Aug./Sept. 2009TPI ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS Taking Care of Business.............Page 2 -The Four Ps of Strategy Creation Safety Management..............Pages 3-4 -Five Tips to Improve Hazard Recognition -Safe Driving Policy Kit Available Marketing Tip...............................Page 5 -Top Five Social Media Marketing Mistakes Shrewder Computing.................. Page 5 -Free Desktop Search Tools TPI Action......................................Page 6 -TPI Urges Members to Write Congress on WaterSense - Benefits of Turfgrass Video Now Online -Thank You for Supporting TPI Spotlight on Turfgrass Benefits..... Page 6 Renew Your TPI Membership Dues If you have not yet renewed your annual TPI membership for 2009-2010, please do so by September 4, 2009. Your membership is a wise investment as TPI is the only international association that continues to promote the benefits of turfgrass in this challenging economy. Be sure to renew promptly so you continue to receive Turf News magazine, newsletters and your listing in the printed and online membership directory. You can renew Your TPI Membership Dues in one of three ways: • Mail check (U.S. funds) to TPI, 2 East Main Street, East Dundee, Illinois, 60118 USA • Credit card (Visa, MasterCard or American Express) • Wire transfer (please email shall@TurfGrassSod.org to request instructions) If you need a copy of the invoice, please contact Susan Hall at 847-649-5555 or shall@TurfGrassSod.org BUSINESS MANAGEMENT Turfgrass Producers International "Being Nice:" Does It Work? A seventh grade teacher once told his class that he did not understand what "being nice” meant. “What is being nice?” he asked. “Nice” was such a nonde­ script word that it really did not give any direction of how to be or describe a set of behaviors. No one in the class had a comment. They were just 12 years old and were always being told to be nice. As many business people continue to run their businesses, the question of how nice they should be as a salesperson, program coordina­ tor, boss (and the list could go on for each of the hats worn each day) is often on their minds. The dictionary defines nice as pleasing, agreeable and delightful. These three words will get you labeled as “nice,” but will not necessar­ ily advance your business career. To be pleasing, agreeable and delightful means that you are acting and making decisions based on always having others leave meetings happy and getting exactly what they want, many times at your expense. It may seem like your customers are pleased with the deal, but if you do not feel good about your agreement or are unable to follow through on your word, your customers will not feel good for long. And, do not forget about your needs to make a profit, fulfill sales quotas and pay your utility bills. If you give away your services or products to make others happy, your business will not survive very long. Say, for example, you are a contractor who has been asked by an advertising agency to build new office space. You would like the work, but the agency has a limited budget. Be­ ing nice and accommodating, you offer them a proposal below your bottom line and promise to get the work done on their timeline. As you get started, you see that the job is much bigger than expected and you need to inform the owners that you cannot possibly do the entire project based on the current contract. The ad agency, of course, is upset and pushes you to stay within budget. You end up losing money and the agency is unhappy Note: For permission to reproduce and distribute any part of Business Management newsletter, contact Managing Editor Lynn Grooms at 847/649-5555 or lgrooms@TurfGrassSod.org. because of the extra funds needed and that you finished one month after you promised to get your work completed. You were being nice during contract negotiations, but in the end, everyone felt bad. You are very unlikely to get a future referral from the agency and the money and time lost on this project threatens the future viability of your business. If being nice is not an effective strat­ egy, what can you do? You can work to have your clients and customers be truly satisfied with your services or products. Your job is to meet the real needs of your clients as well as those of your own business. In this way, you give good service to both your clients and your business. To do this you must remember and act on three things: Know your ideal customers. By knowing what type of customers your business needs and serves the best, you can more effectively find this population to promote your products and services. The chance of finding and creat­ ing a good match between provider and client is greatly increased when you are just looking and meeting the people who fit your ideal cus­ tomer base. Metaphorically speaking, if you are fishing for salmon, do not go to a small pond where only Koi live. Promise only what you can do. Provide references when needed. Really knowing what you can and cannot offer will help everybody in the end. Clients need and want to know the exact parameters for what they are contract­ ing and expect that a job will be completed as stated. Knowing what to expect and getting your expectations met is far better than leav­ ing a meeting feeling like a super deal was had. People like to be taken care of and will pay for this service. If you are unable to meet the needs of a potential client, state this ahead of time and give referrals of providers that may be able to work at a lower fee or provide a special ser­ vice that you do not offer. Follow through. At the end of the day, your word is