PROJECT PROFILE BY SARAH WEBB
Ahead of the
CURVE
Mokhlessin, COO and managing partner of Everthrive. “We vetted several manufacturers and talked to the clients about the benefits it would bring them since its a homeowners’ association (HOA). A lot of the noise and fumes that go along with traditional gas-powered equipment can be seen as noxious, so this was an added benefit to the residents.” A look at how one California company tackles Caceres also notes that maintaining sites an ongoing maintenance project using batteryusing electric equipment can be used as a tool to promote a better quality of service. powered equipment. “Once they see and hear how quiet hen it came down to adopting batteryit is compared to gas-powered equipment, it’s a great powered equipment for its maintenance approach to getting certain types of work,” Caceres says. projects, Everthrive Landscape Co. in To maintain the sprawling community, five to Riverside, Calif., ensured it was ahead of the curve. six Everthrive employees visit the site daily—since One of those maintenance projects comprises a gated February 2023—and use Milwaukee Tool’s lineup of community with scenic lakes and a lot of foot traffic, battery-powered equipment, including hedge trimmers, pedestrians and landscapes right up against homes, mowers, string trimmers and backpack sprayers. according to Jonathan Caceres, CEO and One major benefit of the tools, Mokhlessin managing partner of Everthrive. says, comes with the equipment’s total “We started out in advance weight—or lack thereof. looking at this because we “We had our crews test them, and this figured it was coming down equipment seemed to be the lightest. the pipeline and wanted It reduced fatigue for crew members to be ahead of the game who are utilizing it for eight hours when legislation did get a day,” says Mokhlessin. us to mandate electric Run time concerns are eliminated, equipment,” says Nick Caceres says, by the fact that the HOA has the facilities to charge equipment there. Crews at the location clock in and out daily from the site. “Depending on the infrastructure, Everthrive decided to make use of charging could be a challenge, but battery-powered equipment before it we constantly have access to charge was possibly mandated. equipment, so the crew never has to Milwaukee Tool leave the site to get fuel, whereas if we were using gas-powered equipment, they would have to go off-site to fill up gas cans, and there’s a big time and expense (factor) to that,” Caceres says. Overall, Mokhlessin says the company is enthusiastic about using electric equipment to maintain various sites. “Like everyone else in the industry, we had apprehensions when we were considering electric, but having put it into practice, it’s keeping up,” Mokhlessin says. “And, it’s not just the way forward, but it’s the right thing to do for our crew members and our clients.”
W
Milwaukee Tool
Everthrive sends crews each day to the maintenance site.
30 GREEN INDUSTRY PROS ❙ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 ❙ www.greenindustrypros.com