Best Green Businesses

Lighting the Way

Beacon Products is an established 25-year-old Manatee County lighting company, but few locals know that it’s now a leader in designing, patenting and manufacturing energy-saving lighting for the outdoors.

Beacon’s LED (light-emitting diode) lights and architectural fixtures replace energy-hog lamps along city streets and college campuses all around the country. Locally you can find Beacon’s lights at Citrus Square on Orange Avenue in Sarasota, along Boulevard of the Arts and Cocoanut Avenue, and inside the sconces at Sarasota’s Selby Public Library.

Founded by Michael Imparato in 1984 and then purchased by another lighting entrepreneur, Perry Romano, in 2001, Beacon was acquired last year by major lighting company Hubbell Inc. as a separate division. Romano is now vice president and general manager, overseeing 55 people in a 55,000-square-foot facility, and Imparato is vice president of sales and marketing.

Romano, who jumped on the LED technology three years ago, says, “I saw that energy savings became a tremendous opportunity. We could produce lights that save people energy and money.”  LEDs, computer chips that produce light, can cut energy costs up to 75 percent in addition to providing a better quality light. Because they’re so long-lasting, LEDs require far less maintenance and replacement, rivaling the savings in energy costs.

Beacon’s business was down 20 percent last year, but Imparato says many other companies in this competitive industry have suffered 50 percent to 60 percent declines. The future is bright, he says, because the world is outlawing incandescents, and “We’re the pointy end of the spear in LED technology.”

Guilt-free Fuel

For two years, Dusty Swartz, founder of bioDiesel2go, has been crusading to convince owners of diesel vehicles to switch to biodiesel, an alternative fuel that primarily utilizes used cooking oil. Biodiesel costs the same as regular diesel; it’s nontoxic and biodegradable and can be used in existing diesel engines with no mechanical modifications.

So far Swartz has been pulling a 500-gallon trailer from client to client to fuel their vehicles on site. He’s sold about 30,000 gallons to date. Ted Sparling of Gulf & Bay Constructors in Sarasota is a typical client; he bought 2,000 gallons of the fuel for his company truck at no more cost than regular diesel and, Sparling says, at a lower cost to his conscience.