Tool manufacturing giant enters landscaping market

MILWUAKEE – Milwaukee Tool unveiled three battery-powered products for the landscaping market at its New Product Symposium in Milwaukee in June.

The company organized the event to unveil 200 new products across multiple different markets. The outdoor power products, which will launch in spring of 2017, are part of the M18 FUEL system and are the company’s first venture into the market.

The three products are all fully compatible with the whole M18 system, meaning contractors who own multiple tools in the system are able to switch batteries between all products.

Shane Moll, president, power tools, said their vision is to have a completely cordless jobsite, and adding landscaping equipment to the lineup was something they were excited about.

“That’s been a unique investment for us,” he said. “Our commitment is always to the pro; our focus is on delivering a pro experience, no matter what we deliver.”

String trimmer.

The new M18 FUEL String Trimmer is powered by the M18 Redlithium High Demand 9.0 Battery Pack. According to Andrew Lentz, a product manager with the company, it has a variable speed trigger, “to give operators more control. When you pull this trigger, it’s all on immediately.”

Lentz said the string trimmer isn’t the type of equipment to completely replace gas trimmers for landscape contractors, but he says it’s a good product to complement the gas lineup.

Hedge trimmer.

The M18 FUEL Hedge Trimmer is an “all out” replacement for gas, Lentz said. It features a 24-inch blade and is able to cut through thick branches in a single pass. It also delivers less weight and lower vibration and noise than gas.

Leaf blower.

Milwaukee’s blower will meet the demands of contractors who need to remove lawn debris, but it will also meet the demand of hardscape contractors who need to clear a space of debris before pouring concrete. Lentz said that when they talked to contractors about blowers, the consistent comment they heard was that everyone wants more power and more runtime in equal amounts.

“We’re able to deliver the right combination of power and runtime,” he said.

Q: Can you provide a good method for identifying and documenting hazards at worksites and prioritizing them so that we can reduce the risks and eliminate the hazardous work conditions?

A: This is a very good question, and certainly critical if you are going to implement effective safety and health training for your employees. Let me suggest the following series of steps that combines “tried and true” methods with guidance from suggestions provided by OSHA.

Step 1. Make a determination on the type of hazard that impacts the safety and health of your workers. The broad categories of workplace hazards include:

a. Chemical and dust hazards (including solvents, pesticides and silica dust)

b. Ergonomic hazards (including back injuries from improper lifting and repetitive motion)

c. Physical hazards (including noise, temperature extremes and ultraviolet exposure)

d. Biological hazards (including mold/fungi, insects bites and poisonous plants)

e. Safety hazards (including slips, trips and falls and unguarded or altered equipment exposures)

f. Work organization hazards (including a host of stressors like workplace violence and sexual harassment)

Step 2. Document and prioritize the hazards that have been identified. Everyone within your organization can, and should be involved in identifying the hazards. The hazard ID may be the result of observations of worker activities at work sites, reports of close calls, or a review of medical records from previous incidents.

As an example, let’s say that damaged or altered deflector shields are found on several pieces of mowing equipment. This type of hazard can result in personal injury to equipment operators or crew members and/or property damage from flying debris.

Step 3. Management may find it easier to take an identified hazard and break it down into the jobs that are impacted. This is referred to as a JSA, or Job Safety Analysis. In a JSA, employers break down the assigned jobs into activities.

For example, operating a zero-turn mower includes all activities such as: pre-operation fueling, equipment safety checks and maintenance; loading the unit onto a transport vehicle; unloading the mower at the job site; checking the job site for debris; and the actual mowing operations. Breaking down the job into the various work activities allows management to better deal with unsafe work details that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Step 4. During the JSA, any hazards detected will make it easier to determine those interventions that are needed to improve safety on the job. During the pre-operation safety check in the scenario described in Step 3, it may be determined that the zero-turn is not safe due to a malfunctioning parking brake or missing deflector shield. A serious incident could be prevented if this unit was placed out of service until repairs can be made. Or perhaps the crew manager notices unsafe operating practices related to the use of the ROPS (Roll-Over Protection System).

This could be rectified by discussing the unsafe practices between the operator and the crew manager, or the firm’s safety director. Re-training may be the answer to this unsafe behavior.

Step 5. An important follow-up step in the process is the evaluation. In the ROPS scenario, the crew manager should observe that it is in the up and locked position at all times, with the exception of mowing under low canopy trees and when being loaded into a low clearance transport vehicle.

Training and re-training of equipment operators should also achieve positive results.

When personal protective equipment (PPE) is supplied and required for certain jobs, it is clearly observable whether the workers are using their PPE. If PPE training is being done, it is easy to document its safe use by having crew members install and then describe in their words the important safety characteristics of eye and hearing protection. Training conducted in this manner should be fully documented with the name of the trainee and trainer, the topic covered, and the date of the training session.

Breaking down the job assignments into work activities provides the employer with a better assessment of those activities that may cause a higher level of risk at the work site. Other sources of JSA templates and methods are available online.

