Area of Service

Summary:

After considering the carbon footprint of my service I realize that my vehicle is probably the most significant portion of it. I can’t provide my service without a van; however, I can minimize how much I use it.

So I’m reducing my service area for new projects. Here’s what included:
<< Updated 4/4/22 >>

• • Oakland Northwest of Highway 24 and north of I-580
• • Emeryville and Berkeley

I will always adjust gates I’ve made for people, regardless of where I have made them. If I made your gate and it needs an adjustment I’ll come out and do that for free, whether it is within my new service area or not. But all new projects will have to be within my new service area.

Why the Reduced Area of Service?

I’m trying to reduce the carbon footprint of my business.

During the pandemic my policy has been to return home at lunchtime. There I can find food, a bathroom, ibuprofen and whatever else I need to recover from the first half of my workday. Finding all I need while out might be possible, but it carries a much higher coronavirus risk.

That means I make two trips to each work site each day. The further away a project is, the more carbon is transferred to the atmosphere because of the fuel used by my van. And, the carbon footprint of catching coronavirus is very bad, assuming I survive.

Work in the Oakland and Berkeley hills is not working very well for me. It is much harder to drive and harder on my van to get to and through the narrow roads. And the work is often on a hill, or the materials need to be transported up or down a hill to the worksite. It’s a job for younger people than me. Or more people. But, a project on a hill can end up meaning I can work an hour less each day, which ends up meaning even more trips to the job site.

Parking can be very difficult on narrow mountain roads. Double parking might not be possible without completely blocking traffic (which I won’t do). If I have to park very far away it adds a significant amount of time and energy to a project further reducing the work I can accomplish in a day, leading to more trips to the work site.

I’m very sorry to have to say “No” to people if this is the only reason. But, I’m overwhelmed with business in all areas; my work queue is long enough that it works out to effectively be “No” anyway for many people whether they are within my service area or not.

What is the Carbon Footprint of my Greenest Fences?

While the wood itself is probably carbon-negative at best and carbon-neutral at worst, the rest of my business has a much worse carbon footprint, and there are some environmental considerations as well.

I use techniques that minimize the carbon footprint of the resulting fence by reusing post bases and often by reusing fence boards.

Reusing materials doesn’t reduce the carbon footprint. It merely doesn’t add to it. It’s a good thing in its own right, to maximize the useful lifetime of everything that gets made; however, it doesn’t move the carbon footprint into or even towards the target of a negative carbon footprint business.

These parts of my business all have a bad to very bad carbon footprint:

• The tools that I use are made from metals and plastic, few if any of which are from recycled sources
• I use concrete when needed
• I use welded wire fencing and T-stakes, few if any of which are from recycled sources
• I use screws and other fasteners in large quantities, few if any of which are from recycled sources
• Most of the waste I handle cannot be recycled and must be landfilled: landfilled wood will eventually turn into methane which is at least 25x as bad as CO2 for the atmosphere
• The the carbon footprint of the fuel and oil I use in my van is by itself the biggest part of the carbon footprint of my business.

These things all have bad to very bad environmental effects:

• I use chemicals known to the state of CA to cause cancer and reproductive harm. For example, wood preservative, which I have to aerosolize to distribute to where it is needed. There is always overspray.
• I handle, cut and install pressure treated wood, producing sawdust and waste wood
• The batteries that drive the tools I buy are an environmental burden to say the least
• The tools I have are not recyclable
• My vehicle whether gas or electric will use up tires and other consumables over time
• An electric vehicle will have a battery system just as bad as my tools, but probably at least 100x as big
• My gas van has two big 12v batteries in it: one for starting the car and one for a 1000 watt inverter (tied into the alternator for charging when the van is running). These big lead-acid batteries are bad for the planet.

As you can see the carbon and environmental effects of building even the greenest fence I can build is still likely to have an overall positive carbon footprint when all aspects of my business are taken into account. That is, it contributes to the planet’s CO2 problem.

This is critical:

The money I earn making fences carries the carbon and environmental footprint of my fence business.

How Can I Reduce the Carbon Footprint of My Business?

Since my gas van is the biggest component of my carbon footprint, would replacing it with an electric van reduce my carbon footprint enough to make building a green fence carbon negative? I don’t think so. It isn’t merely a matter of comparing the carbon footprint of the energy used for each.

I would definitely say this though: there are other big influencers in the footprint of a fence project and the fuel is not the biggest.

If you want your fence’s wood to remain carbon negative it cannot be painted.

It must be composted or bio-charred at the end of its life and not landfilled. If it gets painted it can’t be composted and it eventually is 25x as bad as any gains had from using wood to begin with. If you were to burn the wood instead of landfilling it that would be 25x better than burying the wood where it eventually becomes methane. But, you shouldn’t burn painted wood because that will produce dioxins and other highly toxic chemicals. So, painted wood has to be landfilled. That is a bigger effect than the proportion of my carbon foot print that is due to the fuel my van consumes. It is also out of my control, but not out of my influence.

If I have to earn more money to pay for a new electric vehicle, that money carries the carbon footprint of my business. More money = worse for the planet. I don’t have greener ways to make money. The electric van would not in itself even match the carbon footprint of the rest of my business, but of course it would help. But when you add in the fact that the extra money needed for the electric van would also come with its own carbon footprint it begins to seem that the problem is merely being moved, but with the consequence of more debt and higher prices for my customers.

I would rather run a business with a negative carbon footprint, but failing that I’d like to reduce the carbon footprint of my business in ways that don’t compromise what I make for people, and in ways that don’t prostrate me with debt.

The best approach for now is to reduce the amount I drive, regardless of the kind of vehicle I use, and to counsel people not to paint their fences with chemicals that can’t be composted.

But, people need fences repaired and created. That is what I do. What matters most to me is maximizing the service provided while minimizing the carbon footprint, even if I can’t have a negative footprint as I would like. I can still find ways to reduce it.

Reducing my service area is the one step I can take that has an immediate and positive effect on the carbon footprint of my business. It doesn’t increase debt and it doesn’t compromise the results of what I do in any way.

It’s up to me to make the choices that reduce the carbon footprint of my business and this is the lowest of the fruits than hang. I sometimes bang my head against those things… I’m happiest when there aren’t thorns.