Gabe Lourie-Wisbaum (left) and Steven Wisbaum
Steven Wisbaum wasn't always obsessed with electric lawn mowers. Since 1996, he's been the founding owner of Charlotte-based CV Compost, which provides custom products to home gardeners, farmers and landscape contractors. But around 2009, spurred by concerns about the climate crisis and needing to replace his cohousing community's shared lawn mower, Wisbaum sought to reduce his fossil fuel use. He experimented with using biodiesel in company equipment and in the mower, but it caused mechanical problems. So he went looking for electric alternatives.
By 2017, Wisbaum was the Vermont sales rep for Mean Green Mowers, an Ohio-based electric mower manufacturer. Aiming to convince people who were skeptical that these more expensive mowers could perform as well as gas ones, he became an electric lawn care evangelist, giving demonstrations, attending fairs and working with electric utilities to establish incentive programs.