Jessi Burg receives Outlook Award Email
Written by Colorado Green NOW   
Wednesday, December 08, 2021 01:00 AM

Colorado Green Now

The Outlook Award for Emerging Leaders honors “up and comers” in the landscape industry and ALCC, who are not yet 40 years old and have made a significant contribution to the industry, their company and/or ALCC in a volunteer or leadership capacity. This year’s recipient, Jessi Burg, is passionate about sustainability and enthusiastic about educating clients.

Burg had a busy year in 2020. In the first half, she was running Pears to Perennials, a full-service sustainable landscape company she founded in 2017. Later in the year, she sold her successful company to follow her passion for educating new business owners in trades and services. Her new venture, Outgrow Your Garage, fills the gap in business development support for small, recently formed companies. Having founded her landscape company just four years ago, Burg is familiar with the challenges and obstacles for startups and is certain she has something to offer. Outgrow Your Garage will help people build their businesses and grow their client base using short 20-minutes-at-a-time, bite-size, online learning chunks and offer coworking sessions.

At Pears to Perennials, Burg created a hiring process for seasonal workers—adding 8-11 jobs each year—that led to zero staff turnover. The company also diverted many tons of compostable waste from landfills. She actively advocates for trades and seasonal workers through ALCC and Good Business Colorado. 

Burg is used to change. She grew up in Philadelphia, left for college at 18, and for eight years lived all around the U.S. and in a few different countries. She has a BA from St. Lawrence College, NY, and after landing in Colorado in 2010 to attend grad school, received a master’s in environmental leadership from Naropa University. When she is not working, she enjoys traveling around the country with her husband and dog.