
Increases water absorption in the soil and reduces pollutants in our watercourses:
Amongst the benefits to the air around us, well maintained grass can also reduce the speed of water runoff and redirect water flow. This then allows a greater amount of water to be absorbed by the soil and in turn means that pollutants within rain water are stored in the soil where they are safely broken down, rather than ending up in our watercourses.
Prevents soil erosion:
Grass has a fibrous root system which aids in holding soil in place. This prevents soil from being eroded and moved on with weather such as wind and rain, meaning a retention of high quality top soil in our gardens.
Buiders bags are designed to be the most cost effective and environmentally friendly alternative to using multiple sacks such as bin liners. We use builder's bags that are reusable to reduce the amount of single-use plastic that we use. These bags are used during our spring and autumn renovation periods where we are scarifying to remove moss and thatch from lawns. If you would like to find out more about our renovation packages please click here.
Builders bags are an eco-friendly choice for carrying a range of materials such as moss and thatch, due to their strength, durability a reusability. Once customers have disposed of the moss and thatch within the builders bags left with them, TopGrass will then either collect them for reuse with future renovation periods or customers will keep them for their own reuse.
We are not only looking after lawns, but we also have a focus on flower and shrub health, plant diversity, soil health and water conservation.
Borders and Beds Service:
We have our Borders and Beds Fertilisation Service which promotes the healthy growth of flowers and shrubs in your garden. Increasing the healthy growth of these plants in your garden further increases the amount of CO2 that is taken in from the atmostphere and the amount of oxygen that is outputted.
It also promotes regular flowering of plants which in turn will help the insects visiting your garden, such as bees!
Wildflower Service:
We are trial launching our Wildflower service in 2024, ready for full launch in 2025. This service aims to provide wildflower areas which will be a haven
for wildlife and insects alike, further promoting a healthy and diverse ecosystem within customer gardens.
As above with the borders and beds programme, this service will also promote removing more CO2 from the environment and emitting more oxygen through increasing the amount of vegetation in gardens.
Soil Improver Service:
Our organic-based Soil Improver Treatment slowly changes the biology of your soil over time to increase soil health, reduce the risk of disease, increase microbial activity and plant health and improve soil structure.
Healthy soil is the foundation of a healthy garden, further promoting the environmental benefits of lawns outlined in the section 'Environmental Benefits of a Well Kept Lawn'.
Having good, healthy soil is important to the environment in many other ways as well. Not only does it provide a healthy growing environment for plants by allowing root anchoring and storing nutrients, but it also acts as a filter to clean our water, helps to prevents flooding, provides heaps of biodiversity and also acts as a store for carbon which helps to regulate our climate.
Water Conserver Service:
Our Water Conserver Treatment is applied once a year and helps in the effective absorption and retention of water in the lawn. This means that during dry spells, this treatment assists in conserving the water that the lawn does receive (through rain or watering), ensuring its slow release into the soil and decreasing the risk of hydrophobia and loss of water through run off.
This service essentially assists in conserving water and reducing water waste, meaning less water is required to keep a lawn healthy. It also assists in keeping a lawn healthy during the hot summer months, meaning there is less need for remedial work to bring a lawn back to life as it reduces the risk of drought effects and lawns dying off. It also reduces the risk of flooding by ensuring that the soil in lawns can absorb water effectively and efficiently.