1 00:00:00,020 --> 00:00:00,200 Shimat Joseph: Okay, 2 00:00:00,660 --> 00:00:01,240 Shimat Joseph: welcome back. 3 00:00:02,640 --> 00:00:04,180 Shimat Joseph: Let's have our second speaker. 4 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:08,880 Shimat Joseph: So our second speaker is Dr. 5 00:00:09,340 --> 00:00:10,220 Shimat Joseph: Paul Bartley. 6 00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:11,840 Shimat Joseph: So Dr. 7 00:00:12,140 --> 00:00:18,520 Shimat Joseph: Paul Bartley is an assistant professor of landscape environmental stewardship in the Department of Horticulture. 8 00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:22,000 Shimat Joseph: at Auburn University. 9 00:00:22,580 --> 00:00:38,640 Shimat Joseph: His research and extension program focused on helping the horticulture and landscape industries navigate emerging environmental and regulatory challenges while maintaining functional and economically viable landscapes. 10 00:00:39,420 --> 00:00:43,960 Shimat Joseph: His work examines sustainable landscape maintenance practices, 11 00:00:45,140 --> 00:00:46,840 Shimat Joseph: outdoor power equipment technologies, 12 00:00:47,740 --> 00:00:50,540 Shimat Joseph: and the role of policy in shaping landscape management. 13 00:00:50,920 --> 00:01:00,740 Shimat Joseph: Dr. Bartley also leads collaborative research initiatives with industry partners through Auburn University Outdoor, 14 00:01:01,320 --> 00:01:03,620 Shimat Joseph: Power Equipment Consortium, 15 00:01:03,899 --> 00:01:12,780 Shimat Joseph: working to evaluate technologies and strategies that support more sustainable landscape operations. 16 00:01:14,060 --> 00:01:15,180 Shimat Joseph: Hey Paul, 17 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:17,460 Shimat Joseph: the floor is yours, okay? 18 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:19,240 Paul Bartley: Thanks, Shimat. 19 00:01:19,500 --> 00:01:21,040 Paul Bartley: Appreciate that introduction. 20 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:22,300 Paul Bartley: Sure. 21 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:25,600 Paul Bartley: Go ahead and share. 22 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:28,860 Paul Bartley: All right, is that coming through okay? 23 00:01:29,539 --> 00:01:29,979 Paul Bartley: Yes. 24 00:01:31,500 --> 00:01:32,240 Paul Bartley: One second. 25 00:01:32,860 --> 00:01:33,000 Paul Bartley: Let me, 26 00:01:33,219 --> 00:01:33,320 Paul Bartley: uh, 27 00:01:33,780 --> 00:01:36,740 Paul Bartley: let me re-share a little bit. 28 00:01:38,500 --> 00:01:39,020 Paul Bartley: All right. 29 00:01:39,299 --> 00:01:39,759 Paul Bartley: Let's ship it. 30 00:01:41,020 --> 00:01:41,759 Paul Bartley: All right. 31 00:01:42,820 --> 00:01:44,320 Paul Bartley: Is that okay? 32 00:01:44,780 --> 00:01:45,260 Paul Bartley: Perfect. 33 00:01:45,510 --> 00:01:45,700 Paul Bartley: Yeah. 34 00:01:46,020 --> 00:01:46,760 Paul Bartley: All right. 35 00:01:47,420 --> 00:01:48,740 Paul Bartley: Thanks again for the introduction. 36 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:56,020 Paul Bartley: Normally I'm giving this talk to a room full of landscapers or golf superintendents, 37 00:01:56,310 --> 00:01:58,600 Paul Bartley: but often just a lot of normal people. 38 00:01:58,900 --> 00:02:01,480 Paul Bartley: So I'm not really sure where that distribution lies. 39 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:03,000 Paul Bartley: in today's audience. 40 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:36,780 Paul Bartley: The today's title is landscape equipment sustainability strategies. And so every presentation has to have a cute title. 41 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:38,800 Paul Bartley: So this is do more with LESS. 42 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:46,820 Paul Bartley: And what we're really trying to do or capture here with our work is how can we promote sustainability? 43 00:02:47,140 --> 00:02:49,240 Paul Bartley: And that's energy efficiency, 44 00:02:50,260 --> 00:02:51,959 Paul Bartley: that's labor allocation, 45 00:02:52,500 --> 00:02:53,780 Paul Bartley: that's cost, 46 00:02:54,500 --> 00:02:55,340 Paul Bartley: that's emissions, 47 00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:56,060 Paul Bartley: noise, 48 00:02:56,580 --> 00:02:57,200 Paul Bartley: or 49 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:07,900 Paul Bartley: And so that's kind of the primary focus on this. I do want to caveat all of this with I am completely pro-gas and pro-battery. 50 00:03:08,260 --> 00:03:10,440 Paul Bartley: We love all kinds of technology. 51 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:19,380 Paul Bartley: What we really are seeking to do with this work is identify the best practices or where some of those gaps are in landscape maintenance. 52 00:03:20,940 --> 00:03:24,080 Paul Bartley: One of the things that I learned early on in research was, 53 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:28,020 Paul Bartley: you know, we don't need any chicken little type of research. 54 00:03:28,739 --> 00:03:32,099 Paul Bartley: Or at least we need to do a good job of avoiding those hyperboles. 55 00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:35,560 Paul Bartley: And if you remember chicken little better than I did, 56 00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:37,500 Paul Bartley: because it took me a while to realize what he was saying. 57 00:03:37,920 --> 00:04:07,200 Paul Bartley: I you know he was famous for the quote the sky is falling the sky is falling right and a lot of times we use hyperbole like that in research to bring about justification or stress the importance of a work like this and I think this is a great example of this we often see graphs like this or information like it where these urban areas are rapidly expanding and in the state of Georgia the prime example is Atlanta and the urbanization around 58 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:08,900 Paul Bartley: around that metropolitan space. 59 00:04:09,099 --> 00:04:15,060 Paul Bartley: And the question that usually comes up or the fear that is being driven is how are we going to feed everybody? 60 00:04:15,459 --> 00:04:20,880 Paul Bartley: But I think what this trend actually amplifies is the importance of green spaces. 61 00:04:21,260 --> 00:04:24,700 Paul Bartley: And the question that we should be asking is how are we going to sustain everybody? 62 00:04:25,319 --> 00:04:27,940 Paul Bartley: And so in that sustenance, 63 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:29,819 Paul Bartley: you know, it's more holistic than just food. 64 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:32,000 Paul Bartley: It's about our quality of life. 65 00:04:32,599 --> 00:04:36,500 Paul Bartley: And that brings into that conversation parks, gardens, 66 00:04:36,740 --> 00:04:39,780 Paul Bartley: and lawns, which the vast majority of people have. 67 00:04:40,620 --> 00:04:42,419 Paul Bartley: If you are in the landscape industry, 68 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:46,720 Paul Bartley: or if you do have a lawn, I don't really have to stress the importance of this. 69 00:04:46,919 --> 00:04:50,560 Paul Bartley: Really, what this slide should say is thank you. 70 00:04:50,620 --> 00:04:55,800 Paul Bartley: Thank you to all of those who assist in landscape maintenance practices. 71 00:04:56,180 --> 00:04:58,420 Paul Bartley: Thank you for creating beautiful spaces. 72 00:04:58,780 --> 00:05:08,340 Paul Bartley: Thank you for creating opportunities to get my kids away from screens and to have physical exercise and play. 73 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:10,840 Paul Bartley: Thank you for the beauty that you bring to the world. 74 00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:17,820 Paul Bartley: There are so many advantages of a well-maintained landscape space in these urban environments. 75 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:22,960 Paul Bartley: that I think for the vast majority of people have gone unrecognized, 76 00:05:23,660 --> 00:05:33,160 Paul Bartley: you know, because most people don't think about it. But I have the unique opportunity of spending a lot of time on a very beautiful campus and watching a lot of young people. 77 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:34,080 Paul Bartley: you know, 78 00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:37,140 Paul Bartley: really achieve some of life's greatest milestones, 79 00:05:38,300 --> 00:05:39,660 Paul Bartley: like graduating with their degrees, 80 00:05:40,140 --> 00:05:40,380 Paul Bartley: hopefully, 81 00:05:40,580 --> 00:05:46,060 Paul Bartley: and occasionally getting married and having receptions and ceremonies on campus. 82 00:05:46,220 --> 00:05:51,020 Paul Bartley: And I know that moments like this are really only captured because of moments like this. 83 00:05:51,300 --> 00:06:05,800 Paul Bartley: And there's a lot of tremendous hardworking staff on campus that works tirelessly to maintain these spaces and provide those memorable opportunities for people to capture some of life's greatest moments. 84 00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:16,159 Paul Bartley: It's a tremendous and huge staff that is responsible for maintaining this globally. 85 00:06:16,979 --> 00:06:18,020 Paul Bartley: And even in the Southeast, 86 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:20,120 Paul Bartley: especially this is a giant. 87 00:06:21,180 --> 00:06:28,039 Paul Bartley: The green industry, which does encapsulate landscape architecture and ornamental production as well. 88 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:34,780 Paul Bartley: But landscape maintenance in particular is the largest group within the green industry. 89 00:06:35,350 --> 00:06:38,360 Paul Bartley: It has a huge economic impact on the US. 90 00:06:39,280 --> 00:06:40,640 Paul Bartley: Just in the southeast alone, 91 00:06:40,940 --> 00:06:42,560 Paul Bartley: so that includes the states of Florida, 92 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:43,380 Paul Bartley: Georgia, Alabama, 93 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:44,120 Paul Bartley: Mississippi, 94 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:45,360 Paul Bartley: South Carolina, 95 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:45,800 Paul Bartley: I think. 96 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:50,460 Paul Bartley: There's about 235,000 landscapers employed. 97 00:06:50,900 --> 00:06:53,660 Paul Bartley: and nationwide over 100,000 businesses. 98 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:54,759 Paul Bartley: Just in Alabama, 99 00:06:55,280 --> 00:06:59,500 Paul Bartley: it's a $1.5 billion economic impact. 100 00:06:59,860 --> 00:07:02,780 Paul Bartley: And that economic impact usually tracks with population. 101 00:07:03,060 --> 00:07:04,500 Paul Bartley: And so if you weren't aware, 102 00:07:04,820 --> 00:07:09,580 Paul Bartley: the metropolitan of Atlanta has a larger population in the state of Alabama. 103 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:14,139 Paul Bartley: So that economic contribution in Georgia's state is tremendous. 104 00:07:14,500 --> 00:07:18,419 Paul Bartley: But really the juggernaut in the southeast is Florida with their industry. 105 00:07:18,620 --> 00:07:19,940 Paul Bartley: It is phenomenal. 106 00:07:20,300 --> 00:07:27,620 Paul Bartley: What happened during the last few years that's driving some of these changes in perception, I think, in the public, 107 00:07:27,879 --> 00:07:30,180 Paul Bartley: which is resulting in different legislation, 108 00:07:30,340 --> 00:07:31,659 Paul Bartley: we're going to kind of walk through this, 109 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:34,000 Paul Bartley: is that COVID-19 impact. 110 00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:41,460 Paul Bartley: And I asked ChatGPT to give me an image that I thought best encapsulated what the average, 111 00:07:41,639 --> 00:07:45,440 Paul Bartley: let's say, middle class employee went to, 112 00:07:45,220 --> 00:07:52,200 Paul Bartley: during that time and how this drove these changes in public perception about how landscapers are performing their tasks. 113 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:55,660 Paul Bartley: So if you look at the guy on the right, it was perfect. 114 00:07:55,890 --> 00:07:56,160 Paul Bartley: You know, 115 00:07:56,320 --> 00:07:57,640 Paul Bartley: it's business up top, 116 00:07:58,000 --> 00:07:58,700 Paul Bartley: leisure down below, 117 00:07:59,230 --> 00:08:02,760 Paul Bartley: but he's got no pants on, but still in those business socks. It's hilarious. 118 00:08:02,940 --> 00:08:04,880 Paul Bartley: His son is shooting him with a Nerf gun. 119 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:07,520 Paul Bartley: So he's working under a high stress environment. 