THE TRADITIONAL SOLUTION™
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Lawn Mowing Vancouver, Lawn Care Vancouver, Gardening Vancouver, Garden Care Vancouver, Organic, Mulching, Grass Shears, Reel Mowers, Manual Lawn care, Environmentally Friendly, Ecological, Sustainable, Green Lawn and Garden Services, metrognome.ca
604-358-5296
info@metrognome.ca
Our Emissions Mitigation Tracker monitors the amount of emissions we mitigate by using bicycles and manual lawn mowing equipment in place of gasoline trucks, mowers, and blowers. We record the contributions of every customer and employee, then we post those contributions to our customer invoices, our employee records, and here on our website under the monthly total and current total trackers.
To monitor the amount of vehicle emissions mitigated by our use of bicycle transportation, the total amount of distance (km) travelled and the total amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) prevented through Metro Gnome’s use of bicycle transportation are recorded daily and shared monthly. All of the data for the distance travelled and the GHG Prevented are obtained through our use of the Cycling Metro Vancouver Route Planner, provided by the University of British Columbia (UBC) at http://www.cyclevancouver.ubc.ca/cv.aspx.
Calculating the amount of GHG emissions we mitigate with manual equipment can be tricky at times due to the large range of equipment that may be used, differing user habits, and changing government regulations. To maintain transparency in our efforts we record the spatial amount of manual lawn mowing work performed, which can then be compared to a specific piece of equipment. More information on calculating lawn mower emissions can be found here or here or by contacting your local equipment dealers and manufacturers.
To calculate our lawn mowing GHG emission mitigations we based that there are 19.4lbs of GHG produced for every gallon of gasoline used in a four-stroke lawn mower. This converts to 2.325 kg of GHG produced for every litre of gasoline consumed. We then multiplied this number by .66 to reflect the 2012 change in EPA emission standards, which allow for approximately one-third of the amount of HC+Nox that were allowed by the 2007 EPA emission standards. Based on our modest calculations, each litre of gasoline produces approximately 1.55kg of GHG emissions.
In Lawn Mower Use and Emissions in Canada by Environment Canada (1994) it states that the average self-propelled walk behind 21”four-stroke engine consumes 3.1 litres of gasoline over 3 hours. With a 21” mower operating at a speed of .8 m/s with 90% efficiency, it takes one hour to mow 14,520 square feet of lawn, and the mower will consume one litre of gas while producing 1.55 kg of GHG emissions. As such, we have chosen to calculate our lawn mowing emission mitigations from the measurement of 1000 square feet = 0.0689 litres of gasoline = 0.1067 kg of GHG emissions.
Our lawn mowing GHG emission mitigation calculations do not include any use of mixed gas and oil two-stroke engines. Such engines are typically hand held, such as a string trimmer, a powered-edger, and a backpack blower, and the EPA standards for these types of engines allow for a larger amount of emissions than is allowed for with four-stroke engines (a typical lawn mower engine). In the future we plan to finalize our conversion methods to track the emission mitigations from all aspects of lawn maintenance by using a grams per kilowatt-hour measurement based on EPA regulations.
Quiet and Emission-Free Lawn and Garden Care
Metro Gnome Lawn and Garden provides quiet, emission-free mowing and maintenance services in Vancouver, British Columbia. We specialize in sustainable care for small to medium sized yards, with lawns up to 4,000 square feet in size. We mow lawns using only manually-powered reel mowers, grass shears, and hand tools, and all of our services are delivered by bicycle and trailer. Our low-impact lawn mowing equipment minimizes the risk of damages to soft lawns, pools, sprinkler-heads, garden plants, fences, pathways, sidewalks, and stairs.
We give free estimates and we are fully incorporated, licensed, insured, and bonded.
In a world of constantly changing alternatives we offer competitively priced and sustainable yard care solutions derived from high-quality traditional practices and a strong work ethic.
EMISSIONS MITIGATION TRACKER©
April 2012
Distance: 225.218 km
Mowing: 46,165 sqft
Lawn Mowing GHG Prevented:
5.461 kg
Vehicle GHG Prevented:
56.306 kg
Monitoring Our Environmental Impact
Current Total
Distance: 437.698 km
Mowing: 55,968 sqft
Lawn Mowing GHG Prevented:
6.507 kg
Vehicle GHG Prevented:*
109.466 kg