what truly matters. Of course, contracts are important, but they are really the written extension of your spoken word. Any stated promise, no matter how small, must be followed through. If you said you would make a referral, make the referral. If you said you Continued on page 4 Taking Care of Business By Ron Price Price Associates www.Price-Associates.com The Four Ps of Strategy Creation When it comes to creating a business strategy, it is rarely wise to move for­ ward with just one carefully thought out course of action. It is wiser to encourage vigorous debate and develop several alternatives as part of the strategic discussion. The best scenario is to have three to five alternatives that are all so good that you experience angst over which one to choose. This process provides better critical thinking, increased creativity and a number of alternatives to choose from as the future unfolds. Unfortunately, many organizations do not value this approach and quickly move strategic discussions toward consensus. These organiza­ tions often end up caught by the marketplace when circumstances change. While their strategy may have been great at the time they created it, factors outside of their control can change the dynamics of their business. With­ out alternatives developed in their strategic planning process, they cannot respond quickly enough to leverage an opportunity or avoid a significant threat. Businesses need to monitor both the execu­ tion of their strategic plan and the changing environment in which they do business. With management tools providing input in real time, organizations can quickly adjust course as circumstances present new opportunities or threats. The “Four Ps” model can help companies create this advantage: Perceptions, Performance, Purpose and Process. Perceptions There are six different stakeholder groups you should listen to periodically to determine whether you are moving in the right direction: 1. Customers. How customers see you is critical. Since not all feedback systems work equally to uncover customer perceptions, use a variety of feedback systems, such as suggestion cards, phone calls, emails, interviews and focus groups. 2. Employees. Track your employees’ level of engagement and satisfaction, again using various feedback systems to gauge perceptions. Your employees have a big impact on your long-term performance, especially when you are trying to execute changes in strategy. 3. Vendors. In the old days, companies did not care what their vendors thought of them. But today, everyone is connected and part of a greater whole. In developing flexibility with your strategy, all of your relationships are potential assets that you can draw upon to ex­ ecute or change your strategy. Do your vendors view you as one of their prime customers or as one of the troublesome ones? 4. Regulators. Depending on your industry, you have different guidelines to follow. Some­ times these guidelines play a significant role in strategy. Therefore, know how your industry’s regulators view you. 5. Owners or shareholders. Whether your company has one or several major inves­ tors, you need to fully understand how each perceives the organization. Since the person or people who hold the purse strings play a major role in the company, they have dynamic relevance in terms of strategy. 6. Community: This could include your Chamber of Commerce, the media, other significant area businesses or even the govern­ ment. How these outside groups view your company can significantly impact your strategy. Performance Performance relates to the following four questions: 1. How are we doing implementing and executing our strategy, including goals and timelines? Are we ahead or behind? Are we performing according to plan or are we out of sync? 2. What are the current economics? Has anything changed from what we assumed when we created our strategic plan? 3. What are our operational results? If you break these down into business units or indi­ vidual strategies or functions, figure out your actual operational results. You may be doing a great job executing your strategy, but it may not be producing expected results. 4. How are we performing relative to the performance agreements that we established? The performance agreements are the specifics of the operational plan created in the strategy. How are you lining up with the milestones for specific initiatives? What is happening with the consequences? Are you getting greater or lesser results than expected? Purpose When you review your purpose as an organization, you need to ask, “What has changed?” or “What is or will be changing in the environment?” Your answer should impact the way you look at your vision or long-term goals. The goal is to look for new opportuni­ ties or identify what threats may be emerging because of changes in the environment. Continually ask, "What has changed internally since we met last?" "Do we have some new strength that we did not have before?” “Did we obtain new equipment, tech­ nology or intellectual property?” "Did we get some great talent that we did not have before that should impact our strategy?” Has a new limitation emerged since we last looked at this scorecard?” Based on your answers, you should re­ view whether you still have the right strategy, goals or timelines. Determine what you can redefine and adjust your plan to improve any of the areas you have analyzed. Finally, ask yourself, “Where should we focus our improve­ ment efforts to create new value in the future?” Process All work is a process. It is a series of tasks combined to achieve a particular goal. This is also the case with