120 00:08:07,900 --> 00:08:08,120 Paul Bartley: Normally, 121 00:08:08,290 --> 00:08:08,440 Paul Bartley: he's 122 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:13,020 Paul Bartley: Kid would be at school learning and he would be in an office generally working. 123 00:08:13,870 --> 00:08:24,040 Paul Bartley: But that changed very drastically. And what that resulted in is a huge intersection with landscape maintenance practices under high stress environments. 124 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:32,599 Paul Bartley: And what we see then is a dramatic increase in legislation that 125 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:39,199 Paul Bartley: is trying to restrict what equipment is being used and how that equipment is being used. 126 00:08:40,060 --> 00:08:42,599 Paul Bartley: And that in different ways. 127 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:44,039 Paul Bartley: But at the same time, 128 00:08:44,579 --> 00:08:50,620 Paul Bartley: you know, we have several other trends coming about mostly in sustainable mindsets. 129 00:08:50,660 --> 00:08:55,959 Paul Bartley: So we got more gardeners, more people spending time outside, more people buying electric equipment during that time. 130 00:08:56,300 --> 00:08:58,620 Paul Bartley: And so the perception is battery is great. 131 00:08:59,180 --> 00:09:01,920 Paul Bartley: Gas landscape maintenance is terrible. 132 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:03,760 Paul Bartley: And it's driving me nuts. 133 00:09:03,959 --> 00:09:06,839 Paul Bartley: And the result of that was legislation. 134 00:09:07,140 --> 00:09:14,880 Paul Bartley: Some of that legislation was trying to particularly carve the California Air Resources Board. 135 00:09:15,600 --> 00:09:17,779 Paul Bartley: was trying to target emissions. 136 00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:19,899 Paul Bartley: And a lot of the equipment, 137 00:09:20,259 --> 00:09:20,560 Paul Bartley: at least the 138 00:09:20,680 --> 00:09:23,019 Paul Bartley: handheld equipment and leaf blowers or two-stroke engines, 139 00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:24,480 Paul Bartley: they're dirty emissions. 140 00:09:24,910 --> 00:09:25,040 Paul Bartley: Okay. 141 00:09:25,699 --> 00:09:27,339 Paul Bartley: There's no two ways around it, 142 00:09:28,060 --> 00:09:34,399 Paul Bartley: but that's one of the catalysts. It wasn't the primary catalyst. In fact, most of the legislation around the U.S. 143 00:09:34,620 --> 00:09:34,959 Paul Bartley: right now, 144 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:43,180 Paul Bartley: which really was following in the footsteps of the California bill 1346, 145 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:45,819 Paul Bartley: is citing noise. 146 00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:48,100 Paul Bartley: So most of it is about noise complaints, 147 00:09:48,579 --> 00:09:50,240 Paul Bartley: not about pollution. 148 00:09:50,560 --> 00:09:53,579 Paul Bartley: There's just a couple of bands of restrictions. 149 00:09:53,769 --> 00:09:54,959 Paul Bartley: But you can see nationwide, 150 00:09:55,399 --> 00:10:01,319 Paul Bartley: particularly on the East Coast and then along the West Coast, a tremendous amount of legislation. 151 00:10:01,540 --> 00:10:01,620 Paul Bartley: Now, 152 00:10:01,819 --> 00:10:06,300 Paul Bartley: Georgia curbed that legislation by passing what is known as a preemption bill. 153 00:10:06,700 --> 00:10:08,240 Paul Bartley: And so if you're unaware, 154 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:09,240 Paul Bartley: Georgia, 155 00:10:09,680 --> 00:10:10,220 Paul Bartley: in Georgia, 156 00:10:10,540 --> 00:10:19,240 Paul Bartley: smaller bodies of government are not allowed to pass more restrictive legislation than the state. And the state said you can't ban landscape equipment. 157 00:10:19,460 --> 00:10:19,620 Paul Bartley: Therefore, 158 00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:20,860 Paul Bartley: no municipalities, 159 00:10:21,820 --> 00:10:25,340 Paul Bartley: cities or counties can pass more restrictive legislation. 160 00:10:25,700 --> 00:10:26,780 Paul Bartley: That's a great thing. 161 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:29,960 Paul Bartley: In the Deep South, we're pretty much sheltered from a lot of this. 162 00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:32,100 Paul Bartley: But in pockets, it is showing up. 163 00:10:32,560 --> 00:10:39,740 Paul Bartley: And it might not show up in your area as a municipality or county or state ban on equipment, 164 00:10:39,900 --> 00:10:40,660 Paul Bartley: how you use it. 165 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:57,260 Paul Bartley: But it can show up in communities still, in HOAs. And so the way we like to think about these things is it's giving landscape maintenance operators the opportunity to change or appeal to different clientele, 166 00:10:57,460 --> 00:10:58,660 Paul Bartley: change their practices. 167 00:10:59,050 --> 00:11:00,140 Paul Bartley: And we love opportunities. 168 00:11:00,750 --> 00:11:01,540 Paul Bartley: We love opportunities. 169 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:03,320 Paul Bartley: It's just like organic food. 170 00:11:03,700 --> 00:11:07,220 Paul Bartley: No knocking organic food or traditional production. 171 00:11:07,680 --> 00:11:16,060 Paul Bartley: What I believe it does is it creates an opportunity for a producer to sell and promote his products to a different audience and market. 172 00:11:16,260 --> 00:11:19,520 Paul Bartley: So that's why we're kind of looking at this. I hope that you do the same. 173 00:11:20,220 --> 00:11:22,540 Paul Bartley: How are we going to address this, 174 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:26,660 Paul Bartley: though? What we did is formed the Auburn Outdoor Power Equipment Consortium. 175 00:11:27,020 --> 00:11:37,500 Paul Bartley: You know, how could we in academia help inform the industry on the differences in these different tools and technologies that are advancing at a rapid pace in the industry? 176 00:11:37,960 --> 00:11:41,540 Paul Bartley: We wanted to look at things like run time and energy consumption, 177 00:11:41,700 --> 00:11:42,280 Paul Bartley: force output. 178 00:11:42,620 --> 00:11:45,080 Paul Bartley: You know, how could we compare these tools apples to apples, 179 00:11:45,340 --> 00:11:46,380 Paul Bartley: gas against battery? 180 00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:50,180 Paul Bartley: to determine what these operational differences were. 181 00:11:51,060 --> 00:11:55,260 Paul Bartley: We're also looking at things like cost and durability and industry perceptions with other partners. 182 00:11:55,470 --> 00:11:57,700 Paul Bartley: We're looking at environmental impact as well, 183 00:11:58,310 --> 00:12:03,760 Paul Bartley: since some of the legislation is heavily focused on those concerns and the public is as well. 184 00:12:04,100 --> 00:12:17,100 Paul Bartley: But there are also other nuances to these tools like noise and vibration and safety that are a little more challenging to capture but could be very influential in differences between the technology. 185 00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:19,480 Paul Bartley: Autonomy is a big one for us too. 186 00:12:19,699 --> 00:12:22,800 Paul Bartley: There's our autonomous mower and a big soft form. We do most of our testing. 187 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:25,220 Paul Bartley: especially on the mowers and big sod farms. 188 00:12:25,420 --> 00:12:35,660 Paul Bartley: So that's why we did what we did, why I created what we created and have some phenomenal partners contributing to that consortium. 189 00:12:35,900 --> 00:12:45,040 Paul Bartley: One thing we wanted to do that I'll go over with you now is try to figure out what the industry's perceptions were when it comes to landscape equipment. 190 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:50,440 Paul Bartley: So we asked roughly 200 business owners, 191 00:12:50,780 --> 00:12:52,820 Paul Bartley: completed the survey and responded nationwide. 192 00:12:53,340 --> 00:12:59,300 Paul Bartley: And these were people that were self-employed up to 2,500 employees, 193 00:13:00,100 --> 00:13:00,800 Paul Bartley: maybe even more. 194 00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:05,520 Paul Bartley: Really large operations to one-truck operations. 195 00:13:06,020 --> 00:13:08,600 Paul Bartley: to rate their concerns when purchasing equipment. 196 00:13:08,940 --> 00:13:11,880 Paul Bartley: And really, it was as expected. 197 00:13:12,910 --> 00:13:13,500 Paul Bartley: The equipment, 198 00:13:14,140 --> 00:13:15,340 Paul Bartley: in the eyes of the industry, 199 00:13:15,560 --> 00:13:16,420 Paul Bartley: must be reliable. 200 00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:18,460 Paul Bartley: It must complete the job. 201 00:13:18,700 --> 00:13:21,640 Paul Bartley: It must be available and easily maintained. 202 00:13:22,020 --> 00:13:25,820 Paul Bartley: because no one abuses equipment more than a landscaper. 203 00:13:26,570 --> 00:13:27,400 Paul Bartley: You'll work them hard. 204 00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:37,720 Paul Bartley: And the least influential when y'all are making equipment purchasing decisions were things like power source and noise pollution, air pollution, and just really didn't care at all. 205 00:13:37,900 --> 00:13:43,500 Paul Bartley: Very few instances where landscapers cared about any of those three bottom choices. 206 00:13:44,320 --> 00:13:48,060 Paul Bartley: And really, those are operational efficiency factors. 207 00:13:48,779 --> 00:13:51,420 Paul Bartley: This is a principle component analysis. 208 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:55,500 Paul Bartley: That is really confusing. This is a confusing graph. I'm going to simplify this. 209 00:13:56,260 --> 00:14:04,220 Paul Bartley: The things that are grouped together are the things that most landscapers responded to the questions similarly. 210 00:14:04,620 --> 00:14:08,920 Paul Bartley: So you care about air pollution and noise pollution and power source the same. 211 00:14:09,380 --> 00:14:12,160 Paul Bartley: You care about things on the right side, reliability, 212 00:14:12,519 --> 00:14:12,819 Paul Bartley: maintenance, 213 00:14:13,399 --> 00:14:14,139 Paul Bartley: customer service, 214 00:14:14,579 --> 00:14:14,819 Paul Bartley: availability, 215 00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:15,740 Paul Bartley: work capacity. 216 00:14:15,910 --> 00:14:17,259 Paul Bartley: Those are all treated the same. 217 00:14:18,060 --> 00:14:21,980 Paul Bartley: And things like ergonomics, safety features, and costs were really not that important. 218 00:14:22,279 --> 00:14:23,819 Paul Bartley: They were in between those things. 219 00:14:24,079 --> 00:14:29,600 Paul Bartley: So those are kind of grouping those. I was kind of shocked about cost, but really what we took away from that, 220 00:14:29,930 --> 00:14:30,880 Paul Bartley: and it's had confirmed, 221 00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:35,680 Paul Bartley: It doesn't really matter how much it costs as long as the equipment performs as expected. 222 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:37,500 Paul Bartley: So you get what you pay for. 223 00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:39,760 Paul Bartley: At least that's what you're looking at. 224 00:14:39,980 --> 00:14:42,160 Paul Bartley: We also tried to break this down. Okay, 225 00:14:42,460 --> 00:14:53,360 Paul Bartley: are smaller landscape operations more impacted by changes in legislation or battery powered versus gas powered equipment than big companies? 226 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:55,040 Paul Bartley: You know, is that capital difference? 227 00:14:55,260 --> 00:14:56,920 Paul Bartley: Is that overhead difference a factor? 228 00:14:57,420 --> 00:15:00,800 Paul Bartley: And the cluster analysis that you see here told us no. 229 00:15:01,460 --> 00:15:02,280 Paul Bartley: And so again, 230 00:15:02,500 --> 00:15:03,420 Paul Bartley: don't look at all the details. 231 00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:04,800 Paul Bartley: I'll explain it to you right now. 232 00:15:05,500 --> 00:15:09,760 Paul Bartley: Landscapers are just normal people and we all have different personalities. 233 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:12,400 Paul Bartley: And regardless of the size of our company, 234 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,700 Paul Bartley: we're all facing similar struggles and challenges. 235 00:15:16,300 --> 00:15:17,980 Paul Bartley: And we're responding to those differently, 236 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:19,920 Paul Bartley: just like we all have different personalities. 