“Going
Organic in Montgomery County”
AOLCP
Zack Kline Quietly Cuts Lawns and Testifies to Ban Lawn Pesticides
By Kathy Litchfield
ROCKVILLE,
MD – It was a
“code red” day in Montgomery County, Md. – 100 degrees with intense humidity
and very poor air quality -- and a teenage Zack Kline was sweating and
breathing in smog as his ears drummed along with the loud noise of the string
trimmer he utilized on a three-acre property.
What
he didn’t bargain for was the loud noise, excessive pollution and large amounts
of gasoline the company poured into their machines on a daily basis. Days began
at the gas station.
“I
just knew there had to be a better way,” said the now 25-year-old NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care
Professional, who founded his company, A.I.R. Lawn Care (A.I.R. stands for
Atmosphere Improvement and Renewal) four years ago. Kline focuses on providing
clients with natural and organic lawn care, landscape design and environmentally-friendly
maintenance services. He found his clients wanted to be educated about
alternatives to the loud, polluting engines used by landscape companies as much
as he wanted to learn about and eliminate them from his life.
The
enterprising young professional wrote a business plan and, in order to get seed
money to start his own company, entered Salisbury University’s Bernstein
Business Plan competition in 2010, in which he took honorable mention. In 2011,
after honing his plan, he re-entered again and took home the $5,000 first place
prize.
“With
that, A.I.R. Lawn Care was born – I put a down payment on a truck, purchased
electric lawn equipment and began to get clients for the 2011 season,” he said.
With
his passion ignited, Kline launched into business and started going door to
door with his electric equipment, offering lawn cutting. Over time his clients
asked if he offered other environmentally friendly services, and he was happy
to oblige. He presently has commercial and residential clients and maintains
several crews. Last year he downsized the time-consuming residential side of
the business and increased the commercial base; he was rewarded with triple
growth of the business overall.
Networking has played
an essential role in Kline’s early success as well as in his connecting to the
movers and shakers of Montgomery County, Md. where he is now embroiled in testifying
to help ban lawn pesticides county-wide.
Last fall, the co-founder
of the group Bethesda Green and county councilor George Levanthal introduced a
bill to ban “non-essential” pesticides from lawns throughout the county, citing
cancer and other health concerns. Kline got involved with the group in 2011 at
a lunch seminar where he met decision makers within the community’s public and
private sectors and formed lasting relationships that have not only led to
referrals for his business, but allowed him to stand up and speak his mind not
only about the hazards of pesticides but about the business opportunities for
landscapers.
On Jan. 15, Kline
testified at the bill’s first public hearing, citing examples of successful
local organic projects and the growth he has experienced in providing
environmentally-friendly services.
“The results I’ve seen
in my landscaping business show that lawns can be green and healthy at a
reasonable cost while keeping people and pets healthy by avoiding the use of
pesticides. I strongly recommend the county council to pass Bill 52-14 so our
county can continue to set an example for other counties across the United
States and be the safest, cleanest and healthiest community where people want
to live and work,” he said during the hearing.
A second hearing was
held Feb. 12 and Kline said he has “no doubt” that the bill will pass. He cites
issues with the bill however: one is that the ban will exempt playing fields
and parks where children play; and that there is a “sunset clause” that the
bill will expire in 2019; issues that will hopefully be decided later this
summer, he said.
Through his work, Kline
has enjoyed getting to know Chip Osborne, who led a series of workshops in nearby
Takoma Park, Md. to help educate the public about natural and organic lawn care
last fall. Kline also maintains a relationship with Paul Tukey, author of “The
Organic Lawn Care Manual,” who pointed him to the NOFA Organic Land Care
Program for accreditation. Kline was accredited in 2014 at the Philadelphia,
Pa. course.
“I like to surround
myself with experts,” said Kline. “People say, ‘it’s not what you know but who
you know,’ but I believe it’s really ‘who knows you,’” said Kline, who
attributes networking as a major key to his success. “I was very gung ho when I
started out, always in the streets, introducing myself and letting people know
about what I was doing, and becoming part of groups where I could meet
influential people.”
Among
these is the president of STIHL Inc. After extensive research into
what battery-powered equipment he wanted to purchase for his company, Kline
chose STIHL and discovered their president loved to play bagpipes. Kline
purchased bagpipe cufflinks on the Internet, hand wrote a letter of introduction
explaining his business plan and desire to purchase STIHL equipment, and sent
it out. Shortly thereafter he received a personal phone call from company
president Fred Whyte, who thanked him for the gift and arranged for a personal
meeting with himself and other executives.
“After realizing I
was the real deal, they donated equipment that helped get us started,” said
Kline. Through other STIHL connections, Kline learned about PLANET, the professional landcare networking
group for land care professionals, and STIHL’s Independent
We Stand, a
movement supporting locally owned businesses.
Kline has been
featured in industry magazines such as Turf Magazine and in national STIHL
advertisements for battery-powered equipment. Kline’s roommate also runs a
video production company, DC Visionaries, and is working on a documentary
about the pesticide-banning bill.
“These
relationships have tremendously bumped up my success. Just reaching out to the
executives at Stihl for instance has grown my business ten-fold,” he said.
Using
solar, battery-powered equipment has also provided Kline a niche in the
ever-changing and growing landscape industry just outside of Washington, D.C.,
where he says people are progressive and business opportunities are plentiful.
“The
biggest benefit is the noise reduction. The benefits to the business owner are
huge – it’s very marketable, it saves money, there are no fuel or maintenance
costs for the gas engines, they’re easy to start and operate and there is no
pollution – my crews can talk on their cell phones while they’re out in the
field,” he said. “And it’s clean for them, they’re not inhaling emissions. For
the client, an additional benefit is that a client working remotely from home
may be in the middle of a conference call when we show up to mow. The biggest
compliment we get from our clients is ‘we didn’t even know you were here’ and
then they see the finished cut and love the result. I believe battery-powered equipment
will be mainstream within five years, because of these
benefits.”
Kline
has a practical and realistic view of the future. “The good thing is the grass
is always going to grow and someone will have to cut it. It definitely affects
property values. And people are becoming more and more conscientious about the
environment. They’re looking at how contractors are handling that. We are
setting examples that I believe others will start to follow.”
