Lighting a Path to the Future

Businesses are lowering expenses by embracing the efficiency of new technology and reducing waste streams. Founded just six years ago by Kevin Carp and Ashley Chance, ECO Development has been working across the country to give clients – small and large alike – control over their energy costs. They achieve this through waste reduction, improving building envelopes and most simply, through lighting.

According to Carp, LEDs (light emitting diodes) are now unquestionably the smartest, most sustainable solution to reducing energy usage, lowering electric bills and eliminating costs of bulb replacement. Modern LEDs can last for decades (over 100,000 hours of use), and they produce minimal heat and hazardous waste. Although ECO started working with fluorescent bulbs in 2011, Carp says, "Most of our installation is 100 percent LED now, because the technology is so proven and it’s only getting better. There just aren’t many reasons anymore to not use them." 

According to Chase Conn, vice president of sales, installing LED lighting has a 44 percent yearly return on investment, which adds up to roughly a two-year payback period. When updating exterior lighting, LEDs have the added benefit of making a building look and feel vibrant compared to those with outdated, buzzing fluorescent lights.

"When we do retail settings, I want people passing by to notice how much better one building looks compared to the others," Conn says. "When you’re looking for food late at night, which place would you choose: The sketchy, flickering building, or the beautifully lit restaurant?"

Restaurants are just one piece of ECO’s diverse client base. Over the years, they have done work for dozens of manufacturing companies looking to save by going green. Nisbet Brower, a longtime client, has saved more than 1.7 million kilowatt-hours annually, which (combined with eliminated maintenance costs) adds up to about $240,000  for the company every year. ECO has completed more than 25 projects to date for Nisbet Brower, including work for Nisbet Property Holdings, which they helped by improving the safety, appearance and cost of property leases by modernizing their lighting.

ECO has saved some manufacturers even more by reducing their waste streams. Much of the waste that ends up in landfills is actually valuable material that can still be used in production. ECO looks at a company’s post-industrial waste (valuable scraps), and then finds buyers for the waste. To make that easy for businesses, ECO helps their clients establish processes that ensure post-industrial waste is collected and used to its maximum value. To minimize costs even more, ECO provides competitive logistics services as well.

"All of our projects are done beginning-to-end," Carp says. "We scope, inspect, plan and install so our clients don’t waste any time and money on consulting or unnecessary design." Instead of hiring various contractors, consultants and installers, ECO handles everything themselves. They have worked with Fortune 500 companies across most of the United States.

LED lights are not the final frontier for ECO Development, not even close. When asked about what is next for energy efficiency, Carp says, "We’re working on a huge project for an aviation company right now. They said they want everything state of the art, so we actually had to look around and rethink what ‘state of the art’ means right now, since we’ve come so far in just the last few years." 

Building management software can control energy usage down to the last empty electrical socket in today’s world. Automatic lighting controls can react to sunlight, dimming areas that do not need extra light, and can turn off lights in empty rooms. 

As technology advances, ECO is constantly turning more people on to sustainability and efficiency, putting wasted money and resources back into the pockets of every business, from local restaurants to manufacturing giants.

ECO Development is located at 123 East Main Street, Mason, OH 45040. For more information, call 513.336.0777 or visit Eco-ems.com.