Shades of Green

Shades of Green

A onetime designer of $4,000 suits and his partner, a

beachfront homes Realtor, are turning green for a new business venture. They hope to turn some greenbacks, too.

homebuilding by Mark Gordon | Managing Editor

Halfway through 2007, Peter Laughlin decided to put his luxury real estate sales career in the background to give the trend of the day a shot: Going green.

To some developers and builders, albeit a shrinking number, the green trend in construction is a fad and an expensive one at that. But to others, going green remains the next "big thing" in homebuilding.

Laughlin is hoping to be part of the latter group with Ecotechnologies, a Sarasota-based company specializing in providing architects, engineers and homebuilders - as well as the occasional individual homeowner - with the latest in energy conservation products for any type of construction, from office parks to mansions. The company has clients from Tampa to Naples, as well as a few on Florida's east coast.

Laughlin, founder of Sarasota-based Laughlin Luxury Lifestyles, runs Ecotechnologies with Andrew Tanner, who is also his son-in-law. Tanner, a London native, sold a $12 million high-end handmade Italian clothing business in New York City in 2003 so he could move to Sarasota, where he founded Ecotechnologies.

Tanner initially intended to build homes in Sarasota using a slew of energy conservation materials, products and concepts. But he balked at that plan when the new homes construction market soured. He instead decided to focus on selling the green revolution to others.

"I like the idea of getting business out of it," says Tanner, of the going green concept. "But [going green] is something that has to be done."

Ecotechnologies had $3 million in 2007 revenues, double its $1.5 million in 2006 revenues. Tanner and Laughlin are projecting even more growth in the next few years, including passing $5 million in annual revenues by 2010. They are hoping the state's new rules for building products, to be released next year, will serve as a catalyst for more sales.

"With the new Florida builder's code, there will be a large demand for our products," says Laughlin. "We see this as a large growing market."

New technology

Tanner and Laughlin have broken down the market, and their company, into four subsections: solar power, building insulation, water conservation and air purification.

The solar power unit, EcoSolar, has been the biggest driver of sales, even though that's the company's most competitive market. The company supplies the materials and installation for solar water heaters and solar pool heaters for homes and businesses.

Laughlin says the company's hot water systems, while more expensive than other types of water heaters, will lower an average electric bill by 25%. Most of the company's solar heating systems pay for themselves in electric conservation savings in three to five years, says Laughlin. The payback on solar pool heaters can be as soon as two years, adds Tanner.

But the company is really pinning its solar hopes on a new technology called photovoltaic solar electricity. It's a system that can convert sunlight directly into electricity by being built into the roof like an adhesive. It's then fed through a meter to the utility grid, where the photovoltaic array controls energy use down to the watt.

Tanner says the photovoltaic solar systems can beat the savings on standard solar panels by as much as 15%, while still providing the same amount of power for light and air conditioning. And since the systems are essentially placed on the roof like wallpaper, they aren't the eyesores that solar panels can sometimes be. The systems are also nearly as wind-resistant as the roof itself, no small feature in hurricane-prone Florida.

Of course technology like that, Tanner and Laughlin concede, can be expensive at the front end. "The initial costs might be more expensive," says Laughlin, "but your operating costs are reduced."

The give and take between product cost and market success permeates the company's other three units. For example, the company's building insulation division, EcoInsulate, focuses on a relatively new and sometimes costly construction component known as soy-based foam insulation.

During construction, the foam is sprayed through a building's envelope, the space that separates the interior parts from the exterior parts. The foam expands 100 times its original size to conform and fill the voids in the construction - a big source of potential energy loss.

Tanner says the company's soy-based foam insulation products, which are made mostly from soybean oil, can cut a building's utility bills by as much as 35%.

The company's other two units, EcoWater and EcoAir, are built around the same principle: Even though energy conservation could be more costly in the beginning, it's both a cost-saver and a good move for the environment in the long run. Says Laughlin: "Our approach has always been to find new ways to bring energy costs down."

Gang green

Laughlin and Tanner's approach has also been about building successful businesses. In Laughlin's case, he did that mostly through real estate. A native of Trinidad, Laughlin moved to Miami in 1979 and opened a consulting firm for American companies looking to do business in the Caribbean and South America.

Laughlin moved to Sarasota in 1989 and shortly after that he opened Laughlin Luxury Lifestyles, a realty firm that focused on high-end condos and beachfront homes. That company spawned another business, Triangle Construction, which built spec waterfront homes in the $3 million to $10 million price range.

While Laughlin Luxury Lifestyles and Triangle Construction are still active entities, Laughlin has consolidated those operations into Ecotechnologies' offices. He sold the downtown Sarasota building that housed the realty company last year.

Tanner, meanwhile, comes to Ecotechnologies with a background in clothing design. His company was run out of a 4,000-square-foot showroom in New York's fashion district, where his wares included $4,000 suits. He was looking to be closer to family when he relocated to Sarasota in 2003.

Now, in addition to attempting to grow sales, an anecdotal sign that Laughlin and Tanner might to be on to something occurred recently, when Laughlin heard from a panicked Fort Lauderdale-based developer building a 180-plus home project in the Bahamas. The caller was getting close to a site plan deadline and was in need of a potential sales boost.

"The owner said he needed to go green," says Laughlin. "But he didn't know what green was."

Some might look at that as proof positive that green building is indeed a fad, but not Laughlin or Tanner.

"We don't work with anybody that considers it a fad," says Tanner. "People make a decision to work with us because they see it as a sound financial judgment."

Nonetheless, the company picked a tough time to hit the market, creating a homebuilding business during the industry's most severe downturn in decades. "That's definitely a problem," he says.

REVIEW SUMMARY

Businesses. Ecotechnologies, Sarasota

Industry. Homebuilding

Key. Company hopes to capitalize on the interest in green building through a slew of energy conservation products.