BOSTON. With sales doubling the last two years, Needham-based BigBelly Solar is not just an example of an upstanding green company — it’s a blue ribbon blueprint for a profitable product that is healing the Earth.
Three years after Boston became the first major city to receive the company’s solar-powered trash compactors in 2006, Philadelphia made the largest order ever of 500 units and has since ordered 220 more. Reducing the need for both labor and energy, the units will save Philly $13 million over 10 years by cutting weekly pickups from 17 to five.
BigBelly’s new COO, Barry Fougere, said this is a model that can work in every major and minor city worldwide.
“That’s our objective: Ubiquity,” Fougere joked.
“We’re doing more information technology to allow customers to know what’s going on in their network so they’re not sending people out to pick up trash that doesn’t need to be picked up.”
