In step with U.S. Lawns’ encouragement to use greener fuels, a Hampton Roads, Va.-based U.S. Lawns franchise recently converted its mower fleet to propane under the supervision of East Coast Equipment, a John Deere dealer, and PAPCO, a Virginia Beach, Va.-based petroleum marketer.

“We kicked off our mower fleet conversion with a field day for our employees, which included safety training by PAPCO,” said Steve Ferguson, the franchise owner. “We are happy to be working with them to support our complete conversion of gasoline-powered commercial lawnmowers over to new John Deere propane-powered models.”

As part of the conversion Peter Ryan, PAPCO general manager, conducted four 30-minute sessions of Propane 101 Training for U.S. Lawns’ employees. PAPCO will lease 72 propane lawn mower cylinders and cabinets for U.S. Lawns’ 16 new propane-powered John Deere mowers, in addition to providing ongoing propane supply.

“We are very excited about our partnership with U.S. Lawns to fulfill their goal of converting to safe, clean-burning propane,” said Richard Reddington, PAPCO sales consultant. “We look forward to helping them keep the grass greener in Hampton Roads.”

Ken Hutcheson, president of U.S. Lawns, said the company is pushing franchisees to convert equipment to greener fuels as the Hampton Roads franchise has.

“We have strived to be a green company, before ‘green’ was a buzzword,” Hutcheson said. “We seek to create a more sustainable planet because quality of life makes all of our lives better.”