How Colleges Can Optimize the Value of Landscape to Meet Strategic & Academic Goals

Posted by Eastern Land Management on

As a campus facility manager, you know that staying competitive means continually investing in your grounds. But with undergraduate college enrollment in its steepest decline on record, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and data from the National Student Clearinghouse, making the case for continual improvements gets harder, pushing many facility managers to seek landscape service partners that can identify new ways to keep your campus landscape a high-performing resource.

Knowing how to respond to challenges and how wisely money will be allocated is an opportunity to ensure that the full potential of the value of the investment in landscaping can be realized. To Eastern Land Management, this means delivering more innovative solutions and a value-based approach to landscape and grounds services.

With 48 years’ experience spanning public and private K-12, to land grant and private colleges to the Ivy league in Connecticut and New York, ELM has a long-history as a discreet and unparalleled landscape partner-of-choice. The company’s proactive, professionally managed approach to maintaining campus landscape and grounds is a process that ensures that the school, the land, the natural resources, the landscape and the built environment work in harmony with the school’s commitment to excellence.

Key elements that make us strong campus partners

  • We work with facility managers to reemphasize the flexible space between buildings, and meet landscape, grounds and site objectives at a strategic level.
  • We improve data driven decision-making with technology platforms.
  • We find creative ways to rise to the challenge of deferred maintenance.
  • We advise on energy management programs to reach sustainability goals and drive cost savings.
  • We follow best-practice guidelines in horticulture, plant health care, integrated pest management, and water conservation to break new ground on sustainable solutions.
  • We create a consistent and reliable approach to service excellence, working with facility managers to set priorities and deliver the greatest value.
  • We provide multiple delivery models, including outsourced partner, onsite partner, consulting partner, or in specialized service areas, such as water management and athletic fields.

Leading change in four critical areas

ELM received the Fairfield County ChangeMaker Award for sustainability in 2019, and we continue to support sustainability goals in the following ways:

  • Safeguarding water
    • Reducing runoff
    • Promoting permeable paving
    • Collecting rainwater, where feasible
    • Implementing landscaping that has high rate of absorption
    • Incorporating bioswales and bio-retention areas, and constructed wetlands
    • Utilizing drought tolerant planting
    • Installing high-efficiency irrigation systems and digital water saving technology
  • Conserving resources
    • Reducing green waste
    • Minimizing waste impacts
    • Using renewable, biodegradable, low-impact, and non-toxic materials, as feasible
  • Improving energy efficiency
    • Planting deciduous trees for seasonal shading
    • Using energy-efficient equipment
    • Using renewable technologies
    • Increasing the use of cost-effective tools and alternative fuel
  • Enhancing environmental quality
    • Creating healthy outdoor spaces and landscape solutions that support learning and enhance the quality of life
    • Restoring soil health to improve carbon sequestration, combat soil erosion, retain water and nutrients
    • Using non-toxic products, as feasible, to improve plant health and reduce pests and disease
    • Increasing the use of low-maintenance, drought tolerant perennials, meadows, eco-lawns, groundcover
    • Protecting habitats and promoting biodiversity
    • Using eco-friendly alternatives to salt for winter snow and ice management

At ELM, our goal is to make all the elements of the landscape work together for a more sustainable and resilient future. To learn more, contact Ted Marron at tmarron@easternland.com

 

When it comes to landscape and plant health, prevention is the best cure.

Posted by Eastern Land Management on

Your lawns, trees and shrubs are a growing investment worth protecting.

ELM’s new all-season plant health care program is designed to do that, and more–including scheduled inspections and treatments to keep your soil balanced and nourished, your plants healthy and beautiful, and keep destructive pests at bay, all year long.

