Leading the Next Chapter: Beth Berry on the Future of Project EverGreen

Leading the Next Chapter: A Conversation with Project EverGreen Board President Beth Berry

Project EverGreen is entering an exciting new chapter, one built on more than two decades of serving military families, revitalizing community green spaces, and bringing the green industry together around a shared purpose.

As the organization continues to expand its impact, including assuming leadership of Renewal & Remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery beginning in 2027, strong leadership has never been more important.

Beth Berry, vice president of turf and ornamental at Advanced Turf Solutions and president of Project EverGreen’s Board of Directors, has been an active supporter of the organization for several years. In this conversation, she shares her vision for the future, why volunteer service continues to inspire her, and how the green industry can build on its legacy of giving back.

Q: What is your top priority as Project EverGreen Board President?

A: We are incredibly honored to have been entrusted with leading Renewal & Remembrance into the future of our industry.

My top priority is making sure this is a seamless transition for our volunteers, our sponsors, and, most importantly, the families of our nation’s heroes as we help beautify the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. That means successfully leading Renewal & Remembrance into its next chapter beginning in 2027 while continuing to grow the mission of GreenCare for Troops.

Renewal & Remembrance - Project EverGreen

Project EverGreen Board President Beth Berry is committed to leading Renewal & Remembrance into its next chapter while honoring its proud tradition of volunteer service at Arlington National Cemetery.

To be trusted to work alongside Arlington National Cemetery’s full-time grounds crew is a responsibility we do not take lightly. Ensuring this event continues to showcase our industry’s commitment to excellence and service is essential to the long-term success and sustainability of this remarkable tradition.

Q: What makes Project EverGreen’s volunteer model unique?

A: Project EverGreen mobilizes an entire industry to action.

Our volunteers are lawn care and landscape professionals who show up with their own equipment, their own expertise, and their own time. That hands-on, boots-on-the-ground approach creates a direct connection between the people doing the work and the families and communities receiving it. It’s personal in a way that’s hard to replicate.

Every time I see or read about one of our volunteers serving a deployed military family, I’m reminded there is an opportunity cost for that business owner. That’s one more lawn they aren’t servicing, one more customer they aren’t billing. We never lose sight of that sacrifice, and we deeply appreciate the selfless spirit these companies demonstrate while serving military families.

The same is true for GreenCare for Communities. Our volunteers and donors have transformed neglected parks, athletic fields, and public green spaces into healthy, vibrant places where communities can gather, play, and thrive.

Q: Where do you see the greatest opportunity for Project EverGreen to expand its impact?

A: I’m most focused on reaching more military families through GreenCare for Troops.

We’ve been serving deployed service members and their families for more than 20 years, and the need hasn’t gone away. If anything, it’s grown. Every family we can take one responsibility off the shoulders of is a family that gains a little more peace of mind while their loved one is deployed.

One of my favorite comments we hear from deployed service members is, ‘It’s one less thing I have to worry about while I’m away from my home and family.’ That’s why, in addition to creating a healthier lawn and yard for the family, is exactly why we do this.

Q: How does Project EverGreen strengthen the green industry?

A: Every time our industry shows up for a military family or a GreenCare for Communities project, it reminds people what this industry truly represents. We are skilled professionals, generous neighbors, and dedicated community partners.

That visibility matters. It helps attract the next generation into the profession while changing perceptions about careers in the lawn and landscape industry. We’re demonstrating that this industry doesn’t just create beautiful landscapes, it makes a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

Q: Why is the Clean Air Calculator such an important tool?

A: For a long time, our industry’s impact was something people could see but not always measure.

The Clean Air Calculator changes that. It gives us real, measurable data that quantifies the environmental value of the green spaces our volunteers and partners create and maintain. In many ways, it allows our industry to go on offense by demonstrating the positive environmental benefits we deliver every day.

That matters because donors, sponsors, and communities increasingly want measurable results, not just good intentions. The Clean Air Calculator allows us to provide both.

Q: What role do volunteers, partners, and industry leaders play in Project EverGreen’s future?

A: None of this happens without our volunteers and sponsor and donor partners. They are the momentum behind everything we accomplish.

