Helping Thai companies be green
A KEY road to success these days is by helping companies become as green as possible because with global warming being a grave threat to ecology this vital effort is good for their public image and along with it their earnings.
This is exactly what Richard Cohen, who is well-known in Koh Samui and Phuket real estate markets, and his partner Narin Apichairuk are doing by setting up their company, Rayport Energy Solutions, to market two very interesting products from US.
One of them is an air-conditioner additive called Cold-Plus which has been working in US for eight years now and typically reduces air-conditioner electricity expenses by 10-30%.
“As air-conditioners are normally 50-60% of electricity bills, this can make a very large impact on a company’s costs.
“And the best thing about this is that Cold-Plus is cheap! The payback of the investment is normally about 18-24 months, unlike solar panels for example, which typically pay back an investment in more like seven years,” Mr Cohen said.
The other product is Airlite which is a coating applied like paint to buildings and was named one of the top 50 most innovative products by Time magazine in 2014.
It does two things with one being reflecting the sun’s rays and keeping the building it has been applied to much cooler and the second is that it also actually cleans the air in the buildings where it is painted
“In fact one square meter of Airlite cleans the air as well as a full grown tree. To me this is a miracle and aside from cleaning up air pollution it can help people who have any sorts of breathing issues.
“In addition, germs, molds, bacteria, and so forth are not able to grow on Airlite,” Mr Cohen added.
Rayport recently completed a pilot test of Cold-Plus at Makro Hypermart and Anantara Vacation Club and will be performing such tests at a number of other big concerns such as Holiday Inn and Hilton hotels plus TMB Bank and Kasikorn Bank.
“The main focus of most of these companies is Cold-Plus and I tell you why, the reason is Cold-Plus is very inexpensive.
“Now in Europe Airlite sells particularly well for interiors because cleaning the air is great for the employees who work there and the customers.
“So for instance banks are using this a lot. People walk into the bank and they don’t realize it but they are breathing much fresher air and the employees are breathing much fresher air.”
This is particularly important in light of the prevalence of the sick building syndrome and the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease a few years ago.
“There is one group of buyers for this product in Asia who will be using it for the interior and that would be hospitals.”
Mr Cohen said he and his partner Mr Narin have been marketing these two products in both Thailand and Malaysia and have been successful in both countries.
“We have found that a few years ago most big companies said that they care about saving energy and being socially responsible when it comes to pollution, but this was just something that they put on their websites and maybe they wrote a check once a year to a charity for a photo op.
“Now, we are finding that most big companies have an entire department focused on this and they are all very excited when we tell them about our products.”
CAPTIONS:
TOP: Mr Cohen says big companies here are now truly keen on saving energy
INSET: Cans of Cold Plus air-conditioner additive which helps reduce power bills.
By Nina Suebsukcharoen
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