237 00:15:20,180 --> 00:15:25,720 Paul Bartley: So some of the largest landscapers and some of the smallest landscapers had the exact same concerns. 238 00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:27,880 Paul Bartley: But they just had the same personality. 239 00:15:28,380 --> 00:15:31,960 Paul Bartley: So there isn't a particular demographic of landscape 240 00:15:32,060 --> 00:15:36,680 Paul Bartley: maintenance companies or operators that are affected by these challenges. 241 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:38,440 Paul Bartley: Battery powered versus 242 00:15:38,440 --> 00:15:39,960 Paul Bartley: gas powered kind of equations. 243 00:15:41,020 --> 00:15:43,300 Paul Bartley: We asked the battery powered users, 244 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:47,420 Paul Bartley: to rate the factors that led to their adoption. 245 00:15:47,900 --> 00:15:49,220 Paul Bartley: Primarily it was noise pollution, 246 00:15:49,540 --> 00:15:54,180 Paul Bartley: but some of those same operational efficiency factors popped back up again. Things like reliability, 247 00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:55,560 Paul Bartley: work capacity, 248 00:15:55,820 --> 00:15:56,180 Paul Bartley: maintenance. 249 00:15:57,140 --> 00:15:57,300 Paul Bartley: Again, 250 00:15:57,540 --> 00:16:00,420 Paul Bartley: things at the very bottom were competitive advantage and cost. 251 00:16:00,880 --> 00:16:05,480 Paul Bartley: Competitive advantage was something I was hoping to see much higher on this list, 252 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:09,000 Paul Bartley: but landscapers in general thought there was no advantage in 253 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:15,420 Paul Bartley: to operating with gas-powered equipment over their competitors in terms of them offering that as a service. 254 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:24,020 Paul Bartley: And it's well-documented that the cost of battery-powered tools is significantly higher than gas, at least the capital cost. 255 00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:27,180 Paul Bartley: We'll talk more about cost later in the presentation. 256 00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:33,860 Paul Bartley: Then we asked the gas-powered users what discouraged them from adopting battery-powered equipment. 257 00:16:34,180 --> 00:16:37,740 Paul Bartley: Almost a perfect five out of five is work capacity. 258 00:16:38,060 --> 00:16:40,120 Paul Bartley: They also believed that they didn't have the power, 259 00:16:40,420 --> 00:16:45,620 Paul Bartley: that the equipment was not manufactured with the same standards in terms of quality. 260 00:16:45,860 --> 00:16:50,680 Paul Bartley: I do think that some of these answers are probably some early adopter hangovers. 261 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:53,520 Paul Bartley: Some of the early equipment had its struggles. 262 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:57,140 Paul Bartley: I think most companies would admit that. 263 00:16:57,340 --> 00:17:01,180 Paul Bartley: I will say almost all the equipment that we have used has been exceptional. 264 00:17:01,860 --> 00:17:03,280 Paul Bartley: And we've tested a whole bunch. 265 00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:07,100 Paul Bartley: We then asked all those gas-powered users, 266 00:17:09,080 --> 00:17:14,320 Paul Bartley: that if their concerns with battery-powered equipment were addressed, 267 00:17:14,540 --> 00:17:16,420 Paul Bartley: so those things like work capacity, 268 00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:17,260 Paul Bartley: power, 269 00:17:18,120 --> 00:17:18,480 Paul Bartley: run time, 270 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:19,280 Paul Bartley: stuff like that, 271 00:17:19,460 --> 00:17:25,420 Paul Bartley: if they were addressed, would they consider adopting battery-powered equipment? And the vast majority of people said yes, 272 00:17:25,700 --> 00:17:29,840 Paul Bartley: and what we want is superior technology to win, and I think the industry wants that as well. 273 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:32,360 Paul Bartley: There was 15% that said no, 274 00:17:32,610 --> 00:17:34,200 Paul Bartley: and their comments were China, 275 00:17:34,500 --> 00:17:40,440 Paul Bartley: things like that. I can't really do anything about where lithium ion is sourced, but it's not just China. 276 00:17:41,049 --> 00:17:47,159 Paul Bartley: But you're always going to have about 15% that don't want to do it. All right, let's talk about runtime and work capacity. 277 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:52,760 Paul Bartley: What I want you to take away from this is that there is a difference. 278 00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:55,240 Paul Bartley: There is a difference in runtime and work capacity. 279 00:17:55,500 --> 00:18:02,960 Paul Bartley: Everybody I talk to says, "What's the runtime?" I don't think that's the question you should be asking. And I hope this explains why. 280 00:18:04,040 --> 00:18:06,460 Paul Bartley: I've got generic battery one, 281 00:18:06,630 --> 00:18:07,740 Paul Bartley: two, three through five, 282 00:18:08,020 --> 00:18:11,160 Paul Bartley: and three gas equivalents. These are string trimmers. 283 00:18:11,700 --> 00:18:14,340 Paul Bartley: And so if you look at the on these, 284 00:18:14,740 --> 00:18:16,760 Paul Bartley: we'll go to setting two here, 285 00:18:16,919 --> 00:18:17,220 Paul Bartley: 45, 286 00:18:17,799 --> 00:18:18,120 Paul Bartley: 35, 287 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:19,200 Paul Bartley: 36. 288 00:18:20,179 --> 00:18:21,179 Paul Bartley: Not bad, 289 00:18:21,620 --> 00:18:27,539 Paul Bartley: not too bad at all. If you look at high 55 even with some of these battery power tools. 290 00:18:28,019 --> 00:18:38,840 Paul Bartley: And so they meet or sometimes exceed some of their gas counterparts in terms of trigger time. So that's full trigger presses and the run times are excellent. 291 00:18:39,420 --> 00:18:41,360 Paul Bartley: But if you look at field times, 292 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:49,860 Paul Bartley: how much work are you going to be able to accomplish compared to their gas-powered equivalent? 293 00:18:50,120 --> 00:18:51,600 Paul Bartley: Those can be very different. 294 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:56,800 Paul Bartley: And so we've got what we're doing here is we're simulating a work event. 295 00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:02,399 Paul Bartley: And we are string trimming around a chain link fence. It's about a mile long. 296 00:19:03,039 --> 00:19:05,539 Paul Bartley: No one enjoys doing this test, but it's very necessary. 297 00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:07,039 Paul Bartley: In the distance, 298 00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:15,720 Paul Bartley: look at the distance that you were able to cover on a tank or a battery with the gas power tools and battery power tools. So the run times were equivalent in the lab. 299 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:18,419 Paul Bartley: But when we're actually putting load on the tools, 300 00:19:19,100 --> 00:19:21,820 Paul Bartley: the gas power tools go in six to 7,000 feet. 301 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:26,519 Paul Bartley: and the battery ones are trying to keep up. They're doing their best, 302 00:19:26,820 --> 00:19:28,700 Paul Bartley: but sometimes a quarter of the output. 303 00:19:29,740 --> 00:19:31,960 Paul Bartley: And that's a big factor. 304 00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:33,299 Paul Bartley: That's a big factor. 305 00:19:33,580 --> 00:19:40,440 Paul Bartley: So not necessarily a runtime is most important, but it's also how these tools are used or how they're retrofitted. 306 00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:41,860 Paul Bartley: Most of the time, 307 00:19:42,020 --> 00:19:45,520 Paul Bartley: if you're going to get a string trimmer and you're a commercial landscaper, 308 00:19:45,740 --> 00:19:51,580 Paul Bartley: you're going to pop that weed guard right off. So you've got a swath about 36 inches wide. 309 00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:52,940 Paul Bartley: You know, great efficiency, 310 00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:58,260 Paul Bartley: you know, is usually the thought behind it. There are also a lot of problems with removing that weed guard. 311 00:19:59,020 --> 00:20:03,020 Paul Bartley: One of those things is, especially if you're operating with battery power tools, 312 00:20:03,220 --> 00:20:16,620 Paul Bartley: these tools are designed and engineered with motors and stream that is expected to perform within a certain range. And if you go outside of that range and the companies are not really happy with me for doing these tests, 313 00:20:17,120 --> 00:20:19,460 Paul Bartley: you're going to potentially destroy your equipment. 314 00:20:19,700 --> 00:20:26,919 Paul Bartley: So I would encourage you to operate them as intended at all times. And that's typically with the string guard on. 315 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:29,600 Paul Bartley: And that string guard limits the line length. 316 00:20:30,260 --> 00:20:37,340 Paul Bartley: As you extend the line length, you're going to decrease your runtime by about 30%. And also, 317 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:39,840 Paul Bartley: if you change the diameter of the string, 318 00:20:40,059 --> 00:20:41,679 Paul Bartley: so if you go really thick line, 319 00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:47,360 Paul Bartley: you can decrease your run time by up to 20%. So line diameter is important. 320 00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:51,320 Paul Bartley: Twisted fine line is the best line. If you go anything other than twisted, 321 00:20:51,580 --> 00:20:53,460 Paul Bartley: you're actually much, 322 00:20:53,620 --> 00:20:54,660 Paul Bartley: much louder. 323 00:20:54,910 --> 00:21:00,340 Paul Bartley: The line has a big influence on the aerodynamics off of that line. 324 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:07,420 Paul Bartley: So fun work that's being done there with string trimmers that we kind of didn't really think about until we started comparing some of these tools. 325 00:21:08,120 --> 00:21:09,880 Paul Bartley: If we look at some of these tools, 326 00:21:10,260 --> 00:21:14,240 Paul Bartley: the companies will tell you that the battery that you're buying is your fuel up front. 327 00:21:15,100 --> 00:21:16,679 Paul Bartley: And we wanted to put that to the test. 328 00:21:16,919 --> 00:21:18,760 Paul Bartley: Exactly how much fuel would it take? 329 00:21:19,260 --> 00:21:24,640 Paul Bartley: How much run time on these tools would it take to pay for that battery with that tool? 330 00:21:25,020 --> 00:21:26,360 Paul Bartley: And it's all over the board, 331 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:26,840 Paul Bartley: right? 332 00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:31,420 Paul Bartley: So the yellow line here, and don't worry about the colors of the line, they're just to distinguish, 333 00:21:31,580 --> 00:21:33,460 Paul Bartley: it's not identifying a particular brand. 334 00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:36,760 Paul Bartley: You know, it could be as much as 31 hours of runtime, 335 00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:37,680 Paul Bartley: it could be, 336 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:40,220 Paul Bartley: or as little as 31 hours of runtime, 337 00:21:40,460 --> 00:21:43,480 Paul Bartley: or as much as 385 hours of runtime. 338 00:21:44,060 --> 00:21:45,640 Paul Bartley: And so that is a huge, 339 00:21:46,020 --> 00:21:46,960 Paul Bartley: huge spread. 340 00:21:47,300 --> 00:21:53,040 Paul Bartley: I'm just going to go ahead and say that not every tool is created equal and you will see big differences in ROI. 341 00:21:53,540 --> 00:21:55,720 Paul Bartley: If you're going to talk about your return on investment, 342 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:59,280 Paul Bartley: you're buying your fuel up front with that kind of slogan, 343 00:21:59,660 --> 00:22:01,120 Paul Bartley: depending on the brand that you buy, 344 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:02,760 Paul Bartley: depending on the brand. 345 00:22:02,980 --> 00:22:03,060 Paul Bartley: So, 346 00:22:03,660 --> 00:22:04,680 Paul Bartley: you know, do your homework well. 347 00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:09,940 Paul Bartley: I'm happy to tell you what's a good deal or not a good deal, but I won't tell you which brands to buy. 348 00:22:10,620 --> 00:22:13,380 Paul Bartley: Batpack blowers are a little bit worse than string trimmers. 