We’ve been listening to our customers in the Kansas City area who have expressed their need for environmentally friendly pest control options. They’re understandably concerned about the effects that harsh chemicals may have on their family, pets, and the environment.
Here at Gunter Pest & Lawn, we value both the well-being of our customers and environmental responsibility. That’s why we’ve committed to a large-scale green initiative that includes converting our buildings and vehicles to greener options and offering environmentally friendly pest control. We feel that it’s our personal duty to reduce carbon emissions and find alternatives to harsh chemicals.
Solar energy
Sunlight is a natural resource that can be converted into energy by using solar panels. We installed solar panels on our office building and garage to help reduce our carbon footprint. The U.S. places 2nd in annual carbon dioxide emissions at 17.9%, right behind China. By switching to solar energy, we help offset some of those emissions.
For a better idea of what that looks like, think about it this way: The average residential home offsets about 100,000 lbs. of carbon dioxide in 20 years – which is the equivalent of driving a car for 100,000 miles!
Switching to Electric vehicles
The Gunter fleet is transitioning to Tesla electric vehicles! (cue “Electric Boogie” by Marcia Griffiths)
Electric cars don’t release any tailpipe emissions which significantly improves air quality—making them a much greener option.
Now, there are some who question how green is the electricity production required to power an electric. Research by the European Energy Agency found that, even with electricity generation, the carbon emissions of an electric car are around 17–30% lower than driving a petrol or diesel car. Plus, when low carbon electricity is used, emissions from electricity generation dramatically improve.
Environmentally Friendly Pest Treatments
It’s pretty rare to see “pest treatments” and “environmentally friendly” in the same sentence. That’s because most companies choose to only use chemical treatments. Chemical treatments are popular because they are cheap and effective. But in some cases, they can also be harmful to the environment.
When it comes to pest control, there’s not yet a fully “green” option, but there are ways to reduce the use of chemicals. For example, for termite treatments, we use eco-friendly and highly effective bait stations we place outside your home. We are an Authorized Operator of the Sentricon® System.
We also use heat treatments instead of chemical treatments for bed bugs. Here’s a quick overview of the benefits of using bed bug heat treatments:
- Heat treatments are lethal to bugs but safe for your home and belongings.
- Heat treatments eliminate bed bugs in all stages of life, including eggs & adults.
- Heat treatments penetrate the hard-to-reach areas chemicals usually can’t.
- And of course the best for last… Heat treatments make it possible for us to eliminate all bed bugs from your home in just one visit!
Going Paperless
We’ve also decided to go entirely paperless! All documents that we used to print on paper have now been converted to an electronic format. All the documents that we used to print on paper have now been converted to an electronic format. That means less paper, fewer copies made, less ink, and way fewer file cabinets!
Going paperless can help prevent deforestation and reduce CO2 emissions. A tree can only produce, on average, 17 reams of paper, and takes about 100 years to grow. Then as a result of turning that tree into 17 reams of paper, 110 lbs. of CO2 are released into the atmosphere.
Not only do trees improve air quality, but they’re also a carbon sink which means that they absorb a majority of the carbon that’s released into the air. The average tree can absorb around a ton (2,000 lbs) of C02 in its lifetime. In other words, we need trees.
