Sustaining Our Community And Putting You First By Going Green
70 years in business has brought 70 years of changes and evolution as a Kansas City, Missouri small business. Gunter Pest & Lawn has done as we said we would in the way beginning when Reggie Gunter led the way.
We’ve listened to you, and we’ve considered our Kansas City customers before all else. This also means sustaining our community has become a major priority in our company values. In 2018, we made a huge commitment to going green. This gave a whole new meaning to our forever slogan: Go, Gunter, Go Green. Read below for updates on our going green business additions.
Solar Panels Power Our Electric Vehicles and Buildings
In 2019, we installed solar panels on our vehicle fleet garage and our office building. After almost a year of solar energy powering our electricity, we’re so excited to reveal a few amazing statistics about how much CO2 we are saving the planet from.
In 2019, we invested in a large renovation of our vehicle fleet garage.
First, we added solar panels to our existing (pre-renovated) garage and office buildings. Here’s a before picture of our garage building with the solar panels.
Next, we bumped out the vehicle fleet garage 20 feet and consolidated garage doors to have just one entry and one exit to make room for growth and efficiency.
Lastly, we added plug-in stations to charge new electric service fleet vehicles. Our new electric vehicles began rolling in March 2020!
In our vehicle fleet garage: From July 2019 to May 2020, our solar panels have helped us save 19.84 tons of C02!
*Graph provided by Brightergy
In our office building: From July 2019 to May 2020, our solar panels have helped us save 2,293.30 kg of CO2
*Graph provided by Fronius monitoring in partnership with our solar panel supplier Brightergy
Electric Tesla Vehicle Fleet Powered By Solar Energy
Car exhausts from gasoline are causing global warming, acid rain, and causing immediate and long-term harm to the environment and human health. Drilling for oil and gas disrupts wildlife, causes air and water pollution that hurts local communities, emissions contribute to climate change, oil spills are deadly to animals, etc. Less or eventually no gas cars mean less drilling for oil and gas. These are just a few of the many environmental perks that led us to invest in electric Teslas for our service vehicles and slowly replace our gas-powered cars.
We have a very unique situation and an even more green operation compared to most businesses and individuals who drive teslas as our plug-in charging stations are powered by solar energy. Most Teslas are charged via charging stations powered by regular electricity. Our charging saves even more energy since they’re powered by solar energy. We are one of the few if not only businesses to use Tesla vehicles in Kansas City for service vehicles!
Paperless Operating System
In February 2019, we switched to a paperless operating system in our office and technician routes. How much paper have we saved? Of course, we don’t have an exact count, but from February to May 2020, we’ve saved around 90,000 sheets of paper.
Low To No Chemical Treatment Options
Chemical-Free
Bed bug treatments: Our bed bug treatments require zero chemicals. Starting in 2019, we completely eliminated chemical treatment options for a few reasons. In addition to heat treatments being an eco-friendly way to treat for bed bugs, chemical treatments are much less effective in comparison, so we no longer offer them. In chemical bed bug treatments, the bed bugs often hide in cracks and behind picture frames as an example during treatments. During no-chemical heat treatments, the high heat temperatures permeate cracks and crevices and areas bed bugs hide during chemical treatments.
Eco-Friendly
Termite treatments: In 2019, we eliminated all chemical termite treatments. We’re one of the few pest control companies in Kansas City to offer zero chemical options for termite treatments. This will save your homes and our environment from thousands of gallons of termite chemicals every year. Our Sentricon bait stations are not only much more eco-friendly than chemical treatments, but they’re also more effective and protective on a long-term basis. Often, years after a chemical treatment, termites can come back again. Sentricon bait stations, instead, stay in your ground as long as you’d like them to and act as an ongoing termite protection system. If you’re looking for eco-friendly termite treatment or protection system, always make sure to ask the company before they do the treatment if it’s a chemical or bait-based treatment.
The Best Way To Treat Termites In Kansas City
Low-Impact
Pest Control Treatments: Many many moons ago, pest control companies used very high concentrated chemicals to treat homes and businesses as an industry standard. Today, we actively seek and purchase low-odor residual sprays and other treatment options that have little to no impact on the environment. We integrate boric acid (mined from the earth) and pyrethrins (made from chrysanthemums) into our pest control treatments. Our pest control sprays are very low-odor, but we often treat with zero chemical sprays. For example, our preventative quarterly treatments for our annual pest control plans consist of granular bait in the soil as a protective barrier.
The Gunter Pest & Lawn goal is to continue updating you with our solar energy savings and other green updates. Thank you for supporting our green energy efforts – we are grateful for the opportunity to continue servicing your homes and businesses since 1950!
Be Sure To Check Out Our Other Services:
Mosquitos — Commercial Pest Control — Residential Pest Control — Ants — Sanitation