349 00:22:13,899 --> 00:22:15,639 Paul Bartley: You know, minimum 255 hours, 350 00:22:16,419 --> 00:22:18,059 Paul Bartley: maximum 620 hours. 351 00:22:18,630 --> 00:22:20,139 Paul Bartley: But what's different about these tools, 352 00:22:20,399 --> 00:22:22,980 Paul Bartley: again, these are lab tested trigger times. 353 00:22:23,529 --> 00:22:25,399 Paul Bartley: If you're actually looking at 354 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:27,300 Paul Bartley: at output. 355 00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:29,740 Paul Bartley: So these are the full trigger times. 356 00:22:30,260 --> 00:22:35,200 Paul Bartley: You know, we're looking at on gas or better backpack leaf blowers. 357 00:22:36,460 --> 00:22:37,080 Paul Bartley: 89 minutes, 358 00:22:37,420 --> 00:22:38,160 Paul Bartley: 69, 359 00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:39,880 Paul Bartley: 25 on one, 360 00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:41,300 Paul Bartley: 100 on another. 361 00:22:41,900 --> 00:22:43,920 Paul Bartley: That's a long time, an hour and a half. 362 00:22:45,820 --> 00:22:48,400 Paul Bartley: And our gas ones were roughly around an hour. 363 00:22:48,620 --> 00:22:50,860 Paul Bartley: You would be pretty impressed by those numbers. 364 00:22:51,330 --> 00:22:55,820 Paul Bartley: But again, it's not how much runtime the tool has. 365 00:22:56,040 --> 00:22:59,200 Paul Bartley: It's how much work the tool is putting out. 366 00:22:59,570 --> 00:23:04,100 Paul Bartley: And so we do tests like these where we take a rubberized mulch. You know, it's repeatable. 367 00:23:04,410 --> 00:23:07,380 Paul Bartley: We take a known weight. We distribute it along a test path. 368 00:23:07,700 --> 00:23:16,460 Paul Bartley: and we take multiple operators with different experience levels and we see how much time it takes for you to clear the debris off of the concrete slab. 369 00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:22,820 Paul Bartley: And so you looked at run times and you said, wow, these battery tools are keeping up or exceeding gas, 370 00:23:23,559 --> 00:23:26,480 Paul Bartley: but it actually will reduce your efficiency, 371 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:27,460 Paul Bartley: you know, 372 00:23:27,679 --> 00:23:28,000 Paul Bartley: 2x, 373 00:23:29,019 --> 00:23:29,779 Paul Bartley: best case scenario, 374 00:23:30,019 --> 00:23:30,880 Paul Bartley: 1.4x. 375 00:23:31,500 --> 00:23:34,559 Paul Bartley: So you're going to do much less work. 376 00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:40,960 Paul Bartley: within a certain amount of time with these tools. And that's really due to the output of the tools. 377 00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:42,340 Paul Bartley: The battery powered, 378 00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:46,500 Paul Bartley: let me caveat this graph as well and what I'm about to say next. 379 00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:48,560 Paul Bartley: These are force plate analysis. 380 00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:54,020 Paul Bartley: So what we're doing is we're measuring the output of air out of the nozzle of these leaf blowers. 381 00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:55,280 Paul Bartley: to determine, 382 00:23:55,620 --> 00:23:59,700 Paul Bartley: you know, does this meet up with what the marketing claims are of the tool? 383 00:24:00,580 --> 00:24:07,460 Paul Bartley: And gas-powered and battery-powered equipment is not matching the force that's being advertised. 384 00:24:08,820 --> 00:24:12,120 Paul Bartley: In fact, some of the gas-powered leaf blowers were the worst offenders. 385 00:24:12,620 --> 00:24:17,900 Paul Bartley: Our handheld blowers are pretty equivalent to the battery-powered blowers. 386 00:24:18,420 --> 00:24:20,440 Paul Bartley: in terms of the force that's output, 387 00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:23,020 Paul Bartley: our backpack blowers are much less. 388 00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:30,820 Paul Bartley: And the truth is, it takes a tremendous amount of energy to force air, 389 00:24:31,420 --> 00:24:33,120 Paul Bartley: to collect air, compress air, 390 00:24:33,540 --> 00:24:34,280 Paul Bartley: and blow air. 391 00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:36,620 Paul Bartley: It takes a lot of energy. 392 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:40,040 Paul Bartley: So these tools are working in overtime to try to accomplish this. 393 00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:43,500 Paul Bartley: And right now, the battery technology is really struggling to keep up. 394 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:57,000 Paul Bartley: So the if we were to put this in terms of the amount of work that you could do with these individual tools compared to what's traditionally used. So the gas number two blower is the most popular leaf blower on the market. 395 00:24:57,780 --> 00:25:00,080 Paul Bartley: You're probably using it if you're a commercial operator. 396 00:25:00,890 --> 00:25:02,520 Paul Bartley: The number of tasks in our simulation, 397 00:25:02,820 --> 00:25:03,480 Paul Bartley: not simulations, 398 00:25:03,940 --> 00:25:09,640 Paul Bartley: but in our protocols that you would be able to complete with the gas powered leaf blower. 399 00:25:10,300 --> 00:25:13,400 Paul Bartley: is like 497 tasks. 400 00:25:14,540 --> 00:25:18,820 Paul Bartley: The leaf blower, the battery-powered leaf blower that had the best, 401 00:25:19,100 --> 00:25:19,500 Paul Bartley: let's say, 402 00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:20,520 Paul Bartley: quote-unquote performance, 403 00:25:21,150 --> 00:25:23,240 Paul Bartley: would give you just shy of 300. 404 00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:27,440 Paul Bartley: The one that performed the task the fastest, 405 00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:32,700 Paul Bartley: you know, decreased efficiency by only 40% compared to... 406 00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:39,100 Paul Bartley: It's only able to accomplish roughly 175 tasks. 407 00:25:39,639 --> 00:25:42,100 Paul Bartley: So the output on these tools is completely different. 408 00:25:42,899 --> 00:25:48,440 Paul Bartley: Even though the run times look great, the amount of work that you're going to be able to accomplish is not comparable. 409 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:50,180 Paul Bartley: It is not comparable. 410 00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:52,940 Paul Bartley: It doesn't mean that these tools are not useful. 411 00:25:53,260 --> 00:26:00,660 Paul Bartley: It means that under certain conditions where a tremendous amount of work is expected of these tools, 412 00:26:00,980 --> 00:26:04,460 Paul Bartley: some tools are adequate at meeting those expectations. 413 00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:06,360 Paul Bartley: And right now, 414 00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:11,200 Paul Bartley: most of the battery-powered tools are probably not capable of meeting those expectations. 415 00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:13,139 Paul Bartley: It doesn't mean they're not useful. 416 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:14,940 Paul Bartley: It doesn't mean that they can't do the job. 417 00:26:15,220 --> 00:26:23,279 Paul Bartley: There's just a change in expectations when you go from gas-powered leaf blowers to battery-powered leaf blowers. 418 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:29,280 Paul Bartley: So I would really challenge you to think about these differently. 419 00:26:29,430 --> 00:26:31,800 Paul Bartley: This is back to the breakeven points on fuel. 420 00:26:31,830 --> 00:26:35,880 Paul Bartley: It's not really about how much trigger time you're going to get. 421 00:26:36,380 --> 00:26:40,140 Paul Bartley: It's about how much work you're going to output in these tools. 422 00:26:40,910 --> 00:26:44,400 Paul Bartley: And another important thing to consider is the recharge cycles on this. 423 00:26:44,500 --> 00:26:50,000 Paul Bartley: So this is the work output equivalent for a gas-powered to battery-powered leaf blower. 424 00:26:50,700 --> 00:26:59,300 Paul Bartley: Some of these are going to take over 5,000 recharges to do the equivalent amount of work per hour as the gas-powered leaf blower. 425 00:26:59,940 --> 00:27:04,240 Paul Bartley: And most batteries are sub-2,000 recharges. 426 00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:05,399 Paul Bartley: Recharge Cycles. 427 00:27:06,179 --> 00:27:06,980 Paul Bartley: You know, on your phones, 428 00:27:07,260 --> 00:27:09,639 Paul Bartley: your phones are a great example of this. When you get your phone, 429 00:27:09,799 --> 00:27:16,620 Paul Bartley: you're using it all day and the battery life is still at like 75% at the end of the day. And you're like, this is incredible. 430 00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:17,899 Paul Bartley: By year two, 431 00:27:18,799 --> 00:27:21,519 Paul Bartley: you know, you're plugging it in at three o'clock in the afternoon. 432 00:27:22,019 --> 00:27:27,019 Paul Bartley: Batteries degrade over time and they degrade as we use them, as we deplete the energy. 433 00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:29,720 Paul Bartley: within those cells and then recharge them. 434 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:32,860 Paul Bartley: They recharge a little less every time. 435 00:27:33,540 --> 00:27:37,740 Paul Bartley: And so these recharge cycles are an important factor to consider. 436 00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:40,400 Paul Bartley: And at these recharge cycles, 437 00:27:40,580 --> 00:27:47,800 Paul Bartley: you're going to be replacing batteries before you ever exceed the output of a gas-powered leaf blower. So I point this out. 438 00:27:48,060 --> 00:27:51,400 Paul Bartley: This is the tool by far with the greatest 439 00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:57,060 Paul Bartley: distance between the output of the battery-powered tools versus the gas-powered tools debate. 440 00:27:57,780 --> 00:27:58,320 Paul Bartley: And unfortunately, 441 00:27:58,700 --> 00:28:01,680 Paul Bartley: most of the legislation is targeting gas-powered leaf blowers. 442 00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:12,600 Paul Bartley: And so I think it's important that the public and that the industry understand these differences so that they can communicate those clearly with those expecting them to work differently. 443 00:28:12,900 --> 00:28:20,260 Paul Bartley: It doesn't have to be a fight if we can just talk about these in terms of expectations and operational differences. 444 00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:26,100 Paul Bartley: Leaf blowers again taking center stage in the noise debate. 445 00:28:26,620 --> 00:28:29,160 Paul Bartley: So let's talk about decibel dynamics now. 446 00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:33,280 Paul Bartley: And really what I want to try to emphasize is noise isn't loudness. 447 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:33,640 Paul Bartley: Okay, 448 00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:36,660 Paul Bartley: so decibels are a measure of pressure. 449 00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:40,700 Paul Bartley: pressure and those waves of pressure or how we perceive sound. 450 00:28:41,059 --> 00:28:45,260 Paul Bartley: It functions differently than most people perceive. 451 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:45,700 Paul Bartley: So, 452 00:28:46,399 --> 00:28:49,860 Paul Bartley: you know, an important thing to consider is that 85 dBA, 453 00:28:50,100 --> 00:28:55,080 Paul Bartley: which is our perceived pressure level over an 85 day. 454 00:28:55,299 --> 00:29:01,519 Paul Bartley: That's when the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health would consider that to be detrimental. 455 00:29:02,220 --> 00:29:04,059 Paul Bartley: But it's a little bit more than that. 456 00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:07,240 Paul Bartley: So if we're looking at the scale, these are things that I actually measured. 457 00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:11,639 Paul Bartley: My wife took out our three kids one day and I had the house by myself, 458 00:29:11,860 --> 00:29:12,539 Paul Bartley: no noise machines, 459 00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:13,039 Paul Bartley: no nothing. 460 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:14,919 Paul Bartley: And she asked me how it was going. 