Occasionally I get jobs that rare or valuable plants are either getting trimmed or removed and if it is something I can use or propagate to sell later I try and give a wholesale price credit for the material I plan on salvaging in my bid. It seems the ethical way to go and I think it helps make me more competitive in my pricing.

But at a "Green Networking meeting" I attended recently, I was told that I am stupid in doing it. "The client doesn't need to know what is trash and what is salvaged". I think that take is wrong; being fair to the client seems to me to be a better business model and reasonable, after all they may recognize their old plant down the road….

But I thought I would ask what everyone else does and see if perhaps wholesale price is standard for any of you that do give credits, or if there is another formula I should be thinking about.

Thanks,

Hap

If my customer wants to save the material, I save the material for them, if they wish to trash the material and I feel the material is of value I keep the material. I do not give a salvage credit. If, in saving any material adds cost to my customer, the added cost is subtracted from the invoice. In most jobs I do, I not have time to salvage, unless the material will be used on the job. The trash gets thrown on the truck and is dumped into the compost. If I have the time, energy and interest, I will retrieve it.

If we have another home for the plants, we give a credit for the labor to remove the plant, and if it is an extremely valuable specimen that we have sold at a premium, we will give a credit for 25% of the sale price.

If we do not have a pre-arranged home for the plants, we do not give a credit, and, sadly, we don't have time to do a lot of salvage and hold. But we encourage the client to offer the plants to their friends, and will sometimes do the digging and transplant, charging whomever seems appropriate for the service.

I think you're doing the right thing, but just be sure that you are being paid for your time.