OUR BLOG

This Earth Day, Holganix is celebrating the incredible progress we've made towards our Greater Greener Goal. We are especially grateful to the entire Holganix community for helping us make leaps and bounds in reducing the use of nitrates, phosphates, and pesticides. Your commitment helps protect our soil, water, and air—making a real difference for future generations. Together, we’re proving that innovation and stewardship go hand in hand. Thank you for being a part of this journey. We couldn’t have done it without you!    

Our Origin Story 

In the summer, Holganix CEO Barrett Ersek would spend his weekends fishing for striped bass on the Chesapeake Bay. Each year, more and more conversations surfaced about the effects fertilizers were having on the fish population and marine life. At the time, Barrett was running HappyLawn, a regional lawn care provider servicing the area surrounding the Bay. Homeowners (HappyLawn’s customers) began asking questions: Was HappyLawn’s service Chesapeake Bay safe? 

Those questions inspired Barrett to begin looking for answers. How could fertilizer users grow healthy plants, turf, and crops while using fewer fertilizers and pesticides?  

In 2010, Holganix LLC was born. Centered around our pioneering microbial product, Bio 800⁺, Holganix harnesses the power of over 800 soil microbes to boost plant and soil health. 

For lawn care companies and golf courses, HGX Pro Bio 800⁺ Turf provides a solution to reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides without sacrificing agronomic results. For farmers, Holganix Bio 800⁺ Agriculure increases fertilizer uptake by the plant, builds dense root systems, and ultimately increases crop yield—all while charging soils with the soil microbes they need to be productive. 

Our mission is to revolutionize the way the world grows. To help us track that revolution, we created our Greater Green Goal. We pledge to eliminate 100 million pounds of nitrates, 25 million pounds of phosphates, and 100 million ounces of concentrated pesticides from entering the universe by Earth Day 2025.  

Fertilizers are an integral part of how the green industry delivers results and feeds the world. By championing our Greater Green Goal, we aim to deliver agronomic tools that increase nutrient uptake and reduce reliance on fertilizers.

Greater Green Goal: Where Are We Now? 

Today, Holganix products are used by over 1,000 lawn care companies, dozens of top-tier golf courses and professional sports arenas, and vast swaths of farmland acres. 

Watch the 3-minute video below featuring Holganix CEO & Founder Barrett Ersek with an update on our Greater Green Goal. 

To date, Holganix has eliminated:

• 86,383,010 pounds of nitrates
• 21,571,460 pounds of phosphates
• 80,990,145 ounces of concentrated pesticides
  (updated March 31, 2025).

“We are about 84% of the way to reaching our goal,” explains Barrett. “We still have a journey ahead, but we are bullish on our ability to achieve it.” 

Can we have Green Grass and Blue Water Together? 

Is it possible to have both lush green grass and clean blue water? Barrett believes it is–and Holganix makes it possible by shifting away from traditional chemical lawn care methods that overuse fertilizers and pesticides. These chemicals often run off into waterways, putting the quality of our lawns ahead of the quality of our water. 

With Holganix, the focus is on fostering healthy soil—rich, black dirt full of beneficial microbes like fungi, bacteria, amoebas, and protozoa that work together just as nature intended. By improving the soil at a microbiological level, we reduce the need for excessive fertilizers, allowing green grass and clean water to coexist. He emphasizes that a healthy lawn doesn’t have to come at the cost of the environment, and Holganix is the solution to maintaining both.  

Check out this 2-minute video below featuring Holganix CEO & Founder Barrett Ersek to learn more! 

How does Holganix Bio 800⁺ reduce or optimize fertilizer and pesticide use? 

Depending on the plant type, with each gallon of Holganix Bio 800⁺ used, we eliminate approximately:  

• 18 pounds of nitrates 
• 4 pounds of phosphates 
• 17 ounces of concentrated pesticides

Holganix Bio 800⁺ charges soils with microbes that help the plant:  

1. Grow stronger roots that can better mine for nutrients. 
2. Increase nutrient availability by enhancing nitrogen-fixing and phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria, and by breaking down crop debris to release stored nutrients. 
3. Build long-term soil health so that the soil can better capture and store nutrients - thanks to microbes that keep nutrients in the root zone longer, where plants can access them. 
4. Boost plant resilience so that it can better withstand stress caused by weather, disease, traffic, and more.

Check out the Holganix Data

We have dedicated our company to the understanding of soil science, and have developed the Bio 800⁺ product line to ensure your soil is everything healthy soils were designed to be, teeming with diverse life that promotes plant performance.  

The Holganix Research and Development Team consists of scientists with over 97 years of experience in agriculture and agronomy. Our scientists also work with teams of scientific advisors and university researchers to validate and optimize Holganix technology. 

Holganix is both field- and lab-tested for proven, reliable results in plant performance. University studies have researched and validated Holganix's performance advantage. Holganix products have been tested in the field by farmers, top-tier PGA golf courses, professional sports fields, and some of the world’s largest lawn care companies.