The Bartlett Area Chamber of Commerce (BACC) named Evergreen UV Founder and CEO David Skelton 2015’s Entrepreneur of the Year at a special event hosted on June 9.
Over the past 10 years, Skelton has turned an idea to improve the air quality and health of Bartlett-area residents into two growing businesses — Safe Air Solutions and Evergreen UV.
John Threadgill, BACC president says, “David Skelton is the epitome of a true entrepreneur who saw an opportunity within a specialized niche and carved out a market. The wonderful thing for David and the reason his passion is so strong is that his product actually helps make people’s lives better as well as the environment. You can’t get much better than that!”
Founded in 2005 in a spare bedroom after researching air quality issues in the Mid-South region, Safe Air Solutions markets and installs in-duct germicidal lamps, or ultraviolet, into industrial HVAC units.
Safe Air has grown to serve multiple businesses throughout, including the University of Memphis where the company installed 161 air handlers in 37 buildings on at the university’s main campus.
In 2012, Safe Air Solutions became a charter member of the Bartlett Chamber’s Team Green Zone initiative created to assist area businesses save money on implementing energy efficiency measures while also reducing their carbon footprint.
“Team Green Zone came about because many of our companies had expressed an interest in being more attentive to their environmental impact but even more about how to lower their energy consumption. Safe Air was one of the first to step forward as a Solution Provider for TGZ,” says Threadgill.
Just one year later, Skelton purchased a 52-year-old manufacturing company with a mission to vertically integrate Safe Air Solutions.
Today, Safe Air Solutions remains a stand-alone UVC installation and marketing company, installing products manufactured by its sister company, Evergreen UV.
Both companies have grown from a spare bedroom and mini-storage into a 15,000 – square-foot manufacturing facility with 14 combined employees.
Safe Air Solutions and its sister company have an international reach selling in such countries as Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Brazil and Hong Kong. Their products are endorsed by the CDC and United Nations Partners in Health.
Starting this month, Evergreen UV, LLC will begin an HVAC energy efficiency project on nine college campuses in Kentucky, and will install a hospital in Puerto Rico later this summer.
