Certified green landscaping companies

“Make Sure the Grass is Greener on Your Side of the Fence. Use a Montgomery County Certified Green Landscape Business.”

Ride-on buses with the above slogan can be seen throughout Montgomery County. But what is it all about?

The popular Green Business Certification program is expanding its eligibility beyond office-based businesses to include landscaping companies. Landscapers, such as garden centers and those offering design, installation or maintenance services, can now be recognized for their efforts to reduce their environmental impact.

Certified green landscaping companies utilize practices that both help the environment and provide beautiful gardens.

Certified Green Landscapers go beyond greening their own operations to emphasizing how their clients can green their properties too, including:

• reducing and eliminating pesticides and fertilizers;
• planting native canopy trees;
• installing rain gardens to capture and filter stormwater;
• creating conservation landscapes;
• reducing mowing areas to cut emissions; and
• conserving water.

Inaugural Green Landscapers

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett recognized the first seven businesses to be certified under the County’s new Green Landscape Business Certification Program at a press event on April 29th.

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett spoke about the importance of the Certified Green Landscaping Program.

To be certified, Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection staff visit an applicant’s office and two to three of its worksites to confirm they are meeting sustainable practice guidelines. The seven certified landscape businesses in the inaugural group are:

• The Abundant Backyard
• A.I.R. Lawn Care
• Backyard Bounty
• The Brickman Group, Ltd
• Gracefully Green, LLC
• Green Scene Landscaping, Inc.
• Kit Gage – Gardener’s Adviser

Green Business Certification

The Green Business Certification program recognizes businesses that have taken voluntary steps to protect, preserve, and improve the environment. Certified Green Businesses operate in a manner that demonstrates a commitment to environmental stewardship. Currently, 50 businesses are certified, including the 7 newly certified green landscapers.

The Green Business Certification program is a collaboration between the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce and Montgomery College.

Rain gardens help capture and filter rainfall runoff.

The Landscape Business Certification application and other information is available on the Green Business Certification website at mcgreenbiz.org.

To view more photos from the launch event, visit the My Green Montgomery Facebook photo album.

By Douglas M. Weisburger, Manager, Green Business Certification Program