Landscapes, like all living things, benefit from good health and if your lawn, plants and trees could use a boost, here’s what we recommend:

  • Early Spring – Apply horticultural oil to control scale and over wintering stages of many insects.
  • Early spring – Inject a balanced fertilizer into the root zone to boost the overall health of the plant and create new top growth. This will provide the plants with the needed nutrients to last the entire season.
  • Spring- Use foliar spray (a practice that involves applying spray directly to a plant’s leaves) to combat insects such as scale, mites, leaf miners, leaf beetles, and webworms just to name a few.
  • Spring- Apply optional fungicide spray as needed and do an overall health assessment and recommendation.
  • Summer- Apply second round of foliar spray to strengthen and protect plants from insects.
  • Summer – Schedule a summer inspection for any signs of fungus or disease and make recommendations for any further applications of fungicide.
  • Early fall – Apply a third and final foliar application of insect control to combat any late season insect damage and to help in the prevention of egg laying on the plants.
  • Fall – Inject a balanced fertilizer into the root area to enhance root growth, improve winter nutrient storage, and a healthier and faster green-up and growth in the spring.
  • Late fall – Apply anti-desiccant for winter burn protection and conserve plant moisture during the cold and windy winter months.

Deer ticks in the northeast are benefitting from warming winters, raising health risks and the potential diseases that they may carry. ELM offers deer repellents, deterrent services, and tick control and prevention—in addition to strategic landscape maintenance practices that reduce tick habitats.

Contact ELM’s plant health care expert Martin Minogue at mminoque@easternland.com, for a complimentary evaluation. And learn why prevention is not only the best cure, but the most cost-effective way to avoid fewer problems with insects, disease and environmental stress in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

5 Ways to Look Beyond Cost When Sourcing Landscape Services

Posted by Eastern Land Management on

Bridging the relationship gap between client and contractor can be complicated. But when it works well, the payoff can be impressive in terms of performance improvement, increased revenue, and results.

When we are invited to the table for strategic planning with our commercial real estate clients, we contribute knowledge and insight. We don’t sell. This is the difference between a transactional approach and a partnership approach, and one we take seriously as a landscape services firm committed to help property and facility owners and managers find competitive advantage.

From our years of experience working and partnering with commercial real estate professionals, we’ve narrowed the conversation down to just five talking points, and what we’re doing to help you look beyond cost and source a landscape firm that can work with you to achieve greater alignment on goals.

  • Innovation

ELM is committed to accelerate meaningful change. We have invested in EV, automation and technology, artificial intelligence, renewable fuels, and training that improves time and logistics management, client communication, and resource efficiency—from water conservation, and rainwater and stormwater management, to energy-efficient equipment, to tax rebates, lower utility and maintenance costs, and zoning and drought allowances. We built a dedicated facility for snow operations, make our own eco-friendly de-icing applications, and mitigate environmental risk across our service lines.

  • Scalability

ELM’s nimble operating model allows us to scale up or scale back processes and resources to continually enhance productivity across all functions.  ELM has flexibility built into its systems that all but eliminate the need for you to anticipate and respond to extreme weather events–creating a superior experience for you that is marked by expertise, speed and better outcomes.

  • Efficiency

ELM’s high-value services help your organization stay lean and agile, maximize your profitability, improve the quality and performance of your landscape and open spaces, and reduce liability. You gain the efficiency of the latest training, technologies and processes, access to specialized talent, and experienced subject matter experts that can help you improve your operational resilience.

  • Benchmarking

ELM is a metric-driven culture that uses data and smart analytics to benchmark across criteria. This improves weather and budget forecasting, helps meet conservation goals, and provides a baseline for accountability

  • Environmental Sustainability

ELM is focusing on strategies that help you maintain your momentum and leadership on climate action. These include site improvements, beautification programs, building and maintaining landscapes that sequester more carbon; and increasing waste minimization through improved landscape operational practices. We’re using earth-friendly alternatives, mitigating environmental risk across landscape, grounds and open spaces, and committing to increased plant and ecosystem health through continuous improvement in best practices.

If you’re looking to improve your approach to strategic sourcing, remove inefficiencies, better manage risk, and gain a partner that aligns with who you are and where your business is going, contact company president Bruce Moore Jr. at (203) 316-5433.

