Practical Suggestions For Dealing with the COVID-19 Issue

Legends Landscape Supply Inc. has reached out to a number of established Contractors to create a list of precautions that Landscape Companies can immediately put in place to protect their employees, customers and businesses. Here is what they came up with.

1. If you have more than one crew, ask them to start at different times in order minimize contact (i.e. 15 to 30 min intervals depending on the size of your company).
2. Do not leave your personal vehicle until other crews leave the yard.
3. All employees must have their own personal equipment (i.e. weed eaters, movers, hand tools, etc.).
4. Always use you own PPE.
5. Landscape Companies send the foreman / forewoman to the site with equipment and materials, and have employees meet on the job site with personal vehicles.
6. If renting equipment is necessary, wipe down all cab areas or handles with sanitary products.
7. Limit all employees distance to 2 metres when dealing with the public (Condos should be informed by owners to email all complaints – no public contact).
8. Use group chats (Google Meet, Zoom, Face Time, etc.) and conference calls to have company meetings and/or have individual start times to have meetings with staff.
9. Mandatory hand washing on trucks or trailers. Provide jugs of water, hand soap, paper towels, and hand sanitizer for employees.
10. If you have an office impose a "Locked Door" policy to public.
11. Design from home when possible.
12. All consultations should take place outdoors.
13. Respect personal office space - 2 metres of personal space. Social distancing in common areas - 2 metres personal space.
14. Suggest that crews do not overlap into other trucks (i.e. no mixing of crews on site or in trucks).
15. Suggest 3-person crews where possible, so 2-person crews are available to work in case one employee is not available to work on any given day.
16. Use one person to handle material when possible (i.e. rolling out geo-textile, personal bundle of bricks, etc.)
17. Label all tools on crews with names, initials, or colour coded per individual.
18. Enforce personal hygiene rule for blowing noses (use Kleenex, hand sanitizer and no spitting).
19. Clean staff washrooms regularly and think of spraying down high touch areas by each member when leaving the washroom.
20. If you stop at public washrooms, wash / sanitize your hands as well as use a truck washing station (suggested before and after entering public washroom).
21. Have foreman / forewoman wipe down the truck before and after a shift.
22. Suggest all personal lunches / coffee thermoses to limit any outside contact with Drive-through food and drinks.
23. “Out of Country” – Mandatory self isolation for 14 days.
24. Strict Garbage Policy - Nothing picked up by hand or gloves (use garbage pickers that can be sterilized).
25. Contact companies that can have garbage bags left on site and not put into trucks where possible or have one crew deal with bags left on all sites daily.
26. All personal garbage kept separate in vehicles and disposed by yourself at office.

These ideas were contributed by:

• Meadowbrook Landscaping - Andrew Barz
• The Gardener- Jim Edmonds
• Ciscon Landscaping Inc- Paul Cisterna
• Mountain Hill Landscaping- Tom Finucane
• Greentario- Carmine Filice
• KDP Landscaping- Keith Phillips
• Legends Landscape Supply Inc. - Russell Springer