Terra-scape Founder Sees Battery Power Advantages

Terra-scape was founded over fifty years ago, so they’ve seen many changes in outdoor power equipment technology across those decades. George Kennedy is the current President of Terra-scape and the third generation of his family in the company. He wanted to make the switch to battery-powered tools, in alignment with the company’s focus on sustainability and being in harmony with the natural world—but he also knew that swapping to a new brand of OPE came with risks.

“Sustainability is a huge part of the company that we are,” George says. “We always feel like, as landscapers, we are stewards of the environment, and we want to take care of it and leave it better than we found it. When electric was becoming what I would say legitimate—meaning that there were actual pieces of equipment that commercial landscape companies could use—we really started paying attention to it.”

Many landscaping companies are in a similar situation. The sustainable advantages of electric equipment are appealing, and everyone knows that battery-powered tools are quieter, less polluting, and easier to start. But there are other key factors that George needed to guarantee—performance, price, maintenance concerns, and battery life.

Battery power continues to improve as technology advances, while gas engines stay stuck in the past. Once battery-powered tools could match gas engines for power output, many landscapers started looking into swapping brands to a more sustainable option. For George, that process started by running the numbers.

“At one point, when our mowers were propane,” he says, “we were spending over $2,000 a month on propane in addition to fuel. Our fuel budget every month… [has] gone down probably close to $1,000 since we converted to electric.”

But monthly fuel costs aren’t most of the expense of a new mower fleet. The upfront cost scares away many companies, and although the tools save money in the long run, some purchasers worry about how long it will take for that investment to pay off. George’s plan was simple; he ran the numbers.

“Don't let the upfront price of an electric mower scare you.” George says. “It definitely costs more than a gas mower. But when you do the ROI over a short period of time, I think the payback on ours was less than two years. When you take out all of the headaches of a gasoline mower, and the simplicity of an electric mower, it literally will pay for itself in a very short period of time.”

In addition to the financial savings, George considered the cost and impact of maintenance and downtime. Electric lawn equipment requires almost no maintenance, meaning that your new tools will keep running through the seasons, paying for themselves many times over. By comparison, gas engines require frequent maintenance for belts, oil and air filters, fittings, and more. Gas engines demand more care than a powerful electric brushless motor.

We asked George how much maintenance his Greenworks machines required, and his response was clear. “Virtually zero maintenance. For me, that's a huge thing because even if it's something minor, like a belt breaking or a clutch going bad, that causes a mower to be down until we can get somebody to fix it… sometimes the mowers will be down for two, three, four weeks.”

Finally, there is the concern of runtime. Professional landscapers can’t take time off during the middle of the day to recharge their fleet, so we know that any Optimus product needs a full day’s runtime from their batteries. Charging solutions are one focus of our commercial tool offering, and George vouches for their success.

“The battery life is the number one thing that scares perspective buyers because there's a lot of hype out there about how long a mower can last. And I know that some people have made claims that haven’t held up to the standards they were saying at front. So that was a big concern for us.”

Terra-scape first connected with the Greenworks Optimus team at a tradeshow, and George expressed his concern about runtime. We’re so confident in our Optimus mowers that we decided to let George test it himself.

“The Greenworks guys that I met at the show,” he says, “they were claiming easily eight hours of runtime. They let us hang on to the mower for two days. We went out and… I don't want to say we abused it, but we used it to its fullest extent, and without a doubt we get eight hours of runtime out of our mower, and it absolutely will hold up even under the most strenuous summertime thick grass conditions in Florida. Easily holds up for eight hours.”

After testing the Greenworks Commercial Optimus lineup, the decision was simple. George chose Greenworks for his commercial-grade battery-powered outdoor power equipment partner, and he’s been happy ever since. Choosing a battery-powered tool brand gives you quieter tools, lower fuel costs, and less maintenance—with as much (or more!) power as a gas tool.

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