core sector communique

Lighting the Way: College Students Help Businesses Go Green

By Lauren Monsen

Staff Writer

Washington - Babson College students Dinesh Wadhwani and Enrico Palmerino saw a light-bulb ad that emphasized environmentalism and got a bright idea: Start a company that creates energy-saving lighting systems, and sell potential clients on the service by stressing bottom-line savings instead of the environmental benefits.

In 2009, Wadhwani and Palmerino founded ThinkLite, a Boston-based enterprise that indeed saves businesses money through customized lighting solutions. Clients don't put money up front; they simply sign a contract with ThinkLite and pay for new lighting systems later, with the money they eventually save after the systems are installed. ThinkLite uses retrofitted lighting systems rather than new fixtures, so customers save even more.

According to Wadhwani, ThinkLite helps clients save up to 90 percent on total lighting consumption and maintenance expenditures. ThinkLite is growing. "Last year, we started expansion in other cities in the U.S., as well as in other countries," Wadhwani said.

He credits Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, for encouraging business students like him to be creative: "Babson has educated me on the two different ways one could make a living: a) conforming to a standard, or b) being a pioneer of innovation."

His advice to aspiring business owners? "Meet as many people as you can in any new environment you go to. The single largest asset of any business is the people behind it, and the people who help you expand and grow the business. Learn as much as possible from as many and as different people as possible."

He said he follows his own mentors' advice by obsessing about opportunities while not thinking too much about his personal resource restrictions. "That is the thought process for creating real value, and identifying real solutions to real problems. Everything else will follow."

For more information about ThinkLite, visit the company's website ( http://rethinkrelite.com/ ).

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. )