Electrify Your Landscaping

May 20, 2025

Luscher Farm

Electrify Your Landscaping / Healthy Yard Care

It’s Clean, It’s Quiet, It’s Healthy

Overview

Gas-powered landscaping equipment causes significant air and noise pollution and negatively affects workers, neighborhoods, habitat and health of the soil. LOSN has launched a campaign to support healthy yard care practices and the transition away from gas-powered landscaping equipment.

Our mission is to usher in a new era of landscape practices that restore the environment, protect public health, and encourage long-term sustainability, increased biodiversity, and enhanced resilience.

Landscapers With Electric Options

Mention “LOSN” when you book
with these landscapers
and get $25 off your first visit!

The Problem with Gas-Powered
Landscaping Equipment

  • EXTREME NOISE
    Low-frequency and high-decibel, the noise of a gas-powered blower is significantly louder than electric. It permeates walls and negatively impacts up to 90 surrounding homes. The noise contributes to hearing loss, high blood pressure and stress.
  • HEALTH RISKS
    Two-stroke engines burn a mixture of gasoline and oil. They produce exhaust fumes laden with high levels of benzene, butadiene, formaldehyde, and fine particulates which are known carcinogens that are associated with respiratory, cardiovascular and neurological harm.
  • ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS
    Toxic waste and smog-forming emissions from these engines harm ecosystems and contribute to the climate crisis. Gas leaf blowers create up to 200-mph wind force which sends dust that can contain pollen, mold, animal feces, heavy metals and chemicals from herbicides and pesticides into the air.
Carbon emissions using gas-powered equipment

Healthy Yard Care

  • CARE FOR THE PLANTS AND THE SOIL
    Avoid the use of all leaf blowers around plantings. They erode and compact the soil and damage habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators.
  • AVOID HERBICIDES AND PESTICIDES
    Most yards do not need these dangerous chemicals, which are harmful to children, pets, wildlife, insects and waterways.
  • LEAVE THE LEAVES
    Leaves and other plant matter under trees and shrubs help build mulch, healthy soil and habitat for pollinators and wildlife. LEARN MORE...

Click the image below to open a pdf copy of the mailer sent to 14,000 homes in Lake Oswego in August, 2024.

CLICK to link to a .pdf of this 2-page flier.

April 2025 Newsletter

Click the image below to read your copy in a new browser window.

Screen shot of the top part of the April 2025 newsletter

Lake Oswego Sustainability Network Newsletter

April 2024

Click the image below to read your copy in a new browser window.

What You Can Do

  • Buy electric tools. They’re affordable, clean and effective.
  • Share your electric tools with your landscaper. Offer to provide them with a fresh battery on your day of service.
  • Ask them to use brooms and rakes and to practice healthy yard care.
  • Hire a landscaper who offers alternatives to gas-powered maintenance. WE HAVE A LIST!

How You Can Help

Your participation is important to the success of our campaign. Here are ways you can help us expedite the transition away from gas-powered landscaping equipment and toward more healthy and sustainable practices:

Photo of the gas-free landscape yard sign

Contact

Kathleen Wiens  kwiens@losn.org

Resources

Video

Websites and Documents

In the News …

Success Stories

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Electric Vehicles (EVs)

Apr 28, 2025

Electric Vehicle Resources

Contact

Duke Castle  info@losn.org

Check this video out:

When electric car drivers learn how gas cars work

What if someone has driven only electric cars, and decided to see what an “old-fashioned” internal-combustion car was like? Check out this Swedish video (with English subtitles)

Electrify LO Project

Jan 31, 2025

Solar Panels

Electrify LO:
Important Steps We Can Take to Slow Global Warming

“On climate policy, there’s one main thing and then there’s everything else…Clean electrification is the entrée; everything else is a side.”

David Roberts, climate journalist, July 9, 2021

Many of you are alarmed about the climate crisis and trying to figure out what you can do to help slow global warming. You are not alone. In the 2023 Lake Oswego Community Survey, addressing climate change was one of the top concerns of Lake Oswego residents.

One of the most impactful changes you can make is to electrify both how you get around and the sources of energy in your home. Electrification moves us away from fossil fuels that are the primary source of the climate crisis toward “clean”, renewable sources such as solar, wind and hydropower.

Data from the Cool Climate Network, an affiliate of UC, Berkeley, shows that a Lake Oswego household can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 40% by electrifying everything. That’s significant!