461 00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:17,139 Paul Bartley: And I said, I think I hear worms digging outside. 462 00:29:17,899 --> 00:29:21,460 Paul Bartley: And so the ambient noise in my house was about 34 decibels. 463 00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:26,080 Paul Bartley: 34 decibels. If you're having a whisper fight, if your child is sleeping or napping, 464 00:29:26,740 --> 00:29:27,960 Paul Bartley: that's about 50 decibels. 465 00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:29,820 Paul Bartley: Mom on speakerphone is about 60. 466 00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:31,820 Paul Bartley: My five-month-old crying, 467 00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:34,760 Paul Bartley: I thought it was probably damaging, 468 00:29:35,179 --> 00:29:35,700 Paul Bartley: exceeding 85. 469 00:29:35,909 --> 00:29:37,440 Paul Bartley: It was actually in the high 70s. 470 00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:40,920 Paul Bartley: We shouldn't say things like roll tide and go dogs. 471 00:29:41,300 --> 00:29:42,980 Paul Bartley: That's very damaging to people, 472 00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:43,660 Paul Bartley: actually. 473 00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:50,100 Paul Bartley: And where we get into the landscape tools is typically above 90, 474 00:29:50,780 --> 00:29:53,140 Paul Bartley: and especially in leaf blowers above 100. 475 00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:58,900 Paul Bartley: So that's in our leaf war zone in the fall time when all of our deciduous beautiful trees are dropping those leaves. 476 00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:02,100 Paul Bartley: If you enjoy football as much as I do, 477 00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:02,779 Paul Bartley: you know, 478 00:30:02,980 --> 00:30:05,440 Paul Bartley: stadium dBAs are definitely getting over 110. 479 00:30:06,539 --> 00:30:07,120 Paul Bartley: You know, 480 00:30:07,299 --> 00:30:09,760 Paul Bartley: that's just to try to put some things in perspective. 481 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:14,700 Paul Bartley: But it's not always about the dBA is what I want to emphasize. 482 00:30:15,700 --> 00:30:16,500 Paul Bartley: Noise is contextual. 483 00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:20,440 Paul Bartley: And it changes from person to person how you perceive that noise. 484 00:30:20,679 --> 00:30:23,220 Paul Bartley: It's the combination of the environment you're in. 485 00:30:23,620 --> 00:30:26,620 Paul Bartley: and your tolerance of that noise. 486 00:30:27,030 --> 00:30:28,860 Paul Bartley: Some people love metal music. 487 00:30:29,580 --> 00:30:30,940 Paul Bartley: Some people love opera. 488 00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:32,960 Paul Bartley: Some people love country, 489 00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:39,640 Paul Bartley: right? Those that don't love those other genres of music would consider some of that painful to listen to. 490 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:47,419 Paul Bartley: And some people don't enjoy the sound of a leaf blower as much as I do or the setting that most of the time leaf blowers are used in. 491 00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:49,539 Paul Bartley: So just kind of consider those things. 492 00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:51,179 Paul Bartley: It's a very complex issue. 493 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:53,040 Paul Bartley: But actually, 494 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:53,600 Paul Bartley: overall, 495 00:30:53,450 --> 00:30:53,580 Paul Bartley: Yeah. 496 00:30:53,880 --> 00:31:00,680 Paul Bartley: the cumulative exposure of noise is greatest on mowers and trimmers than even leaf blowers. 497 00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:02,960 Paul Bartley: So let's talk about these noise differences. 498 00:31:03,820 --> 00:31:04,720 Paul Bartley: Real quick, 499 00:31:05,220 --> 00:31:12,200 Paul Bartley: the output on a backpack blower like our Echo here is about 102 decibels to the operator at about three feet, 500 00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:13,480 Paul Bartley: 50 feet. So this is, 501 00:31:13,780 --> 00:31:19,300 Paul Bartley: you know, a bystander in the public space about 80. So pretty close to that 85 threshold. 502 00:31:19,820 --> 00:31:23,100 Paul Bartley: The operator on our Husqvarna backpack blower is about 82. 503 00:31:24,130 --> 00:31:25,920 Paul Bartley: So you don't have to wear hearing protection. 504 00:31:26,210 --> 00:31:28,880 Paul Bartley: If you're the operator, that is a phenomenal thing. 505 00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:29,660 Paul Bartley: That's amazing. 506 00:31:29,810 --> 00:31:31,460 Paul Bartley: The comfort level of using these tools. 507 00:31:32,020 --> 00:31:38,560 Paul Bartley: For me to be able to teach tool safety to students and things like that, I have to teach with battery because I can instruct them while they're using the equipment. 508 00:31:39,180 --> 00:31:39,880 Paul Bartley: At 50 feet, 509 00:31:40,060 --> 00:31:46,340 Paul Bartley: there's a huge significance in the depletion of noise with battery compared to gas. 510 00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:50,060 Paul Bartley: and it's 60. So it's quite comfortable at that level. 511 00:31:50,540 --> 00:31:51,720 Paul Bartley: To put this in perspective, 512 00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:54,260 Paul Bartley: so dBA is measured on a log scale. 513 00:31:54,820 --> 00:31:56,460 Paul Bartley: So every change in 10, 514 00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:58,660 Paul Bartley: so from 60 to 70, 515 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:00,740 Paul Bartley: is a doubling of the noise. 516 00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:05,300 Paul Bartley: So from 60 to 80, it's four times the amount of noise. 517 00:32:05,820 --> 00:32:09,960 Paul Bartley: produced by a gas-powered leaf blower than a battery-powered leaf blower at 50 feet. 518 00:32:10,700 --> 00:32:11,760 Paul Bartley: That's significant. 519 00:32:12,580 --> 00:32:20,920 Paul Bartley: We don't see as big of an advantage in leaf blowers because it is extremely loud to spin a blade 18,000 RPM. 520 00:32:21,500 --> 00:32:22,260 Paul Bartley: Those hum, 521 00:32:22,500 --> 00:32:23,700 Paul Bartley: create a lot of noise. 522 00:32:24,180 --> 00:32:29,220 Paul Bartley: It's slightly above the 85 threshold for the battery-powered mowers. 523 00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:40,420 Paul Bartley: But a significant reduction can be obtained. And that's really what we're getting at. I want to go over this really quickly and focus on some of the more autonomous work that we've done. 524 00:32:41,100 --> 00:32:43,260 Paul Bartley: and to save time for questions. 525 00:32:43,789 --> 00:32:46,160 Paul Bartley: But we did do a case study on Auburn University's campus. 526 00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:48,539 Paul Bartley: UGA did the same or something kind of similar. 527 00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:57,020 Paul Bartley: We have a beautiful campus maintained by Justin Sutton, who directs the landscape staff of about 85 people. 528 00:32:57,970 --> 00:33:00,039 Paul Bartley: This zone one here, we call that the face of campus. 529 00:33:00,220 --> 00:33:04,500 Paul Bartley: So that includes things like Sanford Lawn, the library, some of the ag buildings and things like that. 530 00:33:04,660 --> 00:33:05,539 Paul Bartley: This is amazing. 531 00:33:06,140 --> 00:33:14,900 Paul Bartley: is where we're at. So we did some takeoffs on those. We understood how much is being maintained on about a weekly or biweekly basis. 532 00:33:15,340 --> 00:33:17,039 Paul Bartley: We tracked fuel consumption, 533 00:33:17,500 --> 00:33:18,260 Paul Bartley: time allocation. 534 00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:23,140 Paul Bartley: And what we did is we took that amount of energy, 535 00:33:23,500 --> 00:33:31,520 Paul Bartley: either that fuel in milliliters. I'm sorry, I went to milliliters. I promise there's a reason we did that per unit maintained and whether or not, 536 00:33:31,800 --> 00:33:34,360 Paul Bartley: That stacked up really well with our lab test. 537 00:33:34,900 --> 00:33:40,920 Paul Bartley: And so what we were able to do was to say, okay, if this is what's being used for the gas-powered tools, 538 00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:44,900 Paul Bartley: here is the battery-powered equivalent within three brands. 539 00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:46,860 Paul Bartley: And I'm going to call these brands high-performance, 540 00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:48,400 Paul Bartley: mid-performance, and low-performance, 541 00:33:48,700 --> 00:33:49,800 Paul Bartley: okay? And that's... 542 00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:55,500 Paul Bartley: Somewhat of a judgment. I don't mean to be judgmental about these. I love all the equipment. 543 00:33:56,270 --> 00:33:57,880 Paul Bartley: But some of them just perform differently. 544 00:33:58,230 --> 00:34:00,860 Paul Bartley: So we'll just say the output was differently with these tools. 545 00:34:01,900 --> 00:34:02,900 Paul Bartley: And the cost factor. 546 00:34:03,140 --> 00:34:08,340 Paul Bartley: So the number of batteries that you would need for each tool to maintain that space. 547 00:34:08,899 --> 00:34:12,520 Paul Bartley: each time that it was serviced. 548 00:34:13,240 --> 00:34:14,700 Paul Bartley: And so this is capital cost, 549 00:34:15,240 --> 00:34:16,159 Paul Bartley: roughly 45 grand. 550 00:34:16,899 --> 00:34:19,879 Paul Bartley: We go to our medium performance. 551 00:34:20,379 --> 00:34:25,399 Paul Bartley: We see a slight increase in the number of batteries that we're going to need in order to maintain that space. 552 00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:28,840 Paul Bartley: The cost goes up just barely about 46 grand. 553 00:34:29,500 --> 00:34:36,460 Paul Bartley: These batteries are actually cheaper per unit than the high performance. The low performance is the most budget friendly per unit. 554 00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:40,240 Paul Bartley: But in order to complete the maintaining that space, 555 00:34:40,880 --> 00:34:42,920 Paul Bartley: we need a significant number of batteries, 556 00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:44,679 Paul Bartley: 60 something batteries. 557 00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:47,240 Paul Bartley: And the cost was about the same then. 558 00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:50,120 Paul Bartley: So the cost of acquisition was roughly the same. 559 00:34:50,540 --> 00:34:53,300 Paul Bartley: And the cost of acquisition does everything 560 00:34:53,300 --> 00:34:58,080 Paul Bartley: to factor in the cost of ownership and the return on investment on these tools. 561 00:34:58,970 --> 00:35:06,820 Paul Bartley: So if we were to compare brand new gas powered equipment and these three battery brands to maintain this space, 562 00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:10,220 Paul Bartley: you would finally get an ROI after about eight years. 563 00:35:10,620 --> 00:35:12,260 Paul Bartley: And this is no deals, 564 00:35:13,020 --> 00:35:14,140 Paul Bartley: no package deals, 565 00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:14,940 Paul Bartley: no incentives, 566 00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:16,000 Paul Bartley: no tax, 567 00:35:16,570 --> 00:35:18,260 Paul Bartley: because we were tax exempt on campus. 568 00:35:18,610 --> 00:35:19,840 Paul Bartley: So we're not shopping deals. 569 00:35:20,650 --> 00:35:20,900 Paul Bartley: You know, 570 00:35:21,060 --> 00:35:24,360 Paul Bartley: everything is an independent unit that's being purchased. 571 00:35:24,590 --> 00:35:26,880 Paul Bartley: So it's not a string trimmer with five batteries, 572 00:35:27,330 --> 00:35:29,340 Paul Bartley: not a string trimmer and a blower, that kind of stuff. 573 00:35:30,140 --> 00:35:33,080 Paul Bartley: But this graph is really important to explain a couple of things. 574 00:35:33,580 --> 00:35:36,220 Paul Bartley: One is if you do an equipment ban, 575 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:39,740 Paul Bartley: you're going to have a lot of equipment. 576 00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:41,520 Paul Bartley: You're not starting the gas-powered graph at $18,000. 577 00:35:41,710 --> 00:35:42,920 Paul Bartley: You're starting it at zero. 578 00:35:43,849 --> 00:35:55,359 Paul Bartley: And so that's going to significantly change your ROI for any landscaper that's forced to purchase all new gas-powered equipment in order to provide services to the community. 