Harold Green- From Building Roads to Building a Sustainable Future (#92)

Bio

Harold Green

CEO and Ecopreneur

Mr. Green is a lifelong entrepreneur focused on developing and investing in cutting edge business solutions that embrace technology as a means to improve the performance and longevity of products or services. With youthful zeal and a lifelong creative talent to seek out new and existing challenges, Harold’s business interests have evolved from the traditional asphalt paving services started in 1976 (Chamberlain Contractors) to current day activities that include the development and manufacture of Foam Stabilizing Base at Global Resource Recyclers, Inc. and Global Emissionairy, LLC.

Show Notes

• Started Chamberlain Contractors in the mid 1970s and wanted to differentiate his company from others (5:50)
• His creation of Foam Stabilizing Base manufactering in 2006 set him on the path to become aware of carbon emission reduction and the opportunity (6:30)
• Cap and Trade was being discussed and he saw it as an opportunity
• Created first transportation based recycling and carbon credit opportunity (8:00)
• Verified Carbon Units (8:30)

Origins

• Always an entrepreneur as a child- maintained tennis courts, deveined shrimp in Plainfield, NJ (8:50)
• Dad was a successful entrepreneur yet died when he was 16 yrs. old (9:30)
• Boarding School- Choate Rosemary Hall School (10:20)
• College never happened- Started at George Washington University (10:45)
• Came to DC and got an apartment

Becoming an Entrepreneur- Chamberlain Contractors

• Paved parking lot at McDonalds on New York Ave. in DC (11:00)
  • Met a senior executive at 21 yrs. old and got a 26 lot assignment from McDonalds in the region (11:30)
• 1980 came along and he was burned by an SBA loan being called (12:20)
  • Decided not to use debt after that (12:45)
• Incorporated in 1976 as Chamberlain Contractors (13:15)
• Worked with developers and property managers on commercial and residential properties (14:00)
• Not interested in top line volume (14:30)
• Founded Global Resource Recycling to recycle asphalt and reuse them (15:15)
• Challenges- equity to start business (16:00)
  • Never took a paycheck in first 7 years of business (16:30)
  • Built his business from scratch
• Reinvested everything back into the business (18:00)
• Paid back $500K loan in 1980 by hard work and discipline and stay within his means (18:30)
• Bought first milling machine in 1984 and paid it back in 6 weeks with one huge job (20:40)
• Equipment all self funded with income from business (21:30)
• Built business to 60 employees in 1987 when he got married (22:15)
  • Called "The Boy" by his customers (23:20)
  • "Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance" (23:45)
• Teach people how to work onsite and understand the details (24:30)
• Quality control on site- be there and be conversational with clients (25:00)
• Component parts of business (25:30)
• Set up an Advisory Committee in 1981 to help him manage his business (27:00)
• Referrals were his major source of new business (27:45)
  • Mailer of a Yield sign and a Stop sign (28:30)
• Industrial parks and a regional mall
• High security government projects (29:30)
• Profitability- Wanted to be on the job for one to four days (30:10)
• Built up 3 months of cash flow during the busiest times of the year from June until November and self financed the down times (31:15)
• Only needed line of credit two or three times a year (32:00)
• Started a concrete company to supply jobs when he was stood up by a concrete company (33:30)
• Began bidding on Federal Business- Hamilton Pacific Chamberlain (35:10)
  • Learned about IDIQ for Government work
  • 150-200 people on payroll (33:45)
  • Work for DOD and Army Corps of Engineers (36:00)
• Natural progression of who he is- the more you give the more you receive (36:45)
• Challenging projects- Every job has "hair on it" (37:15)
  • Design it to be on budget and efficient (37:45)
  • Same sense of urgency
• Never tossed off a job (39:00)
• Warranty work repairs is the best way to establish and reinforce a relationship (39:20)
• Considered "vital" during the pandemic (40:10)
• Getting parts for equipment was the biggest challenge during the pandemic (40:20)
• Manpower more of a challenge now to get materials on time (41:00)
• Does warranty work in March every year to catch up on jobs that need work (42:30)
• Did one shopping center for "petromat fabric" at Montpelier Shopping Center in Laurel (43:40)
  • 3 Year Warranty with "fabric" paving
  • Gary Rappaport purchased it afterward (44:30)
• Most work in the DC, MD and VA- 85% (45:45)
• Different technical needs in different geographies (46:50)
  • Much different abouts of base materials and specifications (47:40)
• Sale of Chamberlain Contractors and Global Resource Recyclers (49:40)
  • Divorced his wife in 2018 and business partner in 2021 (49:50)
  • Had a fall and needed to have surgery (50:20)
  • Hired advisors to sell business (51:15)
  • Purchaser is Pave America (52:00)

