New Isuzu Truck Details Released, North Dakota State Dropping Turfgrass Program: This Week’s Industry News

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Want to keep up with the latest news in lawn care and landscaping? Check back every Thursday for a quick recap of recent happenings in the green industry.

Ewing Releases Turf Overseeding and Renovation White Paper
It’s the time of year to overseed or renovate lawns across the country. Ewing released a white paper on best practices for landscape professionals who are renovating or overseeding turf. The free white paper is available for download.

More than 1,000 Water Pros Participate in Ninth Annual Watersmart Innovations
More than 1,000 professionals working in water-related disciplines networked and shares experiences and ideas at the ninth annual WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition, held October 5-7 in Las Vegas. WSI serves as a platform to help local communities achieve greater water efficiency and conservation, said Program Chairman Doug Bennett. The 10th annual WSI conference and expo is slated for October 4-6, 2017, at the South Point Hotel and Conference Center in Las Vegas.

ASABE Publishes New Landscape Irrigation Standards Pub
The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) offers a new publication covering evaluation methods for uniform application of irrigation in landscape settings. ANSI/ASABE S626, Landscape Irrigation System Uniformity and Application Rate Testing, covers continuous, unimpeded areas of turf and groundcover. Methods presented may be used as part of an irrigation system audit. ASABE members with standards access and those with site-license privileges can access the full-text via electronic download on the ASABE online Technical Library and others can obtain a copy for a fee directly from the library or by contacting ASABE headquarters.

Deadline Nears for Student to Earn Toro’s 2017 Super Bowl Turf Training Experience
Toro is holding the 15th annual Toro Super Bowl Sports Turf Training Program. In January 2017, one turfgrass science student will travel to Houston, Texas, to help the grounds crew prepare the field for the biggest game in football. This year’s recipient will work alongside NFL field director, Ed Mangan, George Toma and the Super Bowl grounds crew at NRG Stadium on turf maintenance, logo painting, field preparation for media day, halftime preparation and field clean-up. Beginning on Jan. 28, 2017, the winner will be on hand at NRG Stadium preparing the field leading up to the game on Feb. 5, 2017. To be considered for the program, applicants must complete and submit an application form, as well as a 500-word typed essay, describing the applicant’s professional goals. Entries must be received by Oct. 21, 2016.

North Dakota State Dropping Turfgrass Program
North Dakota State University is dropping its B.S. degree in sports and urban turfgrass management, and is dropping the major, reports the Associated Press. NDSU’s major began in 2002, about the peak of America’s golf course building boom. There are currently eight students in the North Dakota State program, all of whom will have the opportunity to earn their turfgrass degrees.

Toro Recognized With 2016 EPA WaterSense Excellence Award
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) October 6 recognized The Toro Company with a 2016 WaterSense Excellence Award for its efforts and education in water conservation. Toro was presented the award at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas. Since 2006, Toro and other WaterSense partners have helped U.S. consumers save 1.5 trillion gallons of water, more than the amount of water used by all households in California for a year. Toro earned the 2016 WaterSense Excellence Award for Education and Outreach for its efforts across a range of initiatives that included training events, trade shows and expos to educate contractors, distributors and consumers on water-efficient practices and WaterSense-labeled products. The 2016 WaterSense Excellence Award is the second consecutive award that Toro has received from the WaterSense program. In 2015, Toro was awarded EPA WaterSense Manufacturer Partner of the Year.

Mean Green Makes BuildingGreen Top 10 List
BuildingGreen recently recognized Mean Green
‘s commercial electric lawnmowers as one of 10 green building products that significantly improve upon standard “business-as-usual” practices. According to the company, these products help transform the industry by conserving energy and water, reducing emissions, and fundamentally changing how we approach our building systems.

Exmark Acquires Grants to Finance Lean Training for Company
Exmark received grant funding from the Nebraska Department of Labor’s Worker Training Program (WTP) to help offset the costs of Lean Enterprise training for six members of its engineering and manufacturing leadership. Exmark will combine the five grants totaling $13,700 in WTP grant funding with its own investment of more than $114,000 to fund the training, the goal of which is to improve group dynamics and communication skills, and implement a lean manufacturing environment in the company’s Nebraska facility. In addition to these grants, Exmark was also awarded a grant for $5,000 for Material Flow training and a grant for $3,700 for Total Predictive Maintenance training and implementation.

Isuzu Announces Details of New 208 F-Series Truck
Isuzu Commercial Truck of America, Inc., distributor of low-cab-forward trucks, announced key specifications of its all-new entry in the Class 6 medium-duty truck segment, the 2018 Isuzu FTR. The company made announcements to their dealers at a series of Isuzu Whistle Stops around the country the last two weeks. The FTR is slated to go into production at a new facility in Charlotte, Michigan in mid-2017. Isuzu announced the truck at NTEA’s 2016 Work Truck Show in March.

Read last week’s industry news here: Syngenta Rewards Program, Gravely/Yamaha Partnership & More