With numerous companies offering lawn mowing services and plenty of talented folks working for each, standing out in the green industry is not an easy task. Well aware of this, Gus Mariscal was willing to try anything under the sun to make his company stand out.

Hinged on his strong belief in sustainability, Mariscal decided to turn to solar energy. Thus, in 2014, Indiana’s first eco-friendly lawn care company, Solar Earth Lawn Care, was born. The company was recently profiled in an Inside Indiana Business article.

“Our first year, we were a traditional gas mower company, but after that we realized we needed to do something unique and to give our clients an alternative.” Mariscal told Inside Indiana Business. “I’m a down-to-earth guy, definitely into organics and being as sustainable as possible, and it just hit me. This is it.”

His company provides a way for customers in the Indianapolis area to get a mow with a low-carbon footprint. To fulfill its eco-friendly promise, the company uses organic fertilizers and battery-powered equipment

But battery-powered equipment wasn’t enough for Mariscal. He took the initiative one step farther by installing solar panels, which charge the equipments’ batteries, on the company trucks. Mariscal worked with a subcontractor in Greenfield, Ind., to retrofit his truck with two solar panels that are routed into a battery-charging station in the vehicle’s toolbox.

Whether its cutting grass or charging batteries on-site, the setup creates no pollution, he said.

In addition the eco-friendly equipment, fertilizers and herbicides, there is one other reason Solar Earth Lawn Care is so appealing to customers: It’s quiet.

“We are 50 to 75 percent quieter than most gas mowers,” Mariscal told Inside Indiana Business. “People who don’t necessarily care about air quality care about noise. We’ll do work for first-time clients and I’ll get an email later saying they didn’t even know we were there until we were driving away.”