Global Emissionary

• Growing Global Emissionary is his new emphasis (54:30)
  • "The Wild West" (54:45)
  • Selling carbon emissions
  • Started in 2012 (55:15)
  • Hired a group of Professional Engineers and IT developers (55:20)
  • Created first transportation process of emissions recapture (55:40)
  • Discusses a solar panel business analogy, which is different than his business (56:00)
  • Detailed steps of evaluation of the process (57:00)
  • Foam stabilizing base is an alternative to asphalt which is recycled asphalt and is remixed with water and other compounds-slate grey compound and its 70 degrees, not 300+ degrees of asphalt (57:50)
  • Created methodology to compare the benchmark hot mix and the foam is the carbon emission reduction that is part of the Project Description (1:00:00)
  • Goes to VERRA- An international verification carbon emissions firm (1:01:15)
    • Findings report is the due diligence of the process (1:02:15)
    • Issue VCU- Verified Carbon Units (1:03:00)
  • Working with two exchanges (1:03:15)
  • These credits are created with a man made process and not reliant on nature (i.e. tree planting or other agricultural processes) (1:03:30)
  • Market is very new in carbon credits so translating to agricultural and nature based efforts (1:07:30)
  • Company will have 15-20 people to produce 30-50 Project Descriptions per year (1:08:45)
    • 75 tons of recycling asphalt product
    • Considerable science in creating this business of carbon emission measurement
    • 10 year annuity
  • From 2023 to 2040 the business will grow dramatically- 100X or more (1:11:00)
  • Elon Musk with Tesla made the most money selling carbon credits to GM and Chrysler (1:11:20)
  • All business need to document carbon emissions (1:12:15)
  • Voluntarily purchase of carbon credits (1:13:00)

Comparison to John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

• Reference to Titan about John D. Rockefeller (1:13:45)
  • Obsessive work ethic- (1:14:20)
  • Ruthless tactics- Not his philosophy...kindness is important (1:14:30)
  • Forward Thinking (1:15:00)
  • Embrace Innovation- Progression of innovative process (1:15:10)
  • Talent Scout- Surrounds himself with good people (1:15:30)
  • Long Term Orientation- Younger colleagues (1:15:50)
  • Disciplined Capital Allocation (1:16:30)
  • Always been an environmentalist (1:17:00)

Lessons and Philosophy

• Lessons to Young Professionals (1:18:00)
  • Find the passion to work and where (1:18:20)
  • See that it has a future (1:18:45)
  • How can you bring your talents to differentiate yourself to be successful
  • Start in business as soon as you can (1:19:15)
  • Update strategies for business every three years (1:19:45)
  • Budget is a discipline (1:20:00)
  • Advisory Board- Lawyer, Accountant, Insurance Agent and 3 outside people (1:21:00)
• In Carbon Emissions business there are:
  • Issues of compliance (1:22:10)
  • Carbon Exchange companies (1:22:20)
  • Evolution near the beginning (1:22:45)
• Influences
  • Father gave him his work ethic (1:23:40)
  • Advisory Board's advice was great (1:23:50)
  • Customers are great influences- his youth at the time was his asset when he was young (1:24:15)
• Reference to the "Multidisciplinary Approach to Thinking" (1:25:00)
• The Executive Committee- A group of business owners and leaders to expand thinking about managing businesses (1:27:30)
• Need to expand horizons on how they see their business
• Wins- Chamberlain Contractors and relationships (1:30:10)
• Losses- Transitioning through difficult times in 1980 (1:30:30)
• Surprises- Second marriage has been surprisingly good (1:32:15)

Travel

• Community activities-
  • Travel is passion- over 120 countries he's been, his home is a museum of artifacts from all his countries (1:32:45)
    • Len Forkas story
    • Lives with people in the country with a guide (1:36:20)
    • Story about a Russian immigrant friend about buying items in the US having choice (1:38:30)
    • Story about Vietnamese school- walk 3+ hours to go to school (1:39:30)
      • Built an outhouse- a loo for $200 for the school (1:41:40)

Life Priorities and Advice

• Life priorities
  • Unfortunately had difficult relationships with his first wife and his children (1:43:30)
  • Work and his family life is now balanced as it wasn't that way before and he has personally grown (1:44:20)
• Advice to 25 yr. old self- Feels like he's had a good life. If you see something, take advantage of it! (1:45:00)
  • Considered going back to college from business experience (1:45:40)
• Billboard Statement- "What you put into life you get rewarded many times over and the joy of life"
• Harold Green's contact information: [email protected] (until 12/31/23)

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