Contact

Linda Ganzini  lganzini@losn.org

Get Involved

Please contact us if you wish to help with our efforts.

Partners

Electrify Now

Electrify Oregon

Currently Portland General Electric, our local electricity utility, is working to meet a state-mandated requirement for electricity that is 80% clean by 2030 and 100% clean by 2040. However, you don’t have to wait. You can support 100% renewable energy now by installing rooftop solar, participating in a community solar program, or signing up for PGE’s Green Power Choice. Other actions you can take to reduce strain on the grid, keep energy more reliable and sustainable, and save a little money include participating in PGEs Peak time rebates and “time of day” billing programs and installing a smart thermostat.

To help you reduce your electricity bill while making the clean energy transition go faster, there are many new high-efficiency electric appliances available for cooking, water heating and space heating that use less electricity. In addition, electric appliances and vehicles are frequently quieter, safer, have lower maintenance costs, and are fun to use. To help your home get off fossil fuels altogether, replace your fossil gas fireplace with an electric one. All these changes require planning and there are websites that help you develop a home electrification plan that maximizes incentives from Energy Trust of Oregon and federal tax credits. Generous point of sale rebates will become available for low and middle income families, likely in 2025, though many details are still be worked out at the state level.

Through our Electrify LO program we hope to get everyone in Lake Oswego on to electricity as quickly as possible. We will show you step-by-step how to make the transition to clean energy and help you along the way.

Where You Live

Heating and Cooling Your Home and Water

Replace your furnace/air conditioner with an electric heat pump. A heat pump works like a refrigerator. In the winter it takes the heat from the outside air and pumps it into your home. In the summer you flip a switch, and it works as an air conditioner by taking heat out of your home and into the outside air.

Heat pumps can also be used to heat your water. Heat pumps are cleaner, more energy efficient, and healthier than natural gas furnaces. Consider retiring your furnace or water heater early before it breaks down.

For more information on preparing to replace your heating and cooling system including links to personalized guides, contractors, and incentives, see our Heat Pumps page.

Upgrading Your Home

Passive home design can dramatically reduce a homes energy needs. Learn more about this energy efficient building construction. Plus, take a look at how two Lake Oswego residents have transformed their homes to both move off fossil fuels and tighten their building envelope.

Electrify LO

Cooking Your Food

Electric induction cooktops are more energy efficient than natural gas or other electric stoves. Advantages include that they:

    • Outperform other cooktops in speed of heating and temperature control. Because of this they are preferred by many professional chefs.
    • Can be inexpensive—single-burner countertop models can cost under $100.
    • Cause less indoor pollution that may harm your health compared to fossil (natural) gas.

For more information, see our Induction Cooktops page.

Maintaining Your Yard

Interested in eliminating the noise and pollution from gas powered yard equipment? There are now electric options for every piece of landscaping equipment available that you or your landscaping service can use. Check out what equipment is available and which landscaping services offer an all-electric service at our Electric Landscaping Project page.

Electrify Everything

How You Get Around

Automobiles and trucks, burning fossil fuel, are one of the greatest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. That is why making your next purchase of an electric vehicle (EV) is one of the best things you can do to eliminate toxic air pollutants while you are also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

EV options are rapidly expanding. They are fun to drive, less costly to maintain, and have numerous financial incentives that make them much more affordable.

For more information, check out our EV page.

What Electrify LO Offers

    • Information through online forums, videos, newsletters, in-person events, and written guides.
    • Connect with your neighbors: Hear testimonials and advice from community members who have already begun the transition.
    • Network of local contractors: Find contractors who understand your objectives and will work with you to give you good service through our partners at ElectrifyNow and Electrify Oregon.
    • Come to the Lake Oswego Electric Home and Vehicle Fair on September 28, 2024 to find out more about many ways to electrify your life.

What Else

The climate crisis is alarming, but each of us can make more of a difference than we imagine, and we can support each other as we go. So please join this effort and begin your electrification journey. Pass on the word to others in Lake Oswego about how they can become part of this community-wide effort. Check out the websites of our partners Electrify Now and Electrify Oregon for detailed information. Both websites have contractor resource pages with valuable discounts.

Do You Need a Home Energy Consultation? We Have a Deal for You!