Photo: The Innovation Center at Sacred Heart University, Fairfield CT.  Landscape and grounds sustainably maintained year-round by Eastern Land Management.

 

 

 

Mark A. Cammisa Joins ELM as CFO

Posted by Eastern Land Management on

Eastern Land Management, a regional leader in commercial landscape and snow services, is pleased to welcome Mark A. Cammisa as Chief Financial Officer.

Mark joins ELM with 40 years’ experience in financial management. In his new role, Mark will oversee the firm’s financial and administrative operations.

“We are delighted to add Mark to our leadership group. He comes with the dynamic mindset we’re looking for and as a growth-oriented leader and mentor, he will be a major asset to our entire team as we accelerate our momentum toward our half-century milestone—and beyond.  We look forward to Mark helping us as we continue to grow across every facet of our business,” said Bruce Moore, Jr., ELM president.

A native of Ardsley, New York, Mark graduated Maga Cum Laude with a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from Iona College. He is a member of AICPA.

In addition to a proven track record in financial leadership, Mark is a nationally-recognized coach with a life-long involvement in Youth Amateur Wrestling. A former middle school head coach, Mark is a Member of the Junior Olympic Committee for USA Wrestling and was inducted into the CT chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2016. Mark is active in the Danbury community where he and his wife raised three children.

Please join us in welcoming Mark to ELM.

 

The ABCs of RFPs: what CREs need to know about finding a landscape partner

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If you’re a commercial property or facility professional, RFPs – Request for Proposals – will sooner or later fall within your task bucket.

As a procurement tool, RFPs can be a great leveler. But they also don’t tell the whole story; they can feel like tedious wheel reinvention for both parties, and when they’re ‘kitchen sink’ approaches – or ask for everything but, there is no room for differentiation.

We think there’s a better way.

With spring start-up season just around the corner, here’s our advice for tailoring your landscape services RFP to give you the best partner for the job.

Why RFPs can be a race to the bottom

Service companies that respond to RFPs essentially engage in a bidding way, ending up in a pool of contractors who compete on price. When landscape companies compete on price, it’s because they often look for cheaper options to deliver on apples-to-apples specs. The bad news for property and facility professionals who contract landscaping services through RFPs is that you get what you pay for – a hamster wheel of RFP-won contractors who cut corners on innovation to offer price instead of value.

We believe that value is a competitive advantage. When you eliminate value, you lose the upside value brings. In the ever-increasing, ever-complex world of collaborative service partnerships, an ill-conceived RFP can yield more problems than solutions.

How to make RFPs a win-win   

For both landscape services contracts and complex landscaping projects—those with upgrades, renovations, and performance and environmental improvements—a well-written RFP can be effective at filtering out weak players. To create a consistently good RFP and RFP process, think about shaping your RFP as an RFV – or Request for Value.

In addition to describing what you and your commercial property or facility needs and your expectations for delivery, include specs for your sustainability goals and context for what the landscaping itself will meet, such as: key site performance indicators for carbon neutral or LEED.  Include the ‘need to haves’ and the ‘nice to haves’, criteria for curb appeal and improved asset value, and communicate actual timelines with a realistic deadline for the contractor to respond.

Avoid generalities, proof-read for typos, edit for clarity, and eliminate redundant questions and contradictory requirements. If your RFP-issuing team is not clear on specs, risk mitigation, and expected outcomes, go back to the drawing board to make it better and tighter.

A cautionary note about AI-enabled technology:  When the RFP response process is automated, do the math.  While automation offers efficiencies and fills out things at a much quicker pace, the scope piece – when compared to non-automated bids – may not add up. Always double check to make sure you’re not getting apples-to-oranges.

If you’re looking to save cost, remember: low-bid doesn’t tell the whole story. The best return on investment will always be calculated by actual and perceived value, and the long-term value that comes from a strong relationship.