strategy. There are steps you go through, people involved and processes to look at to determine where you can improve your implementation and in what order of pri­ ority. Are there inefficiencies in your processes? Are the processes really creating the results you seek? How should you adjust your resources? Finally, you should be asking how to cre­ ate a sense of urgency and accountability to ensure superior execution. A great plan poorly executed still produces poor results if you do not have the right sense of urgency or level of accountability. Keep score for better results Good strategic thinking and monitoring take the four Ps into consideration. This is about constantly looking at your environ­ ment and adjusting your plan as necessary. This, along with a more robust development of strategic alternatives, moves you away from rigid organizational charts and more toward team-based environments. As a result, you are better able to adapt your strategy to the changing environment. When you implement the four Ps, you keep your strategy fresh. You do not become stagnant or obsolete in the implementation of your plan or in the marketplace. Source: Ron Price is founder and CEO of Price As­ sociates, which helps business leaders and entrepreneurs solve problems, identify solutions and implement changes in strategy and performance. Former president of the AIM Companies, Price directed strategic, marketing compensation and incentive planning as well as field training and operations. For more information, visit www.Price-Associates.com or call 866-442-0556. Safety Management Five Tips to Improve Your Safety Vision Have you ever found yourself reading an incident report concern­ ing an injury to a worker or damage to equipment and wondered, “How in the world did that happen?” More than likely it happened lot and the building to be cleaned with a pressure washer. Add to this the need to raise and lower the worker operating the pressure washing wand. We often talk about human ingenuity. Well, workers can be quite because someone did not recognize a hazard. Hazards are the source of personal injuries and damage to vehicles, equipment and property. They abound at home, work and play. The problem is that we do not see them until they hurt us. It’s no joke when someone says, “I didn’t see it coming.” Recogniz­ ing a hazard requires a trained brain that quickly analyzes the risk and the consequences posed by the situation. It is not unusual to find that a worker in­ volved in an incident was trained to control hazards associated with his or her work, but had not been specifically trained to see the hazards. This is all part of the gap between knowing and doing. People know what to do when they recognize the hazard, they just do not see it. Hazard control is the key to preventing injuries and damage, yet to control the hazard, employees at all levels must be trained to recognize them. When you consider this, you will start to see the problems many places. Carl shares the following example: Take another look around a new work site with the intent of finding hazards that you missed the first time innovative and get the job done. Yet, they put themselves in a precarious situation without even recognizing it. These workers had parked a mobile scissor lift in the parking spaces parallel to the sidewalk and the building. The building was approximately twelve feet from the scissor lift. Using a 2x12-inch board about 16 feet long, they lashed one end to the floor of the scis­ sor lift. This resembled a diving board. Then, they positioned three large workers as counter balances to hang on the outside of the guardrail of the lift. The employee with the wand in his hand was standing at the end of the “diving board,” wear­ ing fall protection clipped onto the basket of the lift 12 feet away (yes, I am sure the lanyard employed a de-accelerator). Got the picture? Being a studious safety professional, I quickly went downstairs and walked toward these hard working, creative gentlemen. As I approached, I said, “I am not with OSHA, but as a certified safety professional, it is my duty to stop your opera­ tion.” They all got wide-eyed. It was obvious that “I was on a business trip and happened to look out of my hotel room window. I observed a group of workers cleaning the side of a building across the parking lot. It was obvious they were clueless to the danger in which they had placed themselves. The challenge for these workers was the distance between the parking Carl and Deb Potter conduct safety workshops. they heard “OSHA” and misinterpreted. They stopped working abruptly so I assume they knew their behavior was unsafe. When I asked who was in charge, one of the workers ran through a door and quickly produced the supervisor who was very cooperative. The supervisor explained that it was his idea to use the contraption until the rental company delivered the snorkel lift (expected to arrive on the site in the next two hours). After a few minutes of discussion with the supervisor and the workers, they realized that the consequences of their behavior could have been serious. We all shook hands and agreed that they would wait until the rental company showed up with the proper equipment. I promised not to write them a citation (they still thought I was with OSHA). It was just another day in the life of a safety profes­ sional.” Without the ability to see hazards, people will put themselves in posi­ tions that can lead to personal or co-worker injury or equipment damage. Train yourself to see We often think that we are above reproach and know that we have been well trained. Sometimes that