579 00:35:56,020 --> 00:35:57,240 Paul Bartley: That's not good. 580 00:35:57,780 --> 00:36:08,280 Paul Bartley: We're very against bans. We're definitely for incentives if that's the direction that the legislation is going. But we prefer no legislation at all. Again, the best tool will win. 581 00:36:09,140 --> 00:36:12,960 Paul Bartley: And the technology being integrated into these tools is improving rapidly. 582 00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:14,080 Paul Bartley: But also, 583 00:36:14,620 --> 00:36:18,760 Paul Bartley: I'd like to point out, when you reach that ROI, 584 00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:25,120 Paul Bartley: you're going to be a good tool. 585 00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:22,320 Paul Bartley: Look at how much money you're saving very quickly. 586 00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:26,640 Paul Bartley: And so when you reach that tool, 587 00:36:26,980 --> 00:36:35,280 Paul Bartley: that ROI is the most important factor. So get the best equipment available for you that you want at the cheapest price, 588 00:36:36,040 --> 00:36:39,120 Paul Bartley: because the lower that cost of capital is, 589 00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:49,280 Paul Bartley: the lower that cost of capital is. 590 00:36:39,720 --> 00:36:46,440 Paul Bartley: The faster you're going to get that ROI, the faster you're going to see the potential benefit of battery-powered equipment. 591 00:36:46,700 --> 00:36:47,500 Paul Bartley: It's critical, 592 00:36:47,780 --> 00:36:48,740 Paul Bartley: critically important. 593 00:36:49,240 --> 00:36:54,460 Paul Bartley: All right, now I want to take some stuff that's more or less hot off the press and really all we do is cut grass. 594 00:36:54,839 --> 00:36:57,020 Paul Bartley: There's a lot in autonomy right now. 595 00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:03,500 Paul Bartley: We're trying to. We've done a lot of a significant amount of work. We've mowed about 300 acres this summer, 596 00:37:03,700 --> 00:37:05,500 Paul Bartley: collecting data on every acre. 597 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:06,720 Paul Bartley: You know it. 598 00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:08,180 Paul Bartley: This is really the backbone. 599 00:37:08,710 --> 00:37:11,100 Paul Bartley: This tool is anyway of landscape maintenance practices. 600 00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:18,120 Paul Bartley: It's about 70% of the cost of landscape maintenance in terms of energy consumption and labor time. 601 00:37:19,150 --> 00:37:19,420 Paul Bartley: And typically, 602 00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:23,100 Paul Bartley: you know, it's your high skilled employee is operating this tool. 603 00:37:23,300 --> 00:37:25,700 Paul Bartley: These autonomous tools are 604 00:37:25,700 --> 00:37:31,760 Paul Bartley: are designed to function pretty much without an operator as soon as there's some manual inputs provided. 605 00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:33,740 Paul Bartley: We're not talking about the, 606 00:37:34,099 --> 00:37:40,440 Paul Bartley: I call them robo mowers down at the bottom. These are commercial mowers that can function autonomously. 607 00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:47,040 Paul Bartley: So they can operate manually just as your typical commercial mower, 60-inch deck. 608 00:37:47,900 --> 00:37:48,340 Paul Bartley: But then, 609 00:37:48,740 --> 00:37:55,020 Paul Bartley: you know, you can open up an app in your phone and select a work plan and tell it to, 610 00:37:55,500 --> 00:37:59,780 Paul Bartley: you know, maintain that space as long as an operator is, let's say, 611 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:00,540 Paul Bartley: babysitting it. 612 00:38:00,940 --> 00:38:01,040 Paul Bartley: Okay? 613 00:38:02,140 --> 00:38:02,940 Paul Bartley: And the apps are cool. 614 00:38:03,300 --> 00:38:03,880 Paul Bartley: These are great. 615 00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:07,400 Paul Bartley: The only reason that I'm able to share some of this work with you is some... 616 00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:12,059 Paul Bartley: The phenomenal support that we've gotten from Greenzie there in Atlanta, 617 00:38:12,260 --> 00:38:15,599 Paul Bartley: who retrofits some of the equipment that you'll see. 618 00:38:16,059 --> 00:38:19,579 Paul Bartley: And Doosan Bobcat, who has allowed us to work on the prototype. 619 00:38:20,039 --> 00:38:24,119 Paul Bartley: Some of the claims, though, that we were investigating or potential benefits were things like less time, 620 00:38:24,359 --> 00:38:25,380 Paul Bartley: reallocation of labor, 621 00:38:26,119 --> 00:38:27,079 Paul Bartley: precise mowing patterns, 622 00:38:27,319 --> 00:38:33,599 Paul Bartley: things like that, increased efficiency and higher fuel efficiency. And some of the limitations that we were aware of are sensor reliability, 623 00:38:34,180 --> 00:38:35,760 Paul Bartley: you know, landscapes can be complex. 624 00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:37,300 Paul Bartley: Obstacle detection, 625 00:38:37,580 --> 00:38:43,220 Paul Bartley: safety of these things is a huge factor and cost we know is very important when considering adoption in the industry. 626 00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:50,240 Paul Bartley: So we took those two research objectives to evaluate the energy demands and efficiency and ROI for these tools. 627 00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:52,400 Paul Bartley: And we also looked at safety. 628 00:38:52,820 --> 00:38:58,420 Paul Bartley: So let's talk about the efficiency on this. This is kind of our overview of our protocol here. 629 00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:00,660 Paul Bartley: We looked at two different landscape designs. 630 00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:01,840 Paul Bartley: One, 631 00:39:02,180 --> 00:39:11,580 Paul Bartley: plot one is just a square acre that our mower is going to maintain. And plot two there has some tree rings, which you see the autonomous mower going around, 632 00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:16,680 Paul Bartley: and then a really large T in the bottom. And we realized we made a huge mistake. 633 00:39:17,100 --> 00:39:22,520 Paul Bartley: when we did the study that we are now advertising for the University of Tennessee. 634 00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:25,140 Paul Bartley: So we should have done a big AU in it, 635 00:39:25,340 --> 00:39:25,800 Paul Bartley: my mistake. 636 00:39:26,090 --> 00:39:31,100 Paul Bartley: But we're evaluating how much energy is consumed in maintaining those two plots between gas-powered, 637 00:39:31,500 --> 00:39:33,060 Paul Bartley: gas-powered manual, 638 00:39:33,300 --> 00:39:34,440 Paul Bartley: gas-powered autonomous, 639 00:39:34,740 --> 00:39:35,680 Paul Bartley: battery-powered manual, 640 00:39:35,860 --> 00:39:36,900 Paul Bartley: battery-powered autonomous. 641 00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:40,640 Paul Bartley: All trying to figure out this efficiency and ROI factor. 642 00:39:41,300 --> 00:39:42,040 Paul Bartley: That's really important. 643 00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:43,160 Paul Bartley: Again, with the largest, 644 00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:44,680 Paul Bartley: most expensive tool, 645 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:46,000 Paul Bartley: most time consuming tool, 646 00:39:46,260 --> 00:39:48,420 Paul Bartley: most energy intensive tool and landscape maintenance. 647 00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:49,780 Paul Bartley: But here they are. 648 00:39:50,060 --> 00:39:54,180 Paul Bartley: The only reason I'm sharing these names now is that they've allowed us to do so. 649 00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:56,740 Paul Bartley: And I think that speaks volumes to these companies. 650 00:39:57,200 --> 00:39:59,780 Paul Bartley: and the services and products that they're providing, 651 00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:01,320 Paul Bartley: they perform great. 652 00:40:01,730 --> 00:40:02,920 Paul Bartley: And these are great people, 653 00:40:03,250 --> 00:40:03,859 Paul Bartley: great companies. 654 00:40:04,650 --> 00:40:07,260 Paul Bartley: I have nothing but praise for them. 655 00:40:07,349 --> 00:40:08,760 Paul Bartley: There are differences in the tools. 656 00:40:09,730 --> 00:40:14,240 Paul Bartley: And I also want to caveat that from the beginning of our testing of autonomous mowers to the end, 657 00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:24,380 Paul Bartley: there was a tremendous amount of improvement that we saw. In fact, I was begging them to stop improving the mowers because it was changing the data that we got while we were collecting it over the summer. 658 00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:24,760 Paul Bartley: So, 659 00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:25,540 Paul Bartley: you know, 660 00:40:25,700 --> 00:40:30,740 Paul Bartley: the data that you see here now may not be what you experience in the field. 661 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:36,280 Paul Bartley: So please understand it's just a comparison here to really, I think, 662 00:40:36,700 --> 00:40:39,700 Paul Bartley: to encourage conversation about how these tools operate. 663 00:40:40,099 --> 00:40:44,000 Paul Bartley: Energy consumption, you know, if we look at it in watt hours, 664 00:40:44,220 --> 00:40:47,060 Paul Bartley: which is not typical language, 665 00:40:47,420 --> 00:40:51,780 Paul Bartley: but we can compare gas or transform gas units to watt hours of energy. 666 00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:57,380 Paul Bartley: Look, our battery powered tools are a more refined source of energy. 667 00:40:57,940 --> 00:41:05,579 Paul Bartley: So it's not really a fair comparison. The reason why I showed you it in milliliters is if we compare watt hours to milliliters of fuel, 668 00:41:06,220 --> 00:41:07,740 Paul Bartley: It's actually really similar. 669 00:41:08,550 --> 00:41:12,160 Paul Bartley: One of the biggest questions that we get asked is, "Well, how many batteries do I get?" 670 00:41:12,220 --> 00:41:16,099 Paul Bartley: It's as simple as this. If you track the amount of fuel that you consume, 671 00:41:16,770 --> 00:41:18,300 Paul Bartley: you don't even have to do it by tool. 672 00:41:18,500 --> 00:41:21,480 Paul Bartley: Mowers are going to consume about 75% of your energy. 673 00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:25,619 Paul Bartley: Blowers about 20% and handhelds five to 10, somewhere in there. 674 00:41:26,140 --> 00:41:30,200 Paul Bartley: If you can track those, it's almost a one-to-one comparison. 675 00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:36,500 Paul Bartley: of fuel that you can use to watt-hours of energy that you would need to maintain it. 676 00:41:36,070 --> 00:41:36,180 Paul Bartley: It's almost a one-to-one comparison. 677 00:41:36,700 --> 00:41:39,080 Paul Bartley: So that's what we're looking at here. 678 00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:42,600 Paul Bartley: It's not as hard of a conversion as you might think. 679 00:41:43,060 --> 00:41:49,560 Paul Bartley: Energy consumption for all autonomous gas-powered mowers is much higher than all of our manual mowers. 680 00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:50,680 Paul Bartley: Our manual mowers, 681 00:41:51,240 --> 00:41:54,180 Paul Bartley: you know, the guys operating these are extremely efficient. 682 00:41:54,700 --> 00:41:57,040 Paul Bartley: The autonomous mowers are not as efficient. 683 00:41:57,619 --> 00:41:58,700 Paul Bartley: And they take much longer. 684 00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:01,760 Paul Bartley: So the time to cut is much greater. 685 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:04,940 Paul Bartley: The autonomous tools just take much slower to turn. 686 00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:06,800 Paul Bartley: They overlap more. 687 00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:09,420 Paul Bartley: They operate at a slower speed. 688 00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:14,079 Paul Bartley: Those are all settings that can be tweaked to more efficiently maintain those. 689 00:42:14,119 --> 00:42:16,940 Paul Bartley: Those are things that were improving as we were testing them. 690 00:42:16,980 --> 00:42:18,380 Paul Bartley: Those were important considerations. 