Future Energy Solutions expects to double employment

A Fort Lauderdale company is growing fast nationally and overseas with an unusual approach to energy-saving lighting systems for parking lots and warehouses.

Future Energy Solutions offers customers upgrades to more energy-efficient lights with no upfront investment and long-term contracts.

Last year, to handle growing business, the firm tripled the size of its headquarters and hired more than 40 people across the United States and in London. This year, it plans to double employment to top 150 people worldwide, CEO Daniel Gold said.

That includes jobs at a new office in Australia that serves as its Asia-Pacific headquarters.

Begun in 2009 as a fixture-maker, the firm's unique concept developed from "failure, not success," Gold said.

He had watched his father-in-law pitch energy-efficient lighting to businesses and get few takers. Many executives said they loved the idea of slashing their company's electric bills but didn't want to invest money upfront and wondered what lights would be best anyway.

So Gold came up with this: His company basically lends the customer a new lighting system for 15 years at no upfront cost. It designs, installs, owns and operates the system. And the customer agrees to pay an annual fee for 15 years, with that cash coming out of their energy savings.

Savings often run 50 percent to 75 percent on electricity bills and on system maintenance, he said.

Gas stations, shopping malls, schools and hospitals are among the takers. And Gold now strives to work with operators with multiple locales, so that his company can grow together with its customers.

The Florida Automobile Dealers Association has seen such good results in parking lots for some members that it recently gave an endorsement to Gold's Future Energy Solutions, its only endorsement in the lighting industry and one of only a handful for all businesses, president Ted Smith said.

Go here to see the original:
Future Energy Solutions expects to double employment