Battery-Powered Tools: Advancing Sustainability at Davey

In honor of Davey's Stewardship Week, Noah Pechatsko, environmental program specialist at the Davey Institute, discusses the long-term benefits of using battery-powered tools and how Davey is making this switch. 

In this episode we cover:  

• Battery-powered tools vs gas-powered tools (:47) 
• Do Davey arborists carry gas-powered tools? (2:22)
• Charging battery-powered tools and having backups (2:53)
• How many years do battery-powered tools last? (3:53)
• The environmental benefits of using battery-powered tools (4:46)
• Challenges of converting to battery-powered tools (5:50)
• Are battery-powered tools widely accepted? (6:26)
• What does Noah do with the Davey Institute? (7:29) 
• How Noah got into this job (7:51) (8:12)
• What other battery-powered tools do Davey arborists use? (8:31)
• State laws and gas-powered tools (9:08)
• Will Davey eventually switch to all battery-powered tools? (10:08) (10:41)
• What battery voltage does Davey use? (11:17) 
• Noah's reaction to helping advance environmental sustainability at Davey (12:42) 

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more on how Davey is using battery powered tools, read our blog, Taking Charge with Battery-Powered Equipment. 

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!

Transcript

Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much, much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer. This week, I'm joined by Noah Pechatsko. He's an environmental program specialist, the Davey Institute. Today, we're talking all about battery-powered tools as part of this week as Davey's Stewardship Week. Welcome to the show, Noah. How are you?

Noah Pechatsko: Good, how are you? Thanks for having me on. I'm excited to talk about some of this stuff.

Doug: I'm doing great. I've wanted to talk about this topic for quite a while because most of the time we think of anything tree-related, we think of those loud gas-powered tools. Tell me a little bit about the transition. What works well with being a battery-powered tool as opposed to a gas-powered tool?

Noah: Absolutely. When you think of tree maintenance, any landscaping, really, those gas-powered tools are the first thing you really think of. The move to the battery power, it's really all about being eco-friendly. Obviously, there's other benefits that come with it, but when you can use trimmers, chainsaws, lawnmowers, there's pretty much every tool you can think of there's a battery-operated one. The benefits it brings is there's a lot more than just it being environmentally friendly, but that was mainly the main reason we wanted to switch.

Doug: I've got a battery-powered mower and trimmer, and one thing I love about them, they always start.

Noah: They're very easy. With battery stuff, you plug and you play with it. That's it. There's no gas, there's no priming it, messing with the choke, pulling the string.

Doug: In the applications that Davey uses it, is this a different type of more powerful battery than we would have as a homeowner, or is it the same thing?

Noah: No, this is all the same stuff that you would pretty much get as a homeowner.

Doug: I'm sure sometimes you'd have to have still a gas-powered chainsaw at a certain point, is that right for a really big one?

Noah: We've looked into that, but we've actually started to push all our offices to move towards battery-powered chainsaws. They have been proven to be just as powerful and get the job done. The biggest problem with that is just having enough batteries to continue work out in the field, but that's a process that we're working out right now.

Doug: Tell me a little bit about that. In my case, as a homeowner, I've got like four batteries. I've got one for the drill, one for the mower, one for the trimmer, and I just keep them charged, and it's no problem, but if you're going to be working eight hours with a chainsaw, talk a little bit about the logistics of that.

Noah: Most crews, you'll have multiple chainsaws with a crew. With that, we recommend them, that their offices charge their batteries, obviously, before they go out to a job site, and have plenty of extras. We don't want there to be a case where we're out there working, and we're like, "Oh, we can't finish this." Just being prepared for the job is really the biggest thing. It can get cumbersome carrying batteries around, but you're basically just replacing a gas tank anyway.

Doug: How about as far as how long the batteries last? I don't mean hours, I mean years. How long do the batteries until they can't be recharged?

Noah: Typically, if you take care of your batteries correctly, you can get them to last between 6 to 10 years. That's if you're taking the correct measures with them. You never want to drain them to completely zero. You always want to make sure that they're charged to the max, and once they are charged, you want to get them off the charger. You don't want to overcharge, you don't want to undercharge. It is finicky, but if you can correctly do that, you can get your battery to last quite a while.

Doug: That's a good tip for me because I just leave them on the charger, so as soon as it's done charging, take it off there, huh?

Noah: Yes.

Doug: Let's discuss some of the obvious environmental benefits of using a battery-powered tool.

Noah: I think the first obvious one is the air emissions. Those two-stroke engines because a lot of pollution, not just from a gas combustion engine standpoint, but also particulate matter, which gets in the air. I feel like that's probably the biggest one that most people think of when they think of switching. Another one is noise pollution. Those cause a lot of-- The gas-powered ones are quite loud, we know this. We can hear them at 6 AM, 7 PM sometimes when we're trying to sleep. The battery ones are much quieter. Then, looking to the end of life in a battery-powered tool, you can recycle those batteries. You can recycle them, they can get all the lithium out of precious metals to make more batteries. It really comes full circle in that.

Doug: What are the challenges in converting a big operation like Davey to battery-powered tools?

Noah: I think it's just the amount of batteries that you need. The benefits of gas-powered is that you can take a gas can with you, fill it up, and you're good to go. Having that time to charge a battery is always a little bit tricky. We're doing our best to work through those problems.

Doug: It's been accepted by the people that are using the tools? They like the battery-powered tools?