can turn into pride, which will get us into trouble. So many times we face unknown or unseen hazards in the workplace. One of the first things you can do is to consider your overall percep­ tion of safety. Do you believe that you can have little influence over what happens - that external forces are the primary cause of injuries? Or, do you have an internalfocus that lets you know that you have a great deal of control over the environment or situation? The degree to which you perceive that you have control over the con­ sequences of a situation is known as the locus of control or LOC. People generally have a strong internal or external safety LOC.1 One of the first things you can do to train yourself to see hazards is to consider your LOC. If you have a strong external LOC, you are likely to think that you have little control and, therefore, may not look for or consider the hazards. This calls for deep introspection. Think about the times that you have been able to avoid injury by wearing your personal protective equipment or by following a procedure. You can even look back on incidents that occurred because you or someone else did not fol­ low safe work practices. Work with more experienced people from time to time and ask them what hazards they see. Then determine if you see the same ones. Challenge yourself to look for the things that you can control. If you have a strong internal LOC, you may go too far in thinking that you personally can control hazards and may not use all of the tools and tech­ nology at your disposal. Looking for the things you can control is simply a good idea. You will be surprised how much better you see hazards with this personal insight. Five steps to see unseen hazards Sometimes we all have trouble seeing hazards. Yet there are several things you can do to improve your "hazard vision:" 1. Recognize your own perception of your ability to control hazards. 2. Discuss and list the typical hazards associated with your industry or job. 3. Work with more experienced people from time to time and ask them what hazards they see. Then determine if you see the same ones. 4. Take another look around a new work site with the intent of finding hazards that you missed the first time. 5. Read incident reports or investigation reports from others to continu­ ously learn about new hazards. Perhaps the most important thing that you can do to train yourself is to learn everything you can about controlling various hazards. From that perspective, you will discover information that you can apply to keep yourself and others injury-free at work and at home. 1 Jones, J. W., & Wuebker, L. (1985). Development and valida­ tion of the safety locus of control scale. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 61(1), 151-161. Source: Carl Potter, CSP, CMC and Deb Potter, PhD, CMC work with organizations wanting to create safe environments. They conduct workshops, advise industry leaders and speak frequently at industry-specific and safety- related conferences. For more information on the new workshop “Hazard Recognition and Control, ” visit www.hazardrecognitionworkshop.com or call 800-259-6209. By Carl Potter, CSP, CMC & Deb Potter, PhD, CMC “Being Nice” continued from page 1 would return a phone call or get back to a client by e-mail, make the call or e-mail promptly. If you said you would get information, a proposal or a contract out to a customer, do not delay. When you truly take the time to think and try these ideas, you will find it is easier to follow through on promises made to ideal clients. You will feel more confident that your clients will be satisfied with your work, that you will make your necessary profit, and that you will wrap up the job with every­ one involved feeling positive. “Being nice” seems to have little to do with business success. Save being pleasant, agreeable and delightful for the cafeteria line, corporate social func­ tions and vacation, but be kind and take a service approach when working with your clients and customers. In other words, work with conscious inten­ tion to meet the needs of your clients and yourself and still play nice. Source: Dr. Julia M. Rahn is a clinical psychologist and founder of Flourish Studios, ™ a multi-faceted learning center. She is also a speaker and consultant. To find out more about Dr. Rahn, please visit www.icanflourish.com, 773-281-8130. No Cell Phone/Safe Driving Policy Kit Available Last January, the National Safety Council (NSC) became the first organization to call for a nationwide ban on motorists’ use of cell phones and messaging devices while driving. It also urged businesses and legisla­ tors to enact policies prohibiting the practice. The NSC is now offering a Distracted Driving Resource Kit for companies ready to educate employees about their risks. The kit helps employers communicate the risks of using hand-held and hands-free communication devices while driving. It also helps companies create and implement individualized distracted driving policies and present them in a positive manner. The kit includes a suggested timeline for imple­ menting policies company-wide and introducing related new procedures. Available on CD, the kit includes a wealth of electronic resources, such as: • A “call to action” for a distracted driving policy • Template distracted driving policy • Informational article on the risks associated with distracted driving • The top ten reasons for a no-cell driving policy • Posters • Tips for distraction-free driving • A one-hour training program on distracted driving (includes Instruc­ tor Guide, Participant Guide and PowerPoint® Presentation) • Distracted