If organic lawn care is something that matters to you you've probably heard of OMRI certification. And honestly, it's worth understanding what it actually means before deciding if it's the right fit for your yard.
OMRI, or the Organic Materials Review Institute, reviews and approves products for use in certified organic agriculture. It's a legitimate, well-respected standard. But here's the thing most people don't realize: OMRI was built for farming, not for the lawn in front of your house. That distinction matters quite a bit since grass functions differently from most crops.
At Be Green Pro, we actually share a lot of the same values that OMRI represents. We care about living soil biology. We lean on naturally derived inputs whenever we can. We think hard about environmental impact, and we take seriously the idea that your yard should be safe for your kids, your pets, and the pollinators passing through. That shows up in the products we use and how we work:
In a lot of ways, our foundation is rooted in the same principles organic certification is built on.
This is where things get more complicated. Your lawn is not a farm field. It's a high-traffic space that your family actually uses. It's supposed to look good, hold up to foot traffic, and survive through heat, drought, and Wisconsin winters. That's a very different set of expectations than a crop field faces and that's exactly where OMRI-only programs start to struggle.
The biggest gap is weed control. Right now, there simply aren't widely effective OMRI-certified products that can selectively target weeds in turf without also damaging the grass around them. Most of what's available either kills everything it touches, only burns the surface of the plant without reaching the root, or requires so many reapplications that it becomes impractical. The result is usually the same, weeds that keep coming back and a lot of frustration.
A healthy lawn isn't built by chasing weeds. It's built from the soil up, and that's exactly how we approach it. We start with soil health. Through organic-based fertilizers, microbial inputs, and aeration, we work on the things that actually drive long-term results: nutrient availability, root development, water retention, and soil structure. When the soil is healthy, the grass grows stronger on its own.
From there, we focus on building natural resilience. Our program supports your lawn's ability to resist disease as well as handle heat and stress when conditions get tough. When we do need to intervene we use low-toxicity carefully selected treatments with the goal of managing problems while keeping overall chemical use as low as possible. That balance is what lets us stay environmentally responsible without sacrificing real results.
We respect what OMRI stands for, and we apply those principles wherever they make sense. But limiting a residential lawn program entirely to OMRI-certified products often leads to more applications, higher costs over time, and just plain bad results.
Our focus is a little different. We want to reduce the overall chemical use on your property, improve your soil and plant health naturally, and use the least amount of intervention necessary to get the job done. This isn't a compromise on our values it's how we actually live them out.
When you're choosing a lawn care provider, you're really choosing a system and a philosophy, not just a list of products. A strictly OMRI-based program might carry a certain label. But a soil-first, low-toxicity approach tends to deliver the best results possible while still taking the best care of your yard and the environment around it.
We're not interested in shortcuts, and we don't do one-size-fits-all solutions. What we are interested in is building your lawn from the ground up, using good science to guide every decision, and creating a yard that gets healthier and stronger over time.
Whether it’s your lawn, trees, shrubs, or pest issues – we’re ready to help you with Eco-friendly solutions. No matter what season.