Noah: Yes, they do. There's some people that obviously have their gripes with them. There's been research done on that. Gas-powered tools typically perform better in terms of power, but the overall benefits versus the cons of it, the battery definitely is better than gas.

Doug: What am I hearing when I have a battery-powered chainsaw? I'm not hearing the [inaudible 00:06:59], right?

Noah: Yes, you're just going to hear that chain pretty much. There's still a motor in there. There's still a motor, an engine, you can call it, but it's just battery-operated.

Doug: Chainsaw-wise, you can get a really big chainsaw that's battery-powered?

Noah: Oh, yes, absolutely. There's different brands that we work with. Makita and Stihl, those are two of the big ones that we work with that have very good reviews and very good quality.

Doug: Tell me a little bit about your job. What do you do with the Davey Institute?

Noah: My job pretty much is to assist the field, the crews out there, and make sure that they are staying environmentally-compliant, working to make sure there's no EPA violations, and then also just making sure that we're doing our best to stay environmentally-friendly.

Doug: How did you get into this job?

Noah: Actually, I graduated with my criminal law degree in 2021, and then I went back to school for environmental science so I have two degrees. The environmental side of it was definitely what I wanted to get into, so that's my passion.

Doug: Why is that job right for you?

Noah: I love the outdoors. I have a passion for it. I've always been like that. Davey's such a great place to really express that because there's so much available within that field.

Doug: Let's go over all the tools that they would use out in the field. We've talked about chainsaws. What else are you using out there that would be battery-powered?

Noah: Chainsaws, yes, of course, with the tree trimming. With landscaping, we have lawnmowers that we want to move to, trimmers, blowers, obviously, even our pesticide application tools. Those we want to move to battery-powered, and all that together, it can cause a significant impact when you take away all that gas-powered stuff.

Doug: In California, is this right that they've legislated that you can't buy gas-powered tools like this anymore? Is that right?

Noah: Yes. Actually, the law was signed last October, and it went into effect January 1st of this year. They basically have removed-- Not removed, any gas equipment that they have not sold yet, they're allowed to finish selling, but after that, it's going to be all battery-powered. Basically, they want to directly reduce the emissions and California said, "We're going to sign the law." There's other small jurisdictions across the country, townships that have also implemented this, and I think it will become more widespread, especially since California's giving tax credits to people who switch to these. The more benefits we give to people doing that, the more they'll want to change to it as well.

Doug: You think there'll be a time when Davey will have all battery-powered tools?

Noah: I believe so. Battery-powered tools I believe for sure we will get to all battery-operated. The next big step would be vehicles, trucks, and bucket trucks. That's going to be the tougher part of moving to the battery-operated side. I believe battery-powered tools, I think we'll get there hopefully within the next few years.

Doug: As far as the vehicles are concerned, is that something that you're part of?

Noah: Not directly. I try to assist where I can.

Doug: I would imagine that would be something that would be in the works too.

Noah: Yes, it is. We've started to use the Ford Lightnings. We've got a couple of those. We've looked at-- There's certain companies that are making electric bucket trucks, and those are very expensive right now.

Doug: I bet.

Noah: That's a tough change right now.

Doug: When I'm thinking about this battery, the one I'm using is 40 volts. Is that also what they're using, or are they using an 80-volt battery depending on the [crosstalk].

Noah: 40 volts is pretty typical. The amp matters as well. You might have a 2.5 amp, a 4 amp battery. That helps with lifespan and power. The chainsaws do have bigger capacities for the batteries, which are like an 80-volt, but typically, you see a 40-volt on pretty much everything.

Doug: I don't understand the amps. I see that on my battery. Can you break that down for me?

Noah: The amps pretty much-- Your voltage is your power, and then your amps basically is the amount of cells you have in that battery. A 2.5 amp is going to be still just as powerful, but it's not going to last you as long.

Doug: I want higher amps if I want a better battery.

Noah: Yes. The higher amps you have, the better the battery. I have power tools at home, electric ones, and I interchange the batteries. They're two different ones, and you can definitely tell the difference between them.

Doug: I've got a drill, and one of them has a-- It's an interchangeable battery, but one has higher amps, and that's the one I always end up using. [laughs] Tell me a little bit about what it feels like to be making this type of positive change for our environment through your work at Davey.

Noah: I think it really gives you that sense of doing something good for the environment, something you can actually take a step towards. When I first joined Davey, it was about seven months ago. My main goal was I want to help Davey get to a greener place in terms of the environment. Getting involved with this was a great place for me to start, and I've been able to make it an actual serious project.

Doug: All right, Noah. Thanks so much for filling us in on that. That's pretty exciting news, I think. I'm sure we'll touch base again as this program goes on, and I appreciate your time.

Noah: Thank you very much for having me. I appreciated talking about this and hopefully getting some more information out there to people and getting them on the battery-powered tool.

Doug: All right. Thanks again.

Noah: Thanks.

Doug: The last thing left in my home arsenal is a gas-powered backpack blower for all those oak leaves, but after talking to Noah, I feel pretty confident I can find one as powerful that uses a battery. Now, tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I am your host, Doug Oster. Do me a favor, subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss a show. If you've got an idea for an episode, maybe a comment, send us an email to podcasts@davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S@D-A-V-E-Y.com. As always, we like to remind you on the Talking Trees podcast, trees are the answer.

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