I entered the energy efficiency Green industry from a non-traditional route. The Orange County Register has called me a “Serial Entrepreneur” and an Idea Guy. College came between my time in the U.S. Marine Corps and before I entered the hotel and travel industry which lead to operating my own hotel in Kihei, Maui, Hawaii then on to President of The Silent Network a Cable TV Network.

Then in 1999 I looked over the California marketplace and entered into the Energy Conservation industry. Although my experience included working with the creator of a revolutionary type of “step down transformers” that reduced energy consumption and then marketing solar to corporations, I realized quickly that Solar (Photovoltaic solar energy) was good for at most 4 – 6 hours a day and at night had no value.

Lighting for corporations, on the other hand was used 24 hours a day. It expanded opportunities to conserve energy from just turning lights on-and-off to using Energy Management Systems and Daylight harvesting. I further realized that most of corporate America was using “19th century” lighting technology but paying “21st century” lighting electric bills and those “19th century” lights were polluting the California environment, adding to Climate Change while increasing our dependence on foreign oil.

I founded Progressive Lighting and Energy Solutions with offices in Tustin and Santa Clara, CA, which has become California’s Leading Energy Solution Company. My company’s successes created the path for my becoming an award winning Entrepreneur. In five (5) short years, Progressive Lighting helped over 400 companies, large and small, save millions of dollars in energy costs and reduced harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) by a staggering 12,100 tons in 2008 alone. Estimates are that an additional 14,500 tons of CO2 will be reduced in 2009 by my company, Progressive Lighting & Energy Solutions. Progressive accomplished all of this while reducing corporate lighting Energy Consumption by an average of 50% to 60% permanently. Additionally, Progressive Lighting was able to provide over $2.8 million dollars in certified Federal Tax Deductions in 2008 for corporations who became energy efficient. This year, 2009, Progressive Lighting is expected to double its revenue again, doubling the Federal Tax Deductions for corporations and earning corporations over $5 Million in rebates dollars.

With all of these astounding accomplishments in the commercial and industrial energy markets, I was finding that often after the completion of any energy saving projects, I was being approached by employees of the companies asking how they could duplicate the same green initiatives in their homes – earn rebates and qualify for tax incentives like the big companies.

I would always give them my perfunctory answer of checking with their utility or looking on-line. Then a light bulb went off in my head when a young woman, working in the Human Resource department of a company I had just finished an energy saving project for, told me she had tried looking on-line and was more confused now than before she started.

As a single mother, money was tight for her, and she, like me, had a strong social and environmental conscience and wanted to do the right thing for the environment and her children’s future. After spending two hours with her using the internet and calling a contact I had at Southern California Edison, we came up with some steps she was able to take. The end result, she saved a little more than $50 the next month and became GREENER. When she called me to tell me about this…she became my motivation for Ecology Communications.

I realized that she was not unique and that America is full of families wanting to be green but lacking even the most basic information on how to do it. There was no single place to get this vital information in an easy and clear manner that could be implemented immediately.

MY GOAL BECAME CLEAR

There were an incalculable number of websites on Energy Efficiency – which were difficult to navigate in order to get daily useful information that would be current and easy to implement. These websites all had agendas that didn’t always match the needs of households and small business owners who wanted to make small but meaningful changes at home or work, and unfortunately making drastic lifestyle changes was not an option for most.

I knew that this need could be met, must be met, and more importantly that this vacuum needed to be filled and so Ecology Communications, Inc., a California Non-Profit corporation was born. I started by drawing on my experiences and drawing on the vast resources of the contacts I had made in my years in the industry and put together a dynamic multifaceted program to fill this void. Ecology Communications, Inc. a truly Green Non-Profit organization provides not only One-Stop Resources, but goes beyond the consolidation of data and helps families use this knowledge to create meaningful action, that results in real environment change, and real dollars savings for households.

Ecology Communications, Inc. A California Green Initiative 501 (c) 3 Non-Profit, through a combination of Radio Broadcasts, National Public Service Announcements on both radio and in Motion Picture theatres, Community Outreach Programs, Speakers Programs and On-Line Resources delivers an environmental message for the everyday family that wants to make a change, needs to save money and can’t radically change their lifestyle.