Dr. Sam Steel Safety Adviser & Consultant National Association of Landscape Professionals

Ask the Experts is brought to you in partnership with NALP, the national association of landscape professionals. Questions are fielded through NALP’s Trailblazers, the industry’s leading company mentoring program. For more questions visit Landscapeprofessionals.org.

VISTA, Calif. – Heaviland Landscape Management projects it will save the Palomar Tech Center 2.3 million gallons of potable water annually, through landscape design renovation and a recycled water irrigation system conversion. Located at 2443 Impala Dr. in Carlsbad, this commercial property renovation project is a 24,754 square-foot industrial office complex residing on an 8 ½-acre lot.

In 2015, commercial property management group Covey Commercial and real estate firm Rexford Industrial solicited the help of Heaviland Landscape Management to convert the landscape into a water-conscious one through a multi-phase design/build renovation and irrigation system retrofit. The goals of the project were to reduce water required to irrigate the property's landscape and improve the property's sustainability.

Project planning began in October 2014 and both landscape renovation and recycled water conversion started during June 2015. The landscape was completed by August and the irrigation retrofit in September 2015. The 42,860-square-foot renovation included a drought-tolerant plant palette of a variety of agaves, kangaroo paws, succulents, salvias and other Mediterranean climate plants.

Additionally, by converting the site’s irrigation system to one that utilizes recycled water, the Palomar Tech Center is no longer using potable water to irrigate, saving a projected 1.26 million gallons of drinkable water annually. The irrigation system retrofit and plant replacement saves the commercial property a projected 2.3 million gallons of water annually.

Rajan Brown, Heaviland Landscape Management vice president of design, construction and sustainability designed, built and managed the Palomar Tech Center project.

“Now, the client has a total of 92,010 square feet of sustainable, low-water-use landscaping complete with a recycled water irrigation system,” he said.

LAYTONSVILLE, Md. – Ruppert Landscape hired James Thompson as chief financial officer.

Thompson brings more than 20 years of finance, accounting and treasury experience to the position that ranges from the landscape and construction industries to the security and hotel industries. For the past eight years, he’s worked in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently as the vice president of global finance, accounting, treasury and purchasing for the United States Pharmacopeia in Rockville, Maryland.

“Following the transition of former CFO Tom Barry to oversee of our Landscape Management Division, we began a thorough search for our new CFO,” said Phil Key, president.

“One of the key things that drew us to James was his desire to function more in the capacity of an operational CFO – meaning he intends to not only look at the numbers, but also at how our systems and processes, efficiencies and inefficiencies impact our operations. To that end, he’ll spend much of his first few months immersing himself in our processes and operations to learn about Ruppert from the ground up.”

In his role as chief financial officer, Thompson will oversee both the accounting and information technology departments and he will be responsible for planning, implementing, managing and controlling all financial-related activities of the company.

This will include direct responsibility for accounting, finance, forecasting, strategic planning, job costing, legal, property management and deal analysis and negotiations.

LITTLETON, Col. – Terracare Associates (TCA) has acquired Landscape Management Services (LMS), based in San Jose, California. The transaction closed on April 30 and is a strategic extension of current TCA operations in Northern California. TCA ranked 29th on Lawn & Landscape’s 2015 Top 100 with more than $47 million in revenue.

“This transaction is a terrific opportunity for our organization to grow along the peninsula and we couldn’t be more pleased to partner with the strong ownership and management team currently in place at LMS,” said Dean Murphy, president of TCA.

“The team at LMS has built a portfolio of quality-minded clients and we will certainly work together with the LMS staff to meet and exceed their expectations going forward.”

“This transaction is a terrific opportunity for our organization to grow along the peninsula.” Dean Murphy, president, TCA

TCA is based in Littleton, Colorado and has approximately 850 employees in four states. It currently operates in multiple California locations including Sacramento, Martinez, Brentwood, Livermore, Milpitas and San Diego. In addition, the company has operations in Salt Lake City, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Denver.

LMS has approximately 100 employees, and all will be staying on following the transition.

DALLAS – Bill Horn joined Lambert Landscape Co. as vice president, garden services.

Horn will assume executive oversight for Lambert’s garden management, tree care and plant health care programs including strategy development and planning.

“In getting to know Bill better over the past few weeks, I feel that he will be a great fit both personally and professionally with our culture.” Paul Fields, president, Lambert’s

“In getting to know Bill better over the past few weeks, I feel that he will be a great fit both personally and professionally with our culture,” said Paul Fields, president and director of design. His leadership abilities, horticultural knowledge and dedication to sustainability will be great attributes for us as we work together to build on and grow the Lambert’s brand. We’re excited to have him join our team as we further advance our business strategy on approach to our 100th anniversary.”

Horn has more than three decades of landscape leadership and corporate social responsibility experience. He was a National Association of Landscape Professionals board member; a recipient of its Lifetime Leadership Award; a treasurer of the GIE+EXPO, the industry’s largest annual showcase; a Paul Harris Fellow with Rotary International; and most recently, senior vice president at Terracare Associates, a commercial landscape and outdoor maintenance company.