Making your home more energy efficient and electrified can be complicated, especially when trying to maximize your use of utility, state, and federal financial incentives. GreenSavers is a full service home energy efficiency contractor that offers energy audits, energy consultation, insulation, energy efficient windows and clean, energy efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. Get a consultation for $150. It benefits you, LOSN and the planet

Schedule: You can schedule a Home Energy Consultation here: https://bit.ly/46XXh0Y

Bonus: Use the code, LISAADATTO when you contact GreenSavers to set up the consultation. If you use the code and then complete a project of $2,500 or more, GreenSavers will donate $200 to LOSN.

The Inflation Reduction Act Makes Your Electrification Journey More Affordable

 The Inflation Reduction Act, signed by President Biden in August 2022 represents the most important federal climate legislation ever signed into law. It is estimated that the bill will reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by about 40% below the nation’s previous peak. The law includes many ways to reduce the emissions from your home including increased tax credits for rooftop solar, an up to $2000 tax credit for a heat pump space heater and another up to $2000 tax credit for a heat pump water heater. Other tax credits are available for upgrading your electrical panel and basic weatherization. Find out what savings you are eligible for using the Rewiring America IRA Calculator. Depending on your income level these credits can add up to as much as $14,000. Rewiring America calculates that the average American family will save $1800 per year in energy costs by moving their cars and appliances away from fossil fuels to electricity.

    Electrification Journeys – Testimonials

    The Saylor Family Started with a Heat Pump

    The Saylor Family Started with a Heat Pump

    Jun 2, 2022 |

    Testimonial from Erin Saylor​ Referred by PGE.   Erin Saylor’s views on electrification were informed by her work at an environmental nonprofit where she had a front row seat to discussions about the climate and health impacts of our country's reliance on fossil gas....

    read more

    Community Solar

    Jan 18, 2022

    Solar Panels

    Community Solar Project

    Overview

    Rooftop solar using photovoltaic cells is a great way to address climate change by moving off fossil fuel sources of electricity. However not everyone in Lake Oswego has good solar access. The answer then is to consider Community Solar.

    Most simply, community solar is solar energy that is generated from a central location and shared by multiple owners or subscribers. That means you don’t need your own rooftop panels to get the benefits of solar.

     Benefits of Community Solar

    • Supporting renewable energy, reducing emissions, and accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels.
    • Creating local power projects that increase regional grid resiliency.
    • Saving money on energy bills each month, with no up-front investment.

    Contact

    Linda Ganzini  lganzini@losn.org

    Team Members

    • Duke Castle

    Resources

    Here’s how it works:

    1. Choose a solar project, sign up, and pay a monthly subscription fee for the energy generated by local solar panels. Solar projects can be developed by businesses, schools, churches, homeowners’ associations, and more!
    2. The solar project generates energy for the power grid.
    3. You get a credit back on your utility bill for your portion of energy generated by the project.

    Multifamily EV Charging Project

    Oct 26, 2021

    Multifamily EV Charging Project

    Background

    Gasoline and diesel propelled vehicles are one of the greatest sources of air pollution and contributors to the current climate crisis. One of the best answers to these concerns is the growing movement toward electric vehicles (EVs). The Lake Oswego City Council’s Sustainability and Climate Action Plan has made support for the adoption of electric vehicles in our community a key goal. As the graph shows the adoption of EVs in Lake Oswego is rapidly accelerating.

    Most EV’s currently are recharged overnight in a homeowner’s garage. However, people who live in apartments and condominiums typically lack access to convenient charging.

    To address this concern the city’s Sustainability Advisory Board and the Lake Oswego Sustainability Network have formed a joint committee of citizen volunteers whose mission is to encourage and facilitate EV charging in our city’s multifamily dwellings.

    Contact

    Duke Castle  info@losn.org

     

    Team Members

    • Duke Castle
    • Buzz Chandler
    • Matt Schaeffer
    • Larry Thompson

    EVs: a Rapidly Growing Market

    • EVs is one of the fastest growing market segments and not just for the rich. Used EVs are available locally for under $10,000
    • California, Washington and several other states have set deadlines to stop the sale of new gas and diesel vehicles. General Motors, Ford and other automobile companies have responded by planning for an all-electric future.
    • Federal and State EV incentives are readily available including extra incentives for lower income families to make more EVs affordable now.
    • Virtually all new apartments being constructed in Lake Oswego are adding EV charging as an amenity to address this growing trend

    Reasons to Act Now

    Available Resources

    To help you get started here are some available resources:

    We would like to hear from you

    We will be making recommendations to our city council on what more the city can do to help you. Please contact us at info@losn.org to let us know how the city can support you.