Driving Safety pamphlets “When you’re on a call, even if both hands are on the wheel, your head is in the call and not on your driving. Research shows that drivers are four times more likely to be involved in a crash while talking on a cell phone,” said John Ulczycki, Group Vice President, Research, Communication & Advocacy, NSC. “With the kit’s resources, including its policy documents, companies of all sizes can start to change the way their employees think about using cell phones and other messaging devices behind the wheel.” The Distracted Driving Resource Kit is $39.95 for NSC members and $49.95 for non-members. To order, call 800/621-7691 and ask for product 32101-0000, or visit nsc.org. Fact sheets, data and other information concerning cell phone use while driving is available on the NSC Website at distracteddriving.nsc.org. Marketing Tip By Pam Lontos and Maurice Ramirez, Ph.D PR/PR Public Relations www.PRPR.net Five Top Social Media Marketing Mistakes As a business owner, you already know the importance of using traditional pub­ lic relations to keep your name circulat­ ing in the marketplace. Now, there’s a new PR outlet, social media marketing (SMM). When combined with traditional efforts, SMM can help you penetrate the marketplace with your message quicker and easier than ever before. friends. For example, you have likely seen some­ one on LinkedIn with 25,000+ contacts. What do you do with all those contacts? Remember, just because you have a phone book in your office does not mean that you can open the book at random, pick a name and call them for business. When you collect a contact, you are opening the door to exchange information and build a relationship. Think of it as relationship market­ ing in the 21st Century. The same rules apply. Mistake #3: Putting out the wrong messages You have likely seen people put posts on Twitter or Facebook that say something like, “John Smith is watching a great movie and eating popcorn.” Such messages may be fine for personal networks, but for business networks you need to communicate messages that are useful to your readers. Give valuable advice so that people who read your posts want to re-post them to their own sites. That is how your mes­ sage spreads virally. Keep your messages consistent. Remember that people are subscribing to various feeds to get your information. They are essentially saying that your message has value. That is why you cannot do a series of sales tips and then post a couple of your favorite omelet recipes. You must stay on message, and this message has to be for your readers. Mistake 4: Posting inappropriate information Do not allow yourself or anyone on your site to post anything online that you do not want your most conservative client to see. You never know where something will end up, especially since the nature of the Internet is for things to spread virally. Mistake 5: Assuming that it is better to have your message in only one place In the Internet’s “old days,” people believed they had to keep all of their content on their own Website. The theory was that spreading it out ruined your credibility and diminished your reputation as being a unique speaker. With SMM, the opposite is true. The more places you can get your message to appear simultaneously, the more effective your message will be. You want to lay several trails of information, all of which lead to your main site. That is what you are doing with your Twitters and other SMM messages. You are putting out kernels of SMM uses various social networking sites to enforce your brand and market your business. A social networking site is simply an online meet­ ing place. People can post a profile on these sites with the hopes of meeting other like-minded professionals for business reasons. According to the Nielsen Research Group, social networks and blogs have moved ahead of personal e-mail as the most popular online activities. USA Today reports that the time spent on these sites is growing three times faster than the overall Internet rate. More than two-thirds of the world’s online population now visits social networking and blogging sites. If you have not yet engaged in SMM, it is time to start. But, be aware of the top mistakes businesses make with this PR outlet so you can avoid them and get the biggest return for your marketing investment. Mistake 1: Having more than one face on the Internet When engaging in SMM, you are re­ ally building your image from the ground up. The goal is to virally spread parts of your image across the Internet. The word “parts” is important. Basically, you are starting with a holographic image of yourself in the virtual world. You then need to break that hologram apart and find the appropriate places on the Internet where you can frame certain pieces of that hologram. When someone looks at all of the pieces at the various sites, they should be able to put them together to see a single whole. They should not see multiple images of who you are as that would ruin your credibility. If you have multiple Facebook accounts, for example, your personal one must be hidden and by invitation only. You do not want that other image confusing people and possibly diminishing your reputation. Mistake 2: Collecting friends SMM is how you create instant buzz on the Internet by repeating the same message. Social networking, on the other hand, is about making Shrewder Computing Where Did I Put That Memo? Even organized with 10,000 or more files you are going to forget where you might have stored that file with Aunt Sally’s favorite cookie recipe. That’s where a local search program comes in handy. There are