We do our best work when we work with people—face to face, building connections, friendships, and opportunities to gain trust.  Our advice? Use your RFP as a solid starting point. A way to open the door and start a conversation, and a way to make sure you’re getting more than a team of qualified vendors, but a strategic partnership where value is created and delivered every step of the way.

Spring is the time of renewal in nature and in the procurement office. If you’re renewing your contracts, seeking to find a new landscape partner, or interested in keeping the conversation going, give us a call.

We’re listening.

Contact President Bruce Moore Jr. (203) 316-5433.

Bruce Moore Jr. is a second-generation landscape industry leader and President of Eastern Land Management, a full-service commercial landscaping business serving the property and facility market in Fairfield County Connecticut and Westchester County New York.

Bruce is an active member of BOMA Westchester County and BOMA Southern Connecticut. He currently serves on BOMASoCt board of directors.

www.easternland.com

 

 

Landscaping is Changing the Conversation Around Green Real Estate. Top 10 things property people need to know.

Posted by Eastern Land Management on

January is Quality of Life month and with sustainability playing an increasingly more important role in how commercial real estate companies invest in green performance, the benefits of landscaping has emerged as an actionable priority.

From site design and infrastructure to LEED considerations to amenities and workplace wellness, new research suggests that nature will have the largest and most easily quantifiable impact on quality of life.

Here’s how:

  1. Health & wellness

The Covid pandemic flipped perceptions of workplace norms, leading to a rethink of the role air quality, natural light and quality outdoor space influences health and well-being. This has led to reconfiguring landscaped areas for outdoor conferencing and working, creating walking trails and bike paths for fitness, building out green roofs and terraces for encourage social interaction, and increasing the number of trees.

  1. Sustainability

As a philosophy and a practice, sustainability has influenced the built environment for years. But with concerns around extreme weather events, climate action planning and the need for increased environmental resilience, landscaping has become an essential key performance indicator for driving occupancy, higher rents, higher tenant retention and higher property value – all while reducing energy use, waste, and environmental impacts.

Getting up to speed. What’s next?

Nature, by way of landscaping and its ability to refresh and revitalize, is an unparalleled remedy to urban stress. When implemented in a way that also protects environmental health, the benefits to human health increase exponentially.  Ten things ELM can help you do now:

  1. Implement a water conservation and irrigation management plan, combined with low-water use landscape strategies and comprehensive guidelines for erosion control and storm water management.
  2. Reduce landfill waste through recycling and composting.
  3. Increase biodiversity, habitat health and plant life through best practices.
  4. Reduce chemical use.
  5. Improve soil health through mulching and microorganisms.
  6. Improve plant and pest management with biological controls, and beneficial insects.
  7. Create a long-range strategic landscape plan that includes ongoing landscape performance improvements.
  8. Transform underutilized areas into perennial meadows.
  9. Use advanced technologies for energy-efficiency and improved resource management.
  10. Create and maintain healthy and high-performing outdoor amenity spaces for people to spend more time in nature.

To learn more about how Eastern Land Management can improve quality of life through landscaping, contact company president Bruce Moore Jr. at (203) 316-5433.

Photo: Stamford Towers, Stamford Connecticut. A commercial landscape sustainably maintained by ELM for CBRE.

 

Martin Minogue Joins ELM as Area Manager

Posted by Eastern Land Management on

Eastern Land Management is pleased to welcome Martin Minogue as Area Manager.  He will be based in Stamford, Connecticut, and will lead the landscape service needs of ELM’s commercial real estate clients throughout Fairfield County.

Martin is a veteran landscape professional with a reputation for property quality and commitment to turf and plant health care industries. When he isn’t advocating for improvements in green performance, he’s working to advance ELM’s mission to drive excellence in sustainability.

Born and raised in Darien, CT, Martin grew up in the green industry. He began his impressive career at his father’s side when he was 8 years old and “never looked back”. From those early years mowing lawns to academic courses at UConn, and eventually running his own landscape company, Martin’s knowledge and technical skill, and commitment to detail, is an advantage for property owners and managers keen on increasing profitability while meeting environmental and energy-efficiency goals.

