Beyond Service: How Companies are Going Green

Pest management companies have embraced green practices in their operations, found the 2021 PCT State of the Naturals Market survey.

PMPs said that besides offering green pesticide solutions (53 percent) and making green product options available to technicians (36 percent), their companies bought routing software to reduce fuel consumption (22 percent), purchased smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles (21 percent) and took steps to reduce energy consumption (14 percent), among other activities.

Nozzle Nolen minimized its footprint by going paperless for invoicing and service tickets and implementing route optimization to reduce fuel consumption. The company also encourages employees to volunteer in the community, from beach clean-ups to feeding the food insecure.

Bug-N-A-Rug Exterminators moved away from high- volume power spraying. This reduced potential run-off and fuel consumption, said General Manager Stuart Flynn. The Wilmington, N.C.-based company also may update its 60-truck fleet with electric vehicles. “That is something that we’ll be looking at in the future as we look to phase out older vehicles,” he said.

Parker Eco Pest Control is buying carbon offsets for its service vehicles. A third-party organization is calculating Parker’s carbon footprint, and then the company will purchase offsets — in this case, tree planting — on behalf of those vehicles, said Wesley Parker.

Arkadia – Eco Pest Control supports conservation efforts by donating $1 for each customer to Save the Frogs! and also holds educational events for the nonprofit organization. The company’s superhero frog logo underscores its commitment to protecting these threatened animals.

According to this year’s PCT survey, fewer companies did nothing to go green — 26 percent — compared to the 2019 report, when nearly one third (32 percent) of pest management professionals said their locations did not undertake green initiatives.