691 00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:22,260 Paul Bartley: We calculated the lifetime cost estimates for these tools. 692 00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:23,860 Paul Bartley: That's what I'm going to share with you right now. 693 00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:28,200 Paul Bartley: All right. So our ROI on the battery-powered mowers, 694 00:42:28,380 --> 00:42:32,560 Paul Bartley: the energy cost per acre is pennies. It barely keeps up with inflation, 695 00:42:33,860 --> 00:42:36,680 Paul Bartley: the operational costs on the electric equipment. 696 00:42:37,500 --> 00:42:40,480 Paul Bartley: But the lifetime cost, because the tool is much more expensive, 697 00:42:40,780 --> 00:42:42,680 Paul Bartley: that increased capital costs, 698 00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:46,200 Paul Bartley: is roughly equivalent to the gas powered mowers. 699 00:42:46,980 --> 00:42:48,820 Paul Bartley: So over the lifespan of the tool, 700 00:42:49,140 --> 00:42:55,400 Paul Bartley: you're going to spend roughly the same amount of money for a manually operated mower, 701 00:42:55,620 --> 00:42:56,600 Paul Bartley: whether it's battery or gas. 702 00:42:57,200 --> 00:42:59,980 Paul Bartley: How they figured that out when they were pricing these tools, I don't know. 703 00:43:00,610 --> 00:43:04,240 Paul Bartley: I don't believe that they were doing these calculations. 704 00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:08,820 Paul Bartley: But that's what our data showed. Very similar results. 705 00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:09,560 Paul Bartley: Eventually, 706 00:43:09,980 --> 00:43:10,380 Paul Bartley: over time, 707 00:43:10,540 --> 00:43:16,940 Paul Bartley: yes, you are going to recuperate that increased capital cost to buy a battery-powered mower. 708 00:43:17,180 --> 00:43:21,940 Paul Bartley: Now, comparing the manual mowers to the autonomous mowers, 709 00:43:22,180 --> 00:43:28,520 Paul Bartley: quite a bit different. So a huge increase in capital costs, $15,000 compared to $45,000. 710 00:43:28,900 --> 00:43:31,180 Paul Bartley: The lifecycle cost, if you look at that, 711 00:43:31,359 --> 00:43:34,859 Paul Bartley: there's no manual operator included in that lifecycle cost. 712 00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:36,559 Paul Bartley: So it's much lower. 713 00:43:37,220 --> 00:43:40,160 Paul Bartley: But look at the production of the autonomous tool compared to the manual. 714 00:43:40,500 --> 00:43:41,299 Paul Bartley: It's almost half. 715 00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:43,819 Paul Bartley: And so over the lifetime of that tool, 716 00:43:44,180 --> 00:43:45,799 Paul Bartley: we're assuming about 3000 hours, 717 00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:48,020 Paul Bartley: 500 hours per year, so six years. 718 00:43:48,500 --> 00:43:54,060 Paul Bartley: It's actually cheaper per acre for a manual power mower than an autonomous mower. 719 00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:56,940 Paul Bartley: But that's not the only way that you can potentially use these. 720 00:43:57,900 --> 00:44:03,060 Paul Bartley: You know, the dual mower strategy is having one guy on a mower while supervising an autonomous mower. 721 00:44:03,660 --> 00:44:06,040 Paul Bartley: You can be 55% more efficient with that. 722 00:44:06,520 --> 00:44:16,200 Paul Bartley: Your labor costs will go down about 40% with that strategy. So there are different ways to implement these technologies than just an apples to apples comparison. 723 00:44:16,460 --> 00:44:19,580 Paul Bartley: That's kind of what we were hoping these numbers would reflect. 724 00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:21,280 Paul Bartley: There's different ways to use these. 725 00:44:21,440 --> 00:44:22,380 Paul Bartley: There's different applications. 726 00:44:22,720 --> 00:44:24,700 Paul Bartley: There's settings where they're more efficient, 727 00:44:24,860 --> 00:44:26,300 Paul Bartley: settings where they're less efficient. 728 00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:30,200 Paul Bartley: But what is true is they're rapidly improving. 729 00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:32,099 Paul Bartley: This is our safety protocol. 730 00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:34,940 Paul Bartley: So we're putting obstacles in front of these mowers. 731 00:44:35,839 --> 00:44:40,380 Paul Bartley: And when people approach me with safety concerns about our autonomous mowers, 732 00:44:40,619 --> 00:44:48,520 Paul Bartley: like you don't complain when you see a Tesla driving autonomously down the road at 70 miles an hour. 733 00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:52,299 Paul Bartley: Why are you complaining about the autonomous mower traveling three miles an hour? 734 00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:53,700 Paul Bartley: You know, it's, 735 00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:59,900 Paul Bartley: there are things and settings that we're comfortable with these things and there are also things that we're not comfortable with these things. 736 00:45:00,240 --> 00:45:04,880 Paul Bartley: Let me tell you, after running over a lot of baby mannequins, 737 00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:06,040 Paul Bartley: I'm concerned. 738 00:45:06,410 --> 00:45:06,560 Paul Bartley: Okay. 739 00:45:06,960 --> 00:45:08,800 Paul Bartley: But our tools, 740 00:45:09,070 --> 00:45:11,380 Paul Bartley: our tests were designed to expose weaknesses. 741 00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:19,720 Paul Bartley: Okay, so we're putting them in extreme situations that they should not be in to try to expose some of these weaknesses. 742 00:45:20,230 --> 00:45:20,400 Paul Bartley: Okay, 743 00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:21,000 Paul Bartley: overall, 744 00:45:22,090 --> 00:45:24,960 Paul Bartley: this is a radar based system and a camera based system. 745 00:45:25,430 --> 00:45:32,460 Paul Bartley: Our detection probability is about 93% with our camera based system and much lower with our prototype. 746 00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:35,340 Paul Bartley: It's a prototype radar based system. 747 00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:36,180 Paul Bartley: Again, 748 00:45:36,520 --> 00:45:38,500 Paul Bartley: these are things that are going to rapidly improve. 749 00:45:38,820 --> 00:45:42,960 Paul Bartley: But as we talked about the technology improving, 750 00:45:43,260 --> 00:45:47,360 Paul Bartley: as you increase the efficiency of these autonomous mowers, 751 00:45:47,700 --> 00:45:55,580 Paul Bartley: what you see is this ring expanding and contracting. And that's its range of detection for these obstacles. 752 00:45:56,370 --> 00:45:58,340 Paul Bartley: And so the faster it moves, 753 00:45:58,950 --> 00:46:03,460 Paul Bartley: the faster that ring is, or the larger that ring is, of detection. 754 00:46:04,220 --> 00:46:12,440 Paul Bartley: But when you do that, you start increasing things like shaking and bouncing and the ability to identify an object then actually degrades. 755 00:46:13,030 --> 00:46:16,599 Paul Bartley: The slower the mower moves, the smaller that ring is. 756 00:46:17,109 --> 00:46:18,500 Paul Bartley: And so things like turns, 757 00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:20,339 Paul Bartley: very quick turns into the mowers, 758 00:46:21,020 --> 00:46:21,619 Paul Bartley: stuff like that, 759 00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:25,660 Paul Bartley: that's where we're potentially seeing a lot of problems running over small objects. 760 00:46:26,020 --> 00:46:28,700 Paul Bartley: and objects lying down as well. 761 00:46:29,360 --> 00:46:30,360 Paul Bartley: And what is a kid gonna do? 762 00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:33,620 Paul Bartley: You saw that little squirrel that was actually my kid's Halloween costume. 763 00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:34,740 Paul Bartley: You know, 764 00:46:34,940 --> 00:46:35,580 Paul Bartley: just like a squirrel, 765 00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:36,460 Paul Bartley: my kid, 766 00:46:36,620 --> 00:46:40,020 Paul Bartley: second after being released from our house, ran out into the road. 767 00:46:40,660 --> 00:46:42,100 Paul Bartley: That's what kids are gonna do. 768 00:46:42,280 --> 00:46:44,320 Paul Bartley: They're going to run straight into hazards. 769 00:46:44,700 --> 00:46:46,660 Paul Bartley: And so it's really important. 770 00:46:47,020 --> 00:46:53,460 Paul Bartley: You know, I think we're one tragedy away from some of this technology being set back to use these tools safely. 771 00:46:54,140 --> 00:46:54,300 Paul Bartley: Okay. 772 00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:57,160 Paul Bartley: Do not operate them outside of their intended use. 773 00:46:57,680 --> 00:47:00,240 Paul Bartley: Follow the instructions and guidelines of the companies to a T. 774 00:47:00,940 --> 00:47:02,320 Paul Bartley: That is the most important thing. 775 00:47:02,420 --> 00:47:03,880 Paul Bartley: Safety is the most important thing. 776 00:47:04,119 --> 00:47:04,220 Paul Bartley: Okay. 777 00:47:04,579 --> 00:47:05,640 Paul Bartley: From data to decisions, 778 00:47:05,920 --> 00:47:06,859 Paul Bartley: let's just go overall. 779 00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:08,099 Paul Bartley: Know your equipment usage. 780 00:47:08,460 --> 00:47:10,260 Paul Bartley: If you want to make wise decisions, 781 00:47:10,900 --> 00:47:18,119 Paul Bartley: and what tools you use and what's best for your companies and clientele, you have to understand how you're using them currently. 782 00:47:11,099 --> 00:47:11,280 Paul Bartley: right? 783 00:47:18,420 --> 00:47:22,279 Paul Bartley: And so the more data you have, the more equipped you are to make those decisions. 784 00:47:22,980 --> 00:47:26,500 Paul Bartley: You need to understand energy equivalent requirements. 785 00:47:26,839 --> 00:47:28,440 Paul Bartley: I'm happy to help you understand that. 786 00:47:28,700 --> 00:47:31,039 Paul Bartley: We've tested about five or six different brands. 787 00:47:31,339 --> 00:47:33,760 Paul Bartley: Very gracious to all of those who have participated. 788 00:47:34,220 --> 00:47:36,520 Paul Bartley: Capital Cost is the most critical factor. 789 00:47:36,720 --> 00:47:39,160 Paul Bartley: Get the best tool you can at the cheapest price. 790 00:47:39,740 --> 00:47:42,780 Paul Bartley: But that is not without saying. 791 00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:45,760 Paul Bartley: Beware of unforeseen costs with cheaper batteries. 792 00:47:46,240 --> 00:47:48,000 Paul Bartley: You're generally going to get what you pay for. 793 00:47:48,220 --> 00:47:51,460 Paul Bartley: Good friend of mine operates with Makita batteries. 794 00:47:52,300 --> 00:47:54,640 Paul Bartley: Very happy with all the Makita equipment that we've tested. 795 00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:58,119 Paul Bartley: He bought some that were cheap from a reliable source. 796 00:47:59,099 --> 00:48:03,060 Paul Bartley: And they ended up being fake batteries. 797 00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:05,480 Paul Bartley: and caught on fire. 798 00:48:06,320 --> 00:48:06,440 Paul Bartley: And, 799 00:48:06,620 --> 00:48:10,640 Paul Bartley: you know, that was a big problem. 800 00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:12,860 Paul Bartley: So be aware of that. 801 00:48:13,240 --> 00:48:13,720 Paul Bartley: Be skeptical. 802 00:48:14,180 --> 00:48:14,780 Paul Bartley: You should be. 803 00:48:15,200 --> 00:48:18,220 Paul Bartley: You also need to be aware of the capacity of those batteries. 804 00:48:18,460 --> 00:48:21,180 Paul Bartley: You know, I said charging infrastructure for 65 batteries. 805 00:48:21,660 --> 00:48:30,800 Paul Bartley: Are you going to be able to safely deploy those in the field in a trailer in order to complete your work? You know, you need to be very conscientious about those decisions. 806 00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:33,080 Paul Bartley: Not every cheap battery is a good battery. 807 00:48:33,840 --> 00:48:36,780 Paul Bartley: and get the best deal for your infrastructure capacity. 808 00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:38,660 Paul Bartley: We've kind of gone over that. 809 00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:40,700 Paul Bartley: All of this work has been a lot of fun. 810 00:48:40,700 --> 00:48:41,720 Paul Bartley: I love cutting grass. 811 00:48:41,820 --> 00:48:46,320 Paul Bartley: I love testing blowers and thinking about how we can answer some of these questions for the industry. 812 00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:47,520 Paul Bartley: But really, 813 00:48:47,680 --> 00:48:49,720 Paul Bartley: it's all been an excuse to work with great people. 