“Taking a property from what it is to where it can be is my passion. Keeping up with industry trends, working to find cost effective and productive methods to create smarter approaches and manage risk—I can’t even think of anything else I’d like to do,” he says.

“ELM serves the heart of the greater NY Metro commercial real estate market, and having Martin on our team accelerates our ability to be flexible and adapt, and take the long view,” said company president, Bruce Moore, Jr. “How and why people use different types of properties are key issues playing out across our region. How we respond and position our firm to look beyond cyclical headwinds is turning out to be our competitive advantage.”

Martin holds a CT DEEP Supervisor license, and Turf & Nursery Management degrees from Ratcliff Hicks School of Agriculture and the University of Connecticut.

To learn more about ELM’s expertise and CRE service areas, contact Bruce Moore Jr at: (203) 316-5433

How to Leverage the Benefits of Scale and Gain Market Share Through Landscaping

Posted by Eastern Land Management on

What property and facility owners and managers need to know.

It’s no secret that maintaining a healthy commercial landscape is a big job. And although it may seem that all commercial landscape contractors do the same thing, thanks to smart technologies and automation, there is a stark difference in the way commercial landscape and grounds services are delivered and the value landscaping brings to the bottom line.

The most obvious difference is impact landscaping has on property value. Landscapes need to look good all year-round; they need to be safe for people and the environment, reduce risk and liability, and deliver higher returns all while making a lasting impression.

This is where ELM comes in to help property and facility owners and managers capitalize on the benefits of scale.

ELM is a single-source provider. This means that all landscape and grounds services are integrated and strategically delivered across all seasons, including snow and ice. A single-source provider not only simplifies the process of managing your landscape and reducing the number of companies you need to contact, it’s the best way to reap consistent cost savings through economies of scale.

If you’re looking to contract with a professional commercial landscape services firm, here are five questions to ask:

  1. How long have they been in business?
  2. What is their client retention rate?
  3. Do they offer year-round maintenance, including snow and ice services?
  4. What value-added benefits are included? Do they use low-noise equipment, electric or autonomous equipment, clean energy and options that help earn LEED credits?
  5. Will they make your landscape as technologically smart and as digitally-advanced as your building?

Here’s what you can expect from ELM in the day-to-day:

  1. Meticulous about clean and complete. No task left undone.
  2. No drama.
  3. Proactive about little things before they become big things.
  4. Make suggestions that make you look good.
  5. Willing to go above and beyond.
  6. Prepared, trained, and experienced emergency response.
  7. Highly responsive and easy to reach.

ELM commercial landscape maintenance services include expertise in the following:

  • Commercial property and facility landscape and grounds services
  • Landscape maintenance and horticultural services
  • Enhancements and renovations
  • Irrigation and water management
  • Hardscape projects, corporate terraces, plazas and patios
  • Parking lot and median maintenance
  • Snow and ice control, and winter management
  • Site safety
  • Spring plantings
  • Fall clean-up

If you’re a commercial property and facility manager seeking quality, excellence and cost-efficient contracting services for your landscape and grounds, working toward LEED accreditation and greater sustainability, ELM is your partner of choice.

ELM is a proud member of BOMA Southern Connecticut and BOMA Westchester County, and actively supports the greater multi-sector commercial real estate community in Connecticut and New York.

Roberto Chuquiano Named Enhancement Project Manager

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Roberto Chuquiano, a recent recipient of ELM’s Branch Impact Award, has been promoted to Enhancement Project Manager, reporting to Scott DiStasio, Stamford, Connecticut branch manager.

“Roberto’s experience is second-to-none,” said company president, Bruce Moore Jr. “Not only is his promotion well-deserved, but it speaks to our commitment to grow career opportunities within our organization and build a clear path for advancement. Roberto’s a role model – his passion for the job, his knowledge and integrity, and the high-trust he has with our clients, is an inspiration to the whole team.”

