Environmentally-friendly lawn mower used in Christchurch sport venues and parks

Christchurch City Council is using a new electric battery powered Mean Green ride-on lawn mower to cut the grass in Hagley Oval, and its parks and Botanic Gardens.

Unlike most ride-on lawn mowers which have a petrol engine, are loud, inefficient, toxic to the environment and expensive to operate and maintain - the Mean Green’s electric battery makes it environmentally-friendly and quiet.

The Council has been gradually moving away from petrol-operated tools towards zero exhaust emission options as part of its commitment to making the organisation’s activities net carbon neutral by 2030.

Hagley Park Manager, Rupert Bool notes “It’s pretty cool. It’s nice and quiet and easy to use.’’ Bool was among the first to have a go on the new ride-on mower, which is believed to be the only one of its kind in New Zealand.

Bool adds “we’ve got a huge amount of grass to cut in Hagley Park so it’s going to be really advantageous to have a ride-on lawn mower that we can use without disturbing the peace of people using the park.”

In addition to being used in Hagley Park, the ride-on mower will also be used in parts of the central city and in the Botanic Gardens.

The Mean Green is the latest in a growing list of electric-powered equipment that Christchurch City Council parks staff are using for maintenance work in central city parks and regional parks around Christchurch.

Council has bought a pure electric van for central city parks maintenance and two battery electric off-road motorbikes for park rangers working at Bottle Lake Forest, Spencer Park and Travis Wetland Reserve to use.

Parks staff are also increasingly using electric powered leaf blowers, hedge trimmers and chainsaws rather than petrol powered ones.

Council Head of Parks Andrew Rutledge advises “the e-tools have many advantages – they’re less noisy, there are no fumes and they tend to be lighter to handle so they are user-friendly as well as environmentally-friendly."

For more information on the Mean Green Mower go to meangreenmowers.co.nz/

Image courtesy of Christchurch City Council