two free ones, Google Desk­ top Search (http://desktop.google.com/) and Microsoft Desktop Search (http://www. microsoft.com/windows/winfamily/ desktopsearch/default.mspx Once installed and given time to build their indexes, you can search your hard drive as easily as you can search the Inter­ net. The words “Aunt Sally cookies” would find your recipe in just a few seconds. Moreover, both index your e-mails. Since I keep all my e-mails and send and receive about 40,000 a year, I have a lot of e-mails. With desktop search, I can find any of my 200,000 e-mails. If Google can find information in six billion Web pages, your hard drive is a piece of cake. Source: Gregg Marshall, CPMR, CSP, is a speaker, author and consul­ tant. He can be reached by e-mail at gmarshall@repconnection.com, or visit his website at http://www.repconnection.com information. If someone wants the next kernel, they must follow the trail. Eventually it funnels them to your Website. Get Noticed with SMM The marketplace is changing and you have to change with it. Your name must be everywhere- -in print, and on radio, TV and social network­ ing sites. The more you can get your name and message circulating in the various mediums, the higher your chances of clients seeing your infor­ mation. Thanks to SMM, you can communicate your message to thousands of people in an instant. The results are greater credibility, more exposure and higher sales, all of which positively impact your bottom line. Sources: Pam Lontos is president of PR/PR Public Relations and author of "I See Your Name Every­ where." Maurice Ramirez, Ph.D. is the chief strate­ gist for Social Media at PR/PR, and a renowned speaker on the subject of Social Media Marketing. PR/PR works with established businesses as well as new entrepreneurs. For a fee consultation, e-mail Pam@prpr.net or call 407-299-6128. To receive fee publicity tips, go to www.PRPR.net and register for the monthly e-newsletter, PR/PR Pulse! TPI Action Thank You for Supporting TPI The TPI Board of Trustees and staff wish to thank all members who have renewed their annual membership for 2009/2010. With your support, TPI can continue to promote the benefits of turfgrass to consumers, contractors, green industry professionals and educators and provide you with top-notch benefits, programs and services. TPI Urges Members to Write Congress on WaterSense While the deadline has passed for comments to the EPA regarding WaterSense, TPI members and others involved in the green industry must continue to send letters to their congressional representatives in opposition to the landscape provisions current language. If EPA finalizes the specification in its current form, turfgrass use could be reduced by 60 percent or more. Moreover, there has been language in recent bills in Congress to fund and codify the EPA WaterSense program. Continued communication from TPI and its members will put EPA on notice that the turfgrass and green industry should be taken seriously when other issues arise. Please visit the following automated website to submit your letter to your legislators: http://www.congressweb.com/cweb4/index.cfm?orgcode=pln&hotissue=59 Benefits of Turfgrass Video Now Online Visit www.TurfGrassSod.org to see a new video entitled "The Benefits of Turfgrass” presented by The Lawn Institute. Click on TPI Member, Turfgrass Professional or Consumer, and you will see the Benefits of Turfgrass box in the upper right hand corner. Click on this box to see the video narrated by well-known farm broadcaster Orion Samuelson. Samuelson discusses the environmental, community/human health, and economic benefits of turfgrass. This video is just one of three versions of the “Benefits of Turfgrass” that TPI will provide to members on DVD. A second version will be a continuous play video with no voiceover that can be used at trade show exhibits, field days and in offices to convey the benefits of turfgrass. The third version will be a pre-scripted PowerPoint presentation that TPI members can use and modify when speaking before service clubs, students and other organizations. For more information, please visit www.TurfGrassSod.org Spotlight on The Benefits of Turfgrass This article will be the first in a series of articles discussing the numerous benefits of turfgrass. In this issue, we focus on environmental benefits. Consider this. Turfgrass • Cools the air • Produces oxygen • Filters air and reduces pollution • Captures and suppresses dust • Recharges and filters groundwater supply • Reduces storm water runoff • Controls soil erosion • Retains and sequesters carbon • Assists decomposition of pollutants • Restores soil quality Sequestering carbon is one of the most important environmental benefits of turfgrass. An independent study conducted by Dr. Ranajit Sahu, who has taught numerous classes on air pollution and risk management at UCLA and UC-Riverside, found that managed lawns sequester, or store, significant amounts of carbon, capturing four times more carbon from the air than is produced by the engine of today’s average lawnmower. The study found that well-managed turfgrasses that are cut regularly, and at the appropriate height, fed with nutrients left by grass clippings, watered in a responsible way, and not disturbed at the root zone, actively pull pollutants from the air, creating a greater carbon benefit. Business Management Turfgrass Producers International 2 East Main St., East Dundee, IL 60118 e-mail: info@TurfGrassSod.org ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED FIRST CLASS MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID Dundee, IL 60118 Permit No.2590