A native of Peru, Roberto joined ELM in 2006. He holds multiple certifications in landscape, arboriculture, equipment operations, and snow/ice.

When he’s not creating harmony in the landscape, he pursues his passion for music. An avid collector of vinyl, Roberto DJs on weekends to bring people together, and says that music and outdoor spaces both have the power to make people happy.

Roberto says his best advice for customers is not to give up on plants. The cycle of life – whether in a home garden or in a commercial landscape – is about renewal and patience, and respect for the opportunities each season brings.

Please join us in congratulating Roberto on his leadership and next chapter at ELM.

Eastern Land Management Wins Award for Urban Renewal

Posted by Eastern Land Management on

From the Fairfield County Business Journal, September 17, 2022

by Edward Arriaza

Eastern Land Management (ELM) has recently been awarded the Silver Award of Excellence by the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) for its renovation of Kiwanis Park, a placemaking and urban renewal project of Downtown Stamford’s Special Services District. In addition to Kiwanis Park, ELM was honored for developing a streetscape design in the heart of the downtown business district that included 250 hanging baskets, foliage containers and refurbished annual beds.

Founded in 1976 by Bruce Moore Sr., the Stamford-based company provides full-service landscaping and snow removal services and has 120 seasonal employees who work as landscape gardeners, landscape crew leaders, heavy equipment mechanics and plant health care technicians. According to Bruce Moore Jr., the son of the founder and ELM’s president, the company began “with a vision to maintain commercial properties in Westchester and Fairfield County” and later added New Haven County to its service area.

Moore knew he wanted to join the business when he was young, and immediately went to work for the company in 2005 upon graduating college.

“Growing up in the business, I really grew a liking to working with all the different people and working with horticulture and seeing what goes into the maintenance and snow removal of all these properties,” Moore said. “It was something that I always was passionate about.”

As a full-service land management company, ELM is able to act as a single-source provider for its clients, offering landscape management, water management and snow removal all in one.

“All those services are provided by our own personnel,” Moore said. “The customer has a single point of contact to use for pretty much the entire exterior of their facility.”

Among the services ELM provides for landscape management are turf fertilization, lawn mowing, tree and shrub pruning and integrated pest management. For water management, ELM provides troubleshooting and repairs, scheduled maintenance programs and system design and installation, among other services.

Moore believed that ELM’s award-winning work brought life to the underutilized Kiwanis Park, making it a “more welcoming, cleaner space.”

“What was originally just a cut through from lower Summer Street to Atlantic Street now is more of a place for people to sit, relax, hang out or have a conversation with friends, have a bite to eat and just in general socialize and mingle with people,” Moore said.

Though ELM has received accolades for its quality of work, it has still experienced its share of difficulties — the sharp increase in fuel and wages due to inflation has been felt acutely by Moore and the daily price fluctuations of material has required ELM to reach out to its vendors constantly in order to have up-to-date prices.

“We are working pretty hard every day to try our best to not pass off a lot of those increased costs to our customers,” Moore said. “We’re trying to manage it to the best of our ability, but we have had to make some adjustments over the last year to accommodate for all of the inflation on material prices.”

ELM has also dealt with labor shortages, facing some difficulties in recruiting people for its production teams. However, it had no issues in maintaining its workers the past couple of years and has even brought on board an employee relations coordinator to amplify employees’ voices. As a result, ELM has increased wages and implemented recruiting bonuses.

“We’ve made a big adjustment to ensure that we’re working really hard to become an employer of choice, and to make sure that we’re retaining our people,” Moore said.

Moore added that ELM will continue to keep its eyes on the changing weather and preparing for the first storm of the season.

“Right now, we’re working to allocate equipment and ensure that we have everything in place and prepared to go for the upcoming winter season,” he said.

Original can be found at Westfaironline.com: https://westfaironline.com/real-estate/eastern-land-management-wins-an-award-for-its-urban-renewal-work/

Photo: © PJ Kennedy