Green Newton

For ten years, Sean Greenhow’s eponymous pest control and lawn & plant care business, Greenhow inc., has been based in Auburndale, where his grandparents lived.

Greenhow, Inc provides termite and pest control, lawn and plant health care for residential and commercial customers. We take care of pests and diseases that attack people’s home, businesses, lawns and ornamental plantings. We are located in Newton and hire and buy locally.

We are committed to directly reducing our environmental impact and are the only GreenPro AND GreenShield Certified business in Massachusetts. In addition, we are committed to reducing our indirect impact, like paper use, recycling all we can, and using biodegradable nitrile gloves. We sell only highly efficient Energy Star Dehumidifiers.

We are a Call2Recycle center, offering recycling of rechargeable batteries and cell phones. Internally we recycle all our fluorescent bulbs and non rechargeable batteries. We promote low impact practices to reduce the need for pesticide inputs. Best tip for people that have to use nitrile gloves, look at the NDex green glove, the only biodegradable nitrile glove available. We use a lot of them in our line of work. More home landscape green tips can be found on our website.

Along with our GreenPro and GreenShield certifications, we employ three Mass Certified Arborists and an Entomological Society of America Associate Certified Entomologist. As a business, we’ve been honored with the Angie’s List Super Service Award.

I am a regular contributor to WBZ 1030 Radio’s Tomorrow’s Technology Today feature. I’ve also given green pest control advice to a reporter at the Lowell Sun.

If you have any pest control needs, the most immediate way to contact us is through the phone at 617-964-4733. You can also visit Greenhow through our website www.greenhow.com, or email us at sales@greenhow.com.

This interview has been edited and condensed. If you know of a small business that is green and in Newton, please let us know for future interviews: editor@greennewton.org.

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As part of our effort to improve our environment, Green Newton has embarked on a series of articles about green businesses that have a Newton connection.

The idea is to inspire others to create businesses that promote environmental awareness or lessen the impact of a traditional business. At the same time, the businesses would get some recognition and publicity, possibly even customers or investors.

Our readers should please keep in mind that Green Newton is not The New Yorker — we have no fact checkers. We expect business owners and managers to tell us the truth about their organizations but we are taking them on faith. This is one reason that the articles are structured so that the “voice” of the column is the voice of the business.

It should also be said for the record that Green Newton does not endorse any of these businesses.

Boy, that sounds dour and weaselly.

The truth is, we love the fact that people are trying to build green businesses in our community, that our neighbors are taking old business models and finding ways to adapt them to make the world better. And we think other people should hear about what these people are doing.