Gregory Pest Solutions Partners With Furman University to “Go Green”

It is the role of academic institutions to be incubators of innovation, so it should come as no surprise that on campuses across the country university educators are leading the way in not only developing – but implementing – green technologies.

Such is the case at Furman University, Greenville, S.C., one of the country’s leading liberal arts institutions, which aspires to be the “greenest university” in the nation, if not the entire world. With a total student enrollment of only 2,500 that may sound like an audacious goal, but the highly regarded private college has a long history of commitment to sustainability. For instance:
• More than 10 years ago, Furman formally adopted sustainability as one of its primary strategic goals. In fact, sustainability was a major emphasis of the university’s strategic plan adopted in 1997, and in 2001 the Board of Trustees unanimously agreed that the university should promote “sustainability through educational programs, campus operations/construction practices and public awareness initiatives.”
• In 2008, Furman was named one of the nation’s most environmentally conscious colleges and universities by KIWI magazine.
•  Furman hosts an annual “Let’s Get Trashed” event where assorted trash from the school’s residence halls is dumped in front of the library and students spend a two-day period sorting and displaying the recyclable discarded goods.

One of the university’s recent “green” initiatives was the construction of a $1 million home on the campus designed to draw attention to the benefits of green building design. Built in cooperation with Southern Living magazine and The Cliffs Communities, the 3,000-square-foot structure was one of the first residential homes in America to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. The home features a geothermal ground source heat pump and photovoltaic electrical system that reduces energy dependency. It also features Energy Star-rated appliances, low VOC paints, sustainable flooring and other green products. “I have been in the home and it is amazing some of the things that they have done,” said Ben Walker, president, Gregory Pest Solutions, Greenville, S.C.

Not surprisingly, to protect the state-of-the-art home from subterranean termites the university would only consider “green” pest management options. “Once Furman made the choice to become the greenest university in the nation, it was obvious to them that they could no longer treat their buildings for termites with conventional liquid (termiticides), but needed to make a change to bait,” Walker said.

Founded in 1826, Furman University has been a high-profile account of Gregory Pest Solutions for more than 20 years, but the family-owned business had not been the school’s exclusive provider of pest management services. “When Furman approached us about donating a baiting system (Sentricon) to the green home, we jumped at the opportunity because we knew the type of exposure that the home and the University would receive,” Walker observed. “As with any account, when the PCO and the client can work together, it is much more successful and Furman worked very well with us to get the job implemented.”

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The experience proved so positive, in fact, that Gregory Pest Solutions ultimately “got the contract to bait every building on campus,” according to Walker, working hand-in-hand with Dow AgroScienes to get the job done in a timely fashion. “I worked with Gregory’s to provide them with all the marketing materials they needed as well as recommendations for station placement on the campus,” said Amy Chapman, senior sales specialist, Dow AgroSciences, manufacturer of the Sentricon Colony Elimination System. In addition, Dow AgroSciences “provided Furman technical information about the product as well as examples of other notable properties around the U.S. currently protected such as the Statue of Liberty and the White House,” according to Chapman.

The partnership has paid dividends for both Furman University and Gregory Pest Solutions, resulting in not only additional business for the Greenville, S.C.-based firm, but an enhanced public image as an environmentally friendly business. In fact, earlier this year Gregory’s Termite Manager Billy Hughes and Termite Technician David Knot were interviewed by ETV, South Carolina’s statewide television and radio network which is making a documentary about Furman’s green building initiative.

Despite the high-profile nature of Furman’s environmental sustainability campaign, Walker said his company is an early adopter of green technology, launching a corporate wide “Go Green” initiative in early 2006. “We knew our company needed to have a ‘green’ service available,” he said, so management began exploring various service options. “We had clients as well as prospective clients asking questions about the services we had available that were more environmentally friendly.”

Fortunately, Walker said, “We knew that we had a leg up on the competition because of our bright green trucks that are well known throughout our service area. We put a program together that was basically a strict IPM approach. We have since joined QualityPro Green and follow their standards.”

In all, Gregory Pest Solutions has three “green” service offerings including: a basic IPM program; a green program that follows NPMA’s QualityPro Green standards; and an organic program. Although the company has developed a range of “green” service offerings, at present less than 5 percent of its overall business could be characterized as “green,” according to Walker. “Even though this is a relatively a low percentage of our business, I believe that this segment of the business will continue to increase and it would not surprise me if our ‘green’ business reaches 25 percent within the next five years,” he said.

Only time will tell, of course, but at the moment Gregory Pest Solutions is on the cutting-edge of the green movement thanks to its involvement with Furman University’s quest to become the “greenest university” in the United States.