Environmental Leadership Awards 1999: Dave Hanson

There are a broad range of experiences, and then there are the professional stops on Dave Hanson’s impressive resume.

Hanson’s introduction to the green industry occurred "at the end of a garden hose," as he put it, working his way through high school and college at a nursery in the San Francisco area. After graduating from the University of California-Davis with a degree in environmental horticulture, Hanson went to work for the UC-Davis Cooperative Extension Service, spending six years working on ornamental bed weed control, low energy use turfgrasses and water use efficiencies.

"My work focused on looking at situations where we could increase the sustainability of the landscape while increasing the inputs and outputs from the environment," he explained.

The operations side of the industry soon beckoned, however, and Hanson found himself in the employment of ChemLawn helping the company open up a number of new locations throughout the western region of the country.

"I came into contact with a lot of wonderful people throughout the U.S. during my time with ChemLawn, and these people and these experiences really helped frame my perspective on plant health care and promoting the healthy growth of plants through proper cultural practices," Hanson noted.

Hanson then spent some time with a local contractor in the San Jose market before joining Environmental Care, Inc. in 1989. Today, he remains with ECI as the senior vice president of western operations – a position from which he can influence the way coworkers approach the environment.

"I see environmental responsibility as our No. 1 responsibility in this industry," Hanson affirmed. "A lot of people shoot arrows at this industry, saying we overuse this product and pollute that resource, but I think our industry is just now going through the same sort of renaissance a other industries have gone through.

"Look at the automobile industry," Hanson continued. "The first cars used a lot of fuel and polluted the air, but those manufacturers continue to improve their products. The same is true of our industry. The first irrigation systems were designed to do nothing but put down a lot of water. Now, we talk about the efficient use of natural resources when we irrigate."

Hanson said a key to the industry’s increased environmental sensitivity has been a greater awareness of its impact on natural systems.

"We need to realize that we’re not afforded a limitless supply of resources and that everything we do is part of a larger system," Hanson pointed out. "We need to understand how to utilize our landscape management practices in a fashion that produces the greatest result with the least amount of disruption to the environment."

Hanson noted that he can’t trace this appreciation of the environment back to any one particular incident or influence in his life. "I have always had a passion for horticulture, and that passion is something I share with most of the management here at ECI," he added. "We love making the landscape beautiful.

"I would call myself an urban environmentalist, I guess," he continued. "I believe in recreating a beautiful side of the urban environment, and I think there is a great benefit to that beauty for our own well being. That benefit is what draws people to go for walks in the park and work in their garden."

And while this member of the board of directors for the Professional Lawn Care Association of America and the Evergreen Foundation is quick to claim that the industry doesn’t receive enough positive publicity for the good work it does for the environment, he also sees the need for continued improvement.

"Clearly, we need to continue to innovate as an industry," Hanson asserted. "We have more knowledge than we did 10 years ago, and we need to make greater use of practices that have been demonstrated to be environmentally friendly. We need to continue to expand amongst ourselves the use of these practices.

"There are leading edge companies, and there are companies that are still doing things they way they did them 10 years ago," he continued. "Only one or two people need to screw up to make the entire industry look bad."

After experiencing the industry from myriad vantage points, Hanson seems to have found a place to stay at ECI, although there’s a good chance his pursuit for knowledge may lead him into new responsibilities within the organization.

"Anyone who wants to advance within their organization has to work on learning, and people can’t just sit around and do nothing and expect to learn these days," he explained. "That’s what makes this industry so exciting."

The author is Editor of Lawn & Landscape manazine.