As we enter this next chapter, I’d encourage every company and every professional in our industry to ask how they can be part of it, whether that’s volunteering through GreenCare for Troops, supporting Renewal & Remembrance, participating in a GreenCare for Communities project, or simply helping spread the word.

This mission has always been bigger than any one organization.

One thing I know for certain is that the green industry fiercely supports and serves one another. Of the thousands of friends and colleagues I’ve met throughout my career, very few originally set out to build a career in lawn and landscape. Yet here we all are. This industry has a way of drawing people in, and once you’re here, it’s the people who make you stay. Your customers. Your employees. Your industry friends.

If I’m successful as Board President, Project EverGreen will dramatically expand the number of volunteers, partners, and supporters helping us maximize our impact.

Buckle up. The best is yet to come.

Get Involved with Project EverGreen

To learn more about Project EverGreen’s initiatives and how you can get involved, visit https://projectevergreen.org/

 

 

What Is Your Yard Really Doing for the Air?

What is your yard really doing for the air? Project EverGreen’s Clean Air Calculator helps answer that question by showing how your lawn, trees, and landscape contribute to cleaner air. Once you’ve entered your yard’s details and received the results, the next step is understanding what those numbers mean for your family, neighborhood, and community.

The Clean Air Calculator was designed to translate the environmental benefits of healthy lawns, trees, and landscapes into something homeowners can understand and act on. It measures how your yard contributes to yard air quality, carbon sequestration in lawns, and cleaner, healthier air for people in your community.

This guide walks you through how to read your score, what each metric represents, and how small changes to your yard can make a measurable difference.

Why Your Yard Matters More Than You Think

Healthy green spaces don’t just look good. They work hard behind the scenes. Lawns, trees, and shrubs act as natural air filters, capturing carbon dioxide, producing oxygen, cooling neighborhoods, and reducing airborne pollutants.

The Clean Air Calculator helps put real numbers behind the environmental benefits of healthy yards, showing how everyday residential landscapes contribute to cleaner air at a local level.

Decoding the Key Results

  1. Carbon Sequestered: What Your Yard Stores

What it means: Carbon sequestration refers to how much carbon dioxide your lawn and landscape plants pull from the air and store in soil and plant material.

How to think about it: Your calculator result may be compared to:

  • Miles driven in a car
  • Gallons of gasoline burned
  • Hours of home energy use

For example, if your yard sequesters the equivalent of hundreds of miles of driving, it means your landscape is actively offsetting emissions created by everyday activities.

Why it matters: Even modest-sized lawns and landscapes play a role in reducing atmospheric carbon, especially when multiplied across entire neighborhoods.

  1. Clean Air Produced: Oxygen and Pollutant Reduction

What it means: Plants naturally produce oxygen while also capturing pollutants such as particulate matter and ozone.

How to think about it: The calculator often expresses this in relatable terms, such as hours of air conditioning offset and equivalent clean air for a certain number of people.

This helps connect abstract measurements to real-world comfort and health.

Why it matters: Cleaner air contributes to healthier lungs, improved outdoor comfort, and reduced heat stress, especially in urban and suburban communities.

  1. People Benefitted: Your Yard’s Ripple Effect

What it means: This estimate shows how many people could benefit from the clean air your yard helps produce over time.

How to think about it: It’s not just about your household. Air moves, circulates, and benefits neighbors, passersby, and your broader community.

Why it matters: Collectively, residential landscapes create a meaningful environmental impact when millions of homeowners maintain healthy yards.

How Different Yards Score: Three Sample Profiles

A Typical Suburban Lot

  • Moderate turf coverage
  • A few mature trees
  • Some foundation plantings

What the score shows: Balanced benefits across carbon storage and air quality, with solid performance and room for improvement through added trees or healthier turf.

A Heavily Treed Yard

  • Large canopy trees
  • Layered shrubs and groundcover
  • Healthy soil

What the score shows: Higher carbon sequestration and stronger air-cleaning benefits, highlighting the significant role trees play in improving yard air quality.

