In early November, I flew from Chicago to Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, to attend Green Home Solutions’ annual conference. As an outsider, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the clean air and mold remediation service brand’s convention. I’d been to plenty of client conferences before, so I surmised the three-day event would have a similar structure to what I was accustomed to. What I didn’t expect, however, was the amount of insight I’d gain into the innovative brand’s vision and people.
As a public relations professional who works with Green Home Solutions to gain media coverage for its franchisees in their local markets, I was familiar with the brand's franchise model and service offering on the surface level. In between the usual networking and social events, though, I was given a much more in-depth look into Green Home Solutions expertise in the field of mold remediation and heard from key members of the leadership team about the brand’s vision for the future.
Green Home Solutions founder and Chief Culture Officer Russ Weldon has a knack for capitalizing on emerging industries. Believing the wireless industry was about to blow up, Weldon founded The Car Phone Store, the brand that eventually became Wireless Zone, in 1988. At the time he sold Wireless Zone in 2012, the band was generating $500 million in annual revenue. Following this immense business success, Weldon’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to found Green Home Solutions in the emerging environmental products and services industry in 2014.
In the years since its founding, Green Home Solutions has grown to more than 170 units across the nation, bringing its life-changing proprietary services to myriad residential and commercial clients, including those in the home industry and functional medicine. The brand has built a strong base of passionate franchisees who have done amazing work to grow their businesses into successful enterprises thanks to a shared commitment to brand vision. As a testament to Weldon’s vision and cohesive business model, Green Home Solutions sold 30 new territories with 70% of those units purchased by existing franchisees.
As Weldon passionately spoke about where he hopes Green Home Solutions is headed, his excitement was contagious. This was particularly evident as he announced the brand’s partnership with Habitat For Humanity, a national brand with name recognition akin to Starbucks, he said. His sentiment was echoed among other members of the brand’s leadership team as well.
“We view our new partnership with Habitat as a company turning point,” Chief Development Officer Glen Snyder said. “Applying our services to theirs will help make these newly built homes safer, which matters a lot to us. Our $50,000 donation was just the start of this unique and advantageous long-term relationship.”
Another large part of why Green Home Solutions has been so successful in such a short time, I realized as the conference continued, is due to its commitment to innovating its science-backed service offering. So much so, in fact, that it employs a Chief Science Officer, David Bloom. Bloom is responsible for developing the brand’s protocols and procedures for its proprietary method of mold and bacteria remediation, keeping every practice and product EPA-certified and providing ongoing technical support to franchisees.
As Green Home Solutions continues establishing itself in the health vertical, Bloom is leading the company's efforts to further expand its service offering and business opportunities for franchisees through the development of more cost-effective products for franchisees to use such as an in-house peroxide and of the most interest to me, a furniture wipe capable of mold remediation.
Elsewhere on its innovative agenda for the year ahead, Green Home Solutions announced plans to roll out a new team within the company called True Enviro, responsible for responding to national disasters and assisting franchisees in those specific markets. The impetus for the team came after a franchisee in Houston was met with tremendous need after Hurricane Harvey, compelling the brand to create a plan of action for when the next disaster strikes. Weldon said he sees the formation of the response team as an excellent way to make Green Home Solutions as a leading provider of relief in the aftermath of natural disasters.
Franchisees and corporate team members all left Green Home Solutions’ conference with renewed motivation to make a difference in the new year. Between the brand’s emerging position as a leader in the indoor air quality industry to its ongoing efforts to give back, I was left floored by the brand’s mission-guided business plan and the efforts Green Home Solutions has taken to corner the industry in the year ahead.