A FERMANAGH company has been working to become more environmentally-friendly in order to stand out in the market of environmental management.

Greentown Environmental Limited has operated out of Florencecourt since it was founded by John-Ross Armstrong in 2010, and now has offices and operations all across the island of Ireland.

Managing Director, John-Ross, and his team believe that people are now seeking an environmental approach when they are looking for new contractors.

He said: “When we are tendering for new contracts our environmental approach is something that is becoming of more interest to the client. They are looking for businesses to be responsible and when there is a quality weighting on the tender.”

The company are striving to be more environmentally-friendly in all aspects of their work, added John-Ross.

“Along with battery-operated grounds maintenance equipment, we also are now recycling waste materials such as wood chip and creating our own bark.

"With a large fleet of vehicles on the roads, we are strategically setting up depots to recruit from, resulting in Greentown providing a province-wide service whilst maximising efficiency.

"We use route planning with a real-time reporting system to reduce our carbon footprint. In pre-Covid times, we would have also carpooled."

The company is certified to operate as 'environmental management' and has recently been selected to do weed control for Dublin City Council as a result of that council's desire to work away from herbicide-based weed control.

John-Ross said: “[Dublin City Council] has made the decision to move away from herbicide-based weed control and to seek Greener alternatives.

"We have been carrying out weed control for Dublin City Council since 2010, initially as a subcontractor, before securing the principal contractor role in 2014.

“We are a weed control company, not a chemical company, and in 2017 we started exploring glyphosate alternatives [for use in weed control]. In 2018, we trialled several chemical-free methods and Foamstream was the clear winner.”

Like many businesses, John-Ross and the team have been preparing for Brexit since before the EU exit arrangements came into place.

He said: “We have registered our businesses in the Republic of Ireland for both Greentown Environmental and Greentown Traffic Management.

"This was established pre-Brexit, as we knew there would be uncertainty as to what the Brexit effects would be on our companies.

“No one really had the answers of what the future would hold, but we wanted to be as prepared as we could be.

"We have found the transition a smooth one, to date. We have had to ensure we would have no issues with our vehicles travelling to the Republic to carry out work through having [EU-compliant licences] in place for all our fleet."

Brexit placed some uncertainty ahead of the team, but John- Ross insisted that such occasional bumps are part of business life.

He said: “There is always a level of uncertainty in any area of business; however, we have invested heavily in the jurisdiction in which we are working, in the form of human resources and capital expenditure which, I believe, is a must for a long-term approach.

"We have more than 150 skilled staff also employed on both sides of the Border.

"We are still in the early stages of the post-Brexit period to see the lasting effects it will have on Northern Ireland, but we are confident that we have implemented the procedures necessary to manage this change, and we will continue to adapt as we need to.”