Company tagline
I often see a tree company with beautiful bucket trucks, and below their company name is a tagline that arouses my curiosity: “Environmentally responsible tree care”. Aha, that sounds awesome, but how is the company environmentally responsible exactly?
Sadly, until this week, I didn’t have a chance to approach the workers with my questions. Most mornings, people rush about, me included. But I finally got a chance when a manager walked the same way for a few meters.
Testy!
Now, to be clear, I wasn’t being an ass. I was genuinely curious about how this tree company was environmentally responsible. So I went for it and asked the dude, and was he ever testy! I had zero clue he would get all defensive. I expected a well-rehearsed answer from him. Nope.
First, he told me that yes, the company was environmentally responsible, and continued walking. So I asked the obvious follow-up question: for example?
Voodoo
The man mumbled something about oils, and it’s possible there are oils gentle on the environment. I’m not an expert on oil production. Puzzled, I started imagining their chainsaws filled up with oils made from coconut palms.
When he mentioned wood chip recycling, he got hotter. I have experience with wood chips from my work with a municipal park department. There, we used city arborists to dump massive piles of wood chips for us to use in beds as mulch.
The wood chips are free, and look good. They also keep weeds down and moisture in. It is a win-win situation.
And just last weekend, my son played soccer at the PNE on Hastings Street in Vancouver. On my walk there, I saw several municipal beds covered with fresh wood chips. It looked good, and there won’t be any weeding work for months.
Still testy
Back to the testy tree guy. He insisted that I ask him the same question every time I see him, which is very unlikely. And if I had asked him once already, I had no memory of his answers. He thought I was slow for asking the same tired question. And I wondered why he hadn’t composed a quick response by now.
If your company is environmentally responsible, you should be able to tell people how exactly it does it. I giggled to myself when I noticed his aggravation. I was genuinely curious. And I still am.