A Minimally Landscaped Yard

  • Limited turf
  • Few or no trees
  • Sparse plantings

What the score shows – Lower overall impact, but also the greatest opportunity. Adding even one tree or expanding turf can significantly improve results.

Where Your Yard Is Doing Well and Where It Can Do More

Your Clean Air Calculator score isn’t a grade. It’s a snapshot.

It helps identify strengths you’re already building on and small, achievable changes that can deliver big gains. Simple improvements can include:

  • Planting an additional tree
  • Expanding turf in underutilized areas
  • Improving lawn health through proper mowing, watering, and soil care
  • Adding shrubs or native plants that support long-term growth

Each change compounds over time, improving both carbon sequestration in lawns and overall air quality benefits.

The Bigger Picture: Why This Tool Exists

The Clean Air Calculator reinforces a simple truth: yards matter.

When homeowners understand the environmental value of their landscapes, they’re more likely to protect and improve them, benefiting communities, neighborhoods, and future generations.

Your yard is already doing important work for the air. The calculator helps you see it, understand it, and make it even better.

Try the Clean Air Calculator and explore how your yard contributes to cleaner, healthier air and what it could do next.

 

A Little Help When It Was Needed Most

A little help can make a big difference for a military family facing deployment. For Katelyn and her husband, Ryan, a member of the National Guard (last name withheld by request), that help came as they were raising two young children in the Des Moines suburb of Waukee.

Their introduction to military life was anything but gradual. Ryan joined the Guard shortly before the birth of their first child and, not long afterward, began preparing for his first deployment.

“We had absolutely no military background whatsoever, so everything was a new experience,” says Katelyn. “There were so many logistical things we needed to figure out, starting with how to manage the pets, the kids, and the maintenance of the house. It was pretty overwhelming.”

As the deployment approached, Katelyn reached out to a friend and fellow military spouse for advice.

“She told me she had signed up for GreenCare for Troops during her husband’s deployment and was matched with a volunteer who mowed her lawn at no cost,” Katelyn recalls. “She said it was an amazing program, really easy to sign up for, and having one less thing to worry about made such a difference.”

Katelyn contacted GreenCare for Troops and was soon matched with a local volunteer who cared for her lawn throughout Ryan’s six-month deployment.

“He did a fantastic job and was so humble. He didn’t want anyone to make a big fuss,” she says. “But it was a big deal to us. We were so grateful for the help when we needed it most.”

When Ryan deployed a second time, Katelyn was unable to be matched with a volunteer and had to manage the lawn herself. While she was fortunate to have family nearby who could lend a hand, she knows many military families don’t have that same support system.

“I can only imagine what families without that kind of support go through,” she says.

The experience reinforced for Katelyn just how valuable GreenCare for Troops volunteers can be. She knows firsthand that something as simple as mowing a lawn can provide meaningful relief during one of the most challenging times in a military family’s life.

“I’m sharing my story because I hope more people learn about GreenCare for Troops and decide to volunteer,” says Katelyn. “Believe me, it makes a huge impact. Having even one responsibility taken off your plate during a deployment means more than most people can imagine.”

A Little Help Can Make a Big Difference – Register Today!

When a loved one is deployed, taking care of things at home can feel overwhelming. GreenCare for Troops is here to help ease the burden.

The program connects eligible military families with lawn and landscape professionals who volunteer their services during deployment. If your family could use an extra hand, we encourage you to register.

  • Receive help with lawn and landscape services
  • Connect with a volunteer in your community when available
  • Take one more task off your plate during deployment

You don’t have to manage everything on your own. Register your family with GreenCare for Troops today and let us help connect you with a volunteer in your community.

Sign up today

Thank You to Our Generous Supporters

The Title Sponsor of the GreenCare for Troops program is Nufarm, while BOSS Snowplow proudly sponsors SnowCare for Troops.

Our Platinum Partners include Toro, SiteOne Landscape Supply, and Heritage Landscape Supply.

The Silver Partner is Arborjet/Ecologel and our Affiliate Partners include the Connecticut Grounds Keepers Association and the Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association.

GreenCare for Troops is proudly endorsed by the National Association of Landscape Professionals.

Join us today and be part of something bigger.