Apadana, which specializes in commercial, industrial and retail lighting applications, resides at the intersection of doing good and doing well. Technically, it sits on Nevada Avenue in Golden Valley, MN. But with a mission that goes beyond a bottom line, sustainability is just as important as profitability at Apadana.
Ahmad Kian and Ehssan Taghizadeh are not sales people by training. With careers seeded in engineering, product innovation and operations, they were looking for an opportunity to deliver a product or service that sells itself. Armed with the knowledge that converting traditional lighting to LED lighting reduces energy consumption, maintenance cost and mercury use, Kian and Taghizadeh joined forces to start Apadana in September, 2013.
Like all entrepreneurs, they had a goal of creating a financially successful company, but they knew they also wanted to give back to a society that had given them so much.
“We want to be responsible citizens of our community and do our share to minimize our environmental impact, while still making an honest living,” Kian says. “We have worked very hard to focus not only on creating a sustainable product, but also delivering affordable products with a very high return on investment.”
Kian describes how much of the fluorescent tubes and light bulbs in use today contain mercury. At Apadana, their goal is to decommission these devices and send them through responsible recycling to ensure that hazardous waste isn’t going back into the environment. The company has safeguarded the proper recycling of thousands of mercury-filled lamps and replaced them with sustainable LED lights. They have even talked with potential customers, asking that even if they choose to not use the company’s services, they still allow Apadana to properly recycle their old, unsafe devices.
But Apadana is not only focused on correcting the past; they are shining a bright light on the importance of solar power to the future of our world and will continue to invest in these renewable initiatives.
“We anticipate in the next three years that we will be the third largest solar supplier in Minnesota,” Kian says. “We have already been able to reduce carbon footprint by 70-80 percent through lighting upgrades, but the use of solar power will completely eliminate the reliance on fossil fuels.”
According to Kian, being good stewards of the environment is a no-brainer.
“Customers win, suppliers win, the environment wins and our children win,” he says. “It’s not just my partner and I—everyone who works at Apadana wakes up every day with that very same mission in mind.”
Learn more about Apadana and the benefit of using sustainable lighting options.