Accreditations
As a family-run business, being a responsible, accredited company is really important to us.
Accreditation is an essential method of displaying that a business is upholding and sustaining the recognised standards of the industry that it represents. We at TopGrass feel that accreditation is fundamental in informing and assuring our customers that we are meeting the highest levels of safety regulations. We want to ensure that our customers have every bit of confidence in our services.
Moreover, this concept of the responsible operation of our company comes in many different forms for us - not only do we strive to achieve the leading accreditations available in lawn care, but we also look at other responsibilities such as our environmental and social responsibility.
Since we established the company in 2005, we have been continually adding to our accreditation schemes and you can click on the links below to find out a bit more about each of them:
The Grounds Management Association is a platform for the sharing of knowledge between companies that deal with grass and turf. Our Managing Director, Tom Arnold, is a member of this association, and TopGrass as a company has a corporate membership with the association. Membership with the GMA is a certification that our company is excelling in both service and expertise.
The benefits that accompany having a corporate membership include having workers from the GMA come to TopGrass and carry out seminars and training sessions for our employees to educate and improve their scientific knowledge of lawn care. These training sessions help our employees to be the most prepared in their ability to answer customers' questions regarding their lawns. Membership also allows attendance to GMA-hosted events which provide a hub for networking and for negotiating sponsorships.
We are proud longstanding members of this association dedicated to improving the standard of groundsmanship. Click here to find out more about this Association.
As a family-oriented business, we at TopGrass believe that is important to be involved within a community where we can network with other family-based independent lawncare companies to share advice with one another. The UK Lawncare Association is a not-for-profit organisation who provide this network for independent lawn care companies to communicate with each other. The service that the UKLCA provides is central to the smooth exchange of information between independent lawncare companies on how best to run your company and how to provide the best possible service for our customers.
TopGrass is the largest independent company member of the UKLCA, with our Managing Director, Tom Arnold, being the Vice-Chairman of the elected managing committee of the association. The UKLCA hosts annual conferences in which various team members of our company, including our Chief Operations Officer, Katie Arnold, and Tom Arnold have appeared on question panels at these conferences. The conferences provide our company with the opportunity to congregate with suppliers of lawncare machinery and goods, to discover the latest ground-breaking products and technology available. This greatly benefits our company in assisting us in continually modernising our company so that we can provide our customers with the best of what is on the market. The conference also helps us to diversify the services that we can offer to our customer base through the sharing of ideas with other independent lawn care companies. This networking and sharing of ideas has led to many advancements for our company, including the introduction of new services such as our beds and borders service that we launched in 2020.
The UKLCA conference helps to cultivate a sense of community between the independent lawn care companies that are within the association. This means that we can recommend customers to other trusted lawn care companies if we do not provide the service they are looking for or do not cover their area, and other lawncare companies will recommend us to their customers for the same reasons. This helps to guarantee that our customers are getting the best quality service that is available to them in the correct area.
Click here to find out more about the UK Lawn Care Association.
We at TopGrass believe that it is of utmost importance that our employees have the most up-to-date and comprehensive training in spraying herbicides that is available to us. City and Guilds are the providers of the herbicide training programme that our company uses, and it ensures that our technicians are adhering to the highest standards of herbicide spraying qualification.
The name of the qualification that all our technicians have gained is the City and Guilds Level 2 Award in the Safe Application of Pesticides using Pedestrian Handheld Equipment. It is a PA6 independently assessed qualification that is formulated to test an individual's capability of spraying herbicides using differing styles of handheld applicators that include the undertaking of both an oral and practical assessment. It is essential that all our lawn technicians have earnt this qualification as it is illegal to spray herbicides commercially without this qualification under the Plants Protection Products Regulations Law from 2012.
The possession of the PA6 qualification for all our technicians assures our customers that we as a company are maintaining government safety standards and will instill a level of trust in our technicians from our customer base as this qualification is a representation of their competency and knowledge in using herbicides.
Click here to find out more about NPTC.
The industry-leading BASIS Lawn Assured Scheme is a voluntary scheme that lawncare companies can apply to be a part of. The scheme is in place to ensure that companies within the professional lawn care sector are maintaining the highest standards for responsible and safe usage of herbicides. TopGrass volunteered for this initiative as we want to demonstrate to our customers that we are attaining the legal and practical requirements that come with the storage and application of chemical products. The scheme also makes sure that our company is meeting environmental standards and that none of our practices are contributing in a harmful way to our environment.
The membership type that we have subscribed to with BASIS is a Full Company Membership. The key facets of our company that BASIS looks to test us on include ensuring that our technicians are sufficiently qualified to use and apply chemical products. They look to assess that when we are carrying out lawn surveys, we are identifying whether a lawn necessitates the use of a chemical product and conducting risk assessments that recognise any health, safety, or environmental issues. They also assess that we are properly equipped with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and that our technicians are correctly wearing it. Lastly, BASIS also assesses us on our storage of the chemical products we use and that we are doing so in a safe manner.
Our company and practices get regularly audited by BASIS and we take pride in the fact that we routinely pass their tests with flying colours. By going through regular audits, it means that we as a company are able to consistently adhere to the most recent and best possible health and safety regulations. We believe that as a company it is crucial that our customers know that we prioritise the safety of customers, our employees, and of the environment.
Click here to find out more about this scheme.
We are proud members of the Amenity Standard who are dedicated to educating on the responsible and safe management of weeds, pests, and diseases in the amenity sector. We attend annual conferences and updates on the legal requirements and best practices in our sector. Click here to find out more about this standard.
We have signed up to the SME Climate Hub and pledged to be Net Zero by 2050. We have already begun our journey to Net Zero by purchasing electric company vehicles, trialling electric vans and machinery, taking steps to make our offices more energy efficient and much more!
It is important to us as a company and to all our team members that we do our part in looking after the environment and the SME Climate Hub is there to assist us in our journey to Net Zero, providing useful tools and guidance. Click here if you would like to find out a bit more about this scheme.
We have signed up to be a Living Wage Employer which means we are dedicated to paying a real living wage to all our employees that matches the cost of living. As a family-run business, ensuring that we pay all of our team members fairly in order to meet their everyday needs is very important to us. Click here to find out a bit more about this voluntary scheme.