814 00:48:50,020 --> 00:48:54,300 Paul Bartley: And a special shout out to our collaborators within OPEC, 815 00:48:54,460 --> 00:48:56,480 Paul Bartley: the graduate students that have participated, 816 00:48:56,880 --> 00:49:00,420 Paul Bartley: the companies that have allowed us to do this work and associations, 817 00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:04,680 Paul Bartley: as well as the support that we've received through the USDA, 818 00:49:04,900 --> 00:49:05,840 Paul Bartley: AMS, 819 00:49:06,140 --> 00:49:12,540 Paul Bartley: and some of the companies that have participated in this. So there's just a few minutes left. I really appreciate y'all's time. 820 00:49:13,300 --> 00:49:17,880 Paul Bartley: And I'm happy to answer any questions you have except for what brand should you buy. 821 00:49:18,060 --> 00:49:18,680 Paul Bartley: Not going to do it. 822 00:49:20,700 --> 00:49:21,740 Shimat Joseph: Thank you so much, 823 00:49:21,900 --> 00:49:22,100 Shimat Joseph: Paul. 824 00:49:22,320 --> 00:49:23,300 Shimat Joseph: It was an excellent talk. 825 00:49:24,640 --> 00:49:28,560 Shimat Joseph: Let's wait for a few minutes again to see whether there's any questions there. 826 00:49:28,760 --> 00:49:31,380 Shimat Joseph: We have about six minutes left to five. 827 00:49:32,240 --> 00:49:32,380 Shimat Joseph: So, 828 00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:32,820 Shimat Joseph: you know, 829 00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:38,720 Shimat Joseph: please ask any question you may have on this topic that Dr. 830 00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:40,060 Shimat Joseph: Bartley kind of went over. 831 00:49:40,960 --> 00:49:44,660 Paul Bartley: Yeah, I'm happy to hear what tools you're using, if you love them, 832 00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:45,720 Paul Bartley: if it's autonomous, 833 00:49:46,060 --> 00:49:46,359 Paul Bartley: battery, 834 00:49:46,720 --> 00:49:46,880 Paul Bartley: gas, 835 00:49:47,140 --> 00:49:48,720 Paul Bartley: if you've got any inputs to share. 836 00:49:49,119 --> 00:49:49,960 Paul Bartley: I love that. 837 00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:52,640 Shimat Joseph: Any questions? 838 00:49:54,619 --> 00:49:57,760 Shimat Joseph: So let me ask you this question since we're waiting for her. 839 00:49:58,720 --> 00:50:02,900 Shimat Joseph: So Paul, when you tested all these automated systems, 840 00:50:03,300 --> 00:50:06,000 Shimat Joseph: have you looked at coordinators? 841 00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:10,940 Shimat Joseph: Because I was interested in coordinators and there's a lot of bees, 842 00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:12,540 Shimat Joseph: activities in the long run. 843 00:50:13,230 --> 00:50:14,560 Shimat Joseph: So is those things, 844 00:50:15,000 --> 00:50:18,260 Shimat Joseph: you know, you showed another image of, 845 00:50:18,579 --> 00:50:26,800 Shimat Joseph: I want to say, a model there and that you went over kind of thing. So is there any observations or any thoughts about that? 846 00:50:28,100 --> 00:50:30,600 Paul Bartley: What a mower's impact would be on pollinators? 847 00:50:30,820 --> 00:50:36,860 Paul Bartley: Because I think one of the questions was, if you have one of these robo mowers, which are extremely quiet, 848 00:50:37,220 --> 00:50:39,100 Paul Bartley: you know, they're sub 50 decibel outputs, 849 00:50:39,500 --> 00:50:40,780 Paul Bartley: they're extremely quiet. 850 00:50:41,280 --> 00:50:45,020 Paul Bartley: Would the bees not be able to know that they're coming? 851 00:50:45,420 --> 00:50:49,080 Paul Bartley: You know, is it going to surprise the cacom and we're starting to, 852 00:50:49,260 --> 00:50:50,840 Paul Bartley: you know, going to reduce our pollinators, 853 00:50:51,040 --> 00:50:55,220 Paul Bartley: especially with a lot of research on alternative lawns? 854 00:50:58,440 --> 00:51:00,440 Paul Bartley: I think it's taken off a lot of places. 855 00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:07,360 Paul Bartley: I believe some preliminary work was conducted in my conversations about that. 856 00:51:07,430 --> 00:51:09,700 Paul Bartley: If I'm remembering right, there were no differences. 857 00:51:10,620 --> 00:51:14,600 Paul Bartley: But I would not be surprised if someone saw more or less 858 00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:21,920 Paul Bartley: pollinators in a gas-powered mowing scenario versus these autonomous robots. 859 00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:24,280 Paul Bartley: That's come up a couple of times. 860 00:51:24,680 --> 00:51:25,540 Paul Bartley: Appreciate you asking. 861 00:51:28,540 --> 00:51:29,820 Shimat Joseph: Do you have any questions, 862 00:51:29,990 --> 00:51:30,420 Shimat Joseph: too, Paul? 863 00:51:32,599 --> 00:51:34,640 Shimat Joseph: It's like our audience is very silent today. 864 00:51:35,299 --> 00:51:35,539 Paul Bartley: Yeah, 865 00:51:35,720 --> 00:51:42,339 Paul Bartley: they're here to hardworking people cashing in their CEUs. 866 00:51:43,180 --> 00:51:44,680 Shimat Joseph: Yeah, I see one question here. 867 00:51:45,539 --> 00:51:48,020 Shimat Joseph: Have you done any work with hedge trimmers? 868 00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:49,180 Shimat Joseph: Oh yeah, 869 00:51:49,420 --> 00:51:53,059 Paul Bartley: we've tested all the hedge trimmers. 870 00:51:53,960 --> 00:51:55,319 Paul Bartley: There are differences across brands. 871 00:51:56,120 --> 00:52:05,880 Paul Bartley: There are a handful of brands that produce hedge trimmers that are the Rolls Royce of landscape equipment. 872 00:52:06,040 --> 00:52:11,440 Paul Bartley: I mean, it is the most phenomenal battery power tool of the whole lineup. 873 00:52:12,260 --> 00:52:13,620 Paul Bartley: They are whisper quiet. 874 00:52:14,060 --> 00:52:15,820 Paul Bartley: They are extremely efficient. 875 00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:21,400 Paul Bartley: That is the one tool that far exceeds the efficiency of their gas powered equivalent. 876 00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:25,620 Paul Bartley: That's the first one that I recommend landscapers try. 877 00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:29,380 Paul Bartley: Because I haven't met one yet that's been disappointed. 878 00:52:29,900 --> 00:52:31,180 Paul Bartley: They're a little bit heavier. 879 00:52:32,220 --> 00:52:35,700 Paul Bartley: You do have some increased fatigue with that. 880 00:52:36,420 --> 00:52:39,460 Paul Bartley: But battery-powered hedge trimmers are a 10 out of 10. 881 00:52:39,720 --> 00:52:40,820 Paul Bartley: And again, 882 00:52:41,109 --> 00:52:43,300 Paul Bartley: there are some differences across brands, 883 00:52:43,599 --> 00:52:51,440 Paul Bartley: but find one, test one out. What I tell everyone is if a company will not allow you to try a tool, 884 00:52:52,200 --> 00:52:52,880 Paul Bartley: try some of theirs, 885 00:52:53,079 --> 00:52:53,740 Paul Bartley: trial them out, 886 00:52:54,020 --> 00:52:54,500 Paul Bartley: don't buy it. 887 00:52:54,920 --> 00:52:59,740 Paul Bartley: I think that's really important for your employees to get their hands on it, to get an opinion. 888 00:53:00,539 --> 00:53:06,960 Paul Bartley: I've also seen opinions change huge from week one of using the equipment to month three. 889 00:53:07,619 --> 00:53:08,839 Paul Bartley: You know, it's night and day. 890 00:53:08,940 --> 00:53:13,579 Paul Bartley: They all of a sudden love this about it that they didn't realize and they've had a lot of fun with it. 891 00:53:15,160 --> 00:53:17,500 Shimat Joseph: And there is one comment, maybe you can read that. 892 00:53:17,900 --> 00:53:18,420 Paul Bartley: Chainsaws. 893 00:53:18,980 --> 00:53:20,060 Paul Bartley: Chainsaws are great. 894 00:53:20,240 --> 00:53:20,880 Paul Bartley: Very good. 895 00:53:21,100 --> 00:53:22,280 Paul Bartley: I've tested some, 896 00:53:23,300 --> 00:53:23,960 Paul Bartley: three or four of them, 897 00:53:24,200 --> 00:53:24,720 Paul Bartley: different brands. 898 00:53:25,190 --> 00:53:26,200 Paul Bartley: They were great again. 899 00:53:26,480 --> 00:53:30,280 Paul Bartley: That's actually chainsaw produced the loudest decibels of all landscape equipment. 900 00:53:30,600 --> 00:53:34,720 Paul Bartley: So the battery powered ones are amazing comparatively. 901 00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:36,880 Paul Bartley: Chainsaws are great. 902 00:53:37,060 --> 00:53:38,060 Paul Bartley: Hedge trimmers are great. 903 00:53:38,320 --> 00:53:45,580 Paul Bartley: String trimmers are often used a lot. We recommend battery powered blowers for what we call janitorial blowing. 904 00:53:46,820 --> 00:53:46,920 Paul Bartley: You know, 905 00:53:47,140 --> 00:53:49,180 Paul Bartley: clearing off sidewalks, curbs, 906 00:53:49,720 --> 00:53:50,460 Paul Bartley: things like that. 907 00:53:51,140 --> 00:53:57,400 Paul Bartley: You're going to notice a big difference in gas and leaf and battery powered blowers when it comes to heavy leaf drop season and wet leaves. 908 00:54:00,940 --> 00:54:03,680 Paul Bartley: We do test a few of those. 909 00:54:03,900 --> 00:54:05,380 Paul Bartley: We're collecting data on them now. 910 00:54:06,200 --> 00:54:09,940 Paul Bartley: We spent last year operating with some of them. 911 00:54:10,220 --> 00:54:13,000 Paul Bartley: I can't tell you that they're going to be more efficient. 912 00:54:13,500 --> 00:54:16,579 Paul Bartley: The efficiency of a commercial lawn mower is really high. 913 00:54:17,200 --> 00:54:19,240 Paul Bartley: We haven't looked at ROI yet. 914 00:54:19,960 --> 00:54:20,660 Paul Bartley: That'll be this year. 915 00:54:21,250 --> 00:54:22,020 Paul Bartley: I will say this. 916 00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:23,220 Paul Bartley: My kids love them. 917 00:54:23,820 --> 00:54:26,060 Paul Bartley: Kids in my neighborhood love my robotic mower. 918 00:54:26,859 --> 00:54:29,099 Paul Bartley: We've got them deployed at arboretums. 919 00:54:29,460 --> 00:54:32,119 Paul Bartley: You know, I think there are settings that are amazing for those tools. 920 00:54:33,060 --> 00:54:41,740 Paul Bartley: And the business models are kind of being worked out around them and how much you need to service them. Because the one in the arboretum, I have to go visit every two or three days because someone's picked it up. 921 00:54:42,100 --> 00:54:44,800 Paul Bartley: and they have to be manually reset when that happens. 922 00:54:45,040 --> 00:54:46,440 Paul Bartley: So those tools, 923 00:54:47,060 --> 00:55:00,360 Paul Bartley: autonomous mowers are great, but they do. It's an absolute necessary to evaluate the property first and remove any obstacles or hazards that might reduce the efficiency of that tool or create problems down the road. 924 00:55:02,059 --> 00:55:03,319 Shimat Joseph: Thank you so much, Paul. 925 00:55:04,500 --> 00:55:08,480 Shimat Joseph: Thank you so much for your talk and we all enjoyed it. And I am pretty sure we all learned a lot. 926 00:55:08,779 --> 00:55:08,920 Shimat Joseph: Okay. 927 00:55:09,660 --> 00:55:09,859 Paul Bartley: Thank you. 928 00:55:10,279 --> 00:55:11,059 Paul Bartley: Great questions. 929 00:55:11,539 --> 00:55:11,640 Paul Bartley: Thanks, 930 00:55:12,140 --> 00:55:12,279 Paul Bartley: everyone, 931 00:55:12,460 --> 00:55:13,319 Paul Bartley: for participating. 932 00:55:13,559 --> 00:55:16,740 Paul Bartley: Thanks, Shimat, for the opportunity and all those others with this webinar. 933 00:55:17,320 --> 00:55:17,920 Shimat Joseph: Sure. 934 00:55:18,340 --> 00:55:21,420 Shimat Joseph: So this basically concludes our webinar for today. 935 00:55:22,180 --> 00:55:23,180 Shimat Joseph: And if you, 936 00:55:23,480 --> 00:55:23,940 Shimat Joseph: Richie, 937 00:55:24,210 --> 00:55:28,520 Shimat Joseph: if you have any thoughts about the CEUs and things like that. 938 00:55:29,200 --> 00:55:29,980 Rich Braman: Sure do. 939 00:55:30,240 --> 00:55:30,860 Rich Braman: I sure do. 940 00:55:31,060 --> 00:55:33,000 Rich Braman: Let me just pull this up real quick. 941 00:55:33,870 --> 00:55:34,360 Rich Braman: And Paul, 942 00:55:34,520 --> 00:55:35,940 Rich Braman: that was really interesting. 943 00:55:37,579 --> 00:55:38,980 Paul Bartley: I'm glad you enjoyed it. 944 00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:43,700 Paul Bartley: Like I said, usually all of us at some point have a mower, blower, string trimmer in our hands. 945 00:55:43,940 --> 00:55:46,440 Paul Bartley: So maybe we can all take away something from that. 946 00:55:47,020 --> 00:55:48,000 Rich Braman: Very much so. 947 00:55:48,200 --> 00:55:51,180 Rich Braman: I was going to say, some of those emails you get might just be from me. 948 00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:53,799 Paul Bartley: I'm happy they'll.