Why working with technology companies will benefit the green industry

A Scythe Robotics 52-inch autonomous commercial mower at work in Vero Beach, Fla. (Photo: Scythe Robotics)

Michael Mayberry, chief technology officer for Level Green Landscaping in Upper Marlboro, Md., shares how working with Scythe Robotics has benefited both the green industry and his company as a whole.

Level Green Landscaping is an early partner with Scythe Robotics. Mayberry sees this technology playing an important role in the future for the company’s commercial maintenance, design/build and installation and snow and ice removal company. 

“We’ve already signed on for a bunch of machines that when they start coming off the production line, we’re eagerly awaiting those,” he says.

Mayberry works with Scythe Robotics on everything including marketing and the look and feel of the robotic mower itself. 

“We talked about cut quality — the way the machine handles clippings,” he says. “In our region, we use mulch kits for all of our mowers. We are not ejecting clippings, so it’s really important for us that we get that really good, consistent clean look without having those windrows of clippings.”

Being involved in marketing and pricing discussions with Scythe will benefit the green industry, Mayberry says.

“Scythe has created a payment model that will demonstrate ROI to business owners,” he says. “It makes it a lot easier for me when I’m going to go to my owners to say ‘Hey we need these.’ I can already justify the ROI because we’ve already talked about it with Scythe. The fact that we work through that together really fosters a great relationship.”

He says he was also impressed with the approach Scythe Robotics took to the development of the mower, including the design of the blades, the type of metal used in the frame and the type and placement of batteries to maximize the mower’s run time. Mayberry says another aspect of the mower he worked closely with the company on was the feel of the mower, so it felt and operated very similar to a mower that’s on the market currently. 

“We want our people to be able to hop on these mowers and operate them, without having to spend a lot of time retraining them or learning how the machines operate,” he says.