September 2008
Going Green With Infrared
By Andrea McGovern

The colors on this infrared camera show if a building is leaking heat, has proper insulation, or if there are hot spots in electrical wiring. Mike Giardini, owner of Infrared Inspection Technologies in Mentor, is checking the building of one of his clients, Jennifer and Co. Photo by Rick McPeak

One evening 18 months ago, Mark Giardini was doing something he did frequently – surfing the Internet for ideas. What he saw sparked a concept in Giardini’s entrepreneurial brain. Infrared technology, which has been long used by the military for surveillance purposes and by fire departments to locate hot spots in buildings, could be useful in fighting rising energy costs.

After 28 years in energy management in large commercial buildings, Giardini was interested in beginning a part-time business that would eventually lead to a second career when he retires from the large engineering firm where he has been employed for much of his career.

“Mark has a lot of ideas,” said his wife Joan, who is business manager of the couple’s start-up business, Infrared Inspection Technologies, which they currently operate from their Mentor home. “This one really grabbed me when he told me about it.”

Within a year, the Giardinis had developed a business plan, created a Web site and marketing strategy, purchased and been trained on the use of an infrared camera, and begun helping area homeowners discover those energy leaks that cost an increasing number of dollars as energy costs rise.

“All the things I do are trying to reduce energy costs,” Giardini said. “With infrared you can look at a building envelope and see exactly where energy is being lost.” He said when a building is losing heat, even the best heating and cooling system will not be efficient.

The convergence of concern over both the cost of energy and the effects of climate change are creating new jobs and revitalizing old ones in the “green sector,” that part of the economy that promotes efficient use of energy, reduction of pollution and the use of renewable sources of power.

It’s getting easier to be green and there’s opportunity there, according to a report published in June by the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The report cited Ohio as a state well-situated to re-invigorate its troubled manufacturing sector by playing a central role in creating a future green economy.

The report was commissioned in partnership with the Sierra Club, United Steelworkers, Blue-Green Alliance, Center for American Progress and Green for All, as well as the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The report proposes that nearly a half-million jobs could see growth or wage increases by putting green solutions to work. Workers will be needed to develop a new economy based on more efficient use of energy resources. They include sheet-metal workers, workers in the building trades, machinists, truck drivers and engineers, among others.

According to the report, a green economy does not displace traditional jobs; it creates new opportunities for a wide array of workers across many traditional disciplines. The report cites Ohio’s abundance of trained carpenters, electricians, operations managers, machinists, welders and industrial truck drivers, and says the state is well suited to play a major role in the task of creating the green economy.

Infrared Inspection Technologies’ Giardini is taking one path toward a future green career by using his established skills in the energy and environmental management industry to create a service business that will uncover areas where energy is lost in both residential and commercial buildings. He projects hiring additional technicians in his inspection business as early as the upcoming heating season.

An offshoot of the company’s infrared studies will be the potential employment of plumbers, electricians, carpenters and other workers who will correct the energy leaks that are found.

Lake County understands manufacturing economy

The favorable industrial climate of Northeast Ohio, and Lake County in particular, enticed Brian Boley and his partners to situate their start-up business, Onward Coatings Co., on Tyler Boulevard in Mentor.

Boley, who previously was in business in Columbus, said this area was more welcoming to new manufacturing than the service-driven economy in the state capitol.

Boley had his own “Aha!” moment in 2002 when he read a brief article in a trade magazine on PVD coating. He and his father, company cofounder Robert Boley, had an automotive wheel business in Columbus and were aware of problems in traditional chrome plating: poor durability, high cost and a polluting process.

“Traditional plating uses hexavalent chromium in a dipping process,” he said. “This chemical is one of the top five listed by OSHA as dangerous to humans. The world is looking for a viable alternative for the plating process.”

Boley said there are 7 million chrome wheels sold on the aftermarket each year, and 5-6 million sold as original equipment.

“Every one of them goes bad,” he said. “This technology solves that problem. Our goal was to achieve the same look as chrome, without the pollution and other problems. This coating does not pit or delaminate. It’s less expensive than any chrome plating in North America and half the cost of chrome plating from China.”

He said the proprietary process the company uses is a safe, affordable technology based on physical vapor deposition.

Onward Coatings began operations in January of this year.

“This will be a 600,000-wheel-per-year facility,” Boley said. “Right now it is an R&D/production facility. From 9 to 5 it is production. From 5 to midnight we do R&D. We are still in very low volume production. We have to understand the process.”

When fully operational, within 24 months, Boley expects to employ 100 workers in the Mentor facility. He is now talking with a number of auto manufacturers.

“We plan to become a Tier 2 part manufacturer for them, applying the finishes to wheels and other parts that have traditionally been chrome,” he said.

Besides wheels, chrome finishing is used on exterior trim, under-hood components, headlight assemblies and also items for the plumbing industry. Onward Coatings is developing prototypes for all these products.

“We plan to grow both in Mentor and across the U.S.,” Boley said.

Pollution control isn’t new to Northeast Ohio

Mike Neundorfer formed Willoughby’s Neundorfer Inc. 35 years ago with the mission of improving electrostatic precipitator performance.

“The Clean Air Act had been out for a couple of years,” Neundorfer said. “Lake Erie was dead. There was a lot of consciousness about pollution.”

He said after working summers at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, he had developed an interest in the environment. Even considering the concern that was in the air in a region with a polluted Great Lake and a river that caught on fire, Neundorfer said he sees a lot more interest in the environment now.

Neundorfer works with coal-fired power plants, steel mills, paper plants and concrete plants to help reduce dust (particulate emissions). The company both manufactures and upgrades precipitators, the equipment that removes the dust particles from the factories’ emissions. They do a large consulting and software business related to precipitator equipment.

Although the skills of Neundorfer’s team of more than 50 engineers, scientists, computer experts and technicians would be valued around the globe, the company works strictly in North America, a testament to its sustainability ethic.

“We depend heavily on personal service for our customers,” he said.

This necessitates a significant amount of travel for staff members.

“We had to impose some self limits. This business is fun, for me and for a lot of others here. It wouldn’t be fun for us to be away from our families for six weeks at a time. We decided to keep it here, to keep it local,” he said.

Neundorfer sees the economic opportunity in the green movement to be “huge.”

“The future has to be a more comprehensive look at energy and how it affects the environment. This will structurally change business, the nation and its economics,” he said.

He sees the current energy crisis as an opportunity for the country to take a leadership role in managing energy.

“Our brightest appreciate this opportunity,” he said. “Industry is taking a lead. The economic reality is a tough one, but we have the capability in the U.S. Look at what we did during World War II. We came from nothing to being the huge power that saved Europe.”

Neundorfer knows one of the concerns people have about pollution and global warming is the growing environmental effect of the developing countries.

“They are growing so fast,” he said. “But there is a tremendous awareness in those countries. If the technological solutions were there for them, and we can create those solutions, my view is that both China and India would quickly follow our lead.”

Neundorfer believes that employment opportunities will grow as energy prices become more stable and predictable at a higher level.

“When the economic, political and public awareness all converge there will be an explosion of economic opportunity in clean and efficient technology,” he said. “That will justify more investment in the technology and the industries. It is starting, but it must be economically driven.”

Andrea McGovern is a Mentor freelance writer.