2009 Small Business of the Year Finalist: Sunbelt Environmental Services Inc.

The recession makes this a challenging time for most small businesses, and Springfield-based Sunbelt Environmental Services Inc. has faced its share of hurdles.

The company, led by CEO Leroy Schaefer, lost a part-owner with the April 2008 death of Neal Calton, vice president of engineering.

Increased media and public attention on the environment has pushed competition to a new level, and industry regulations change often. Sunbelt, like many businesses, also has grappled with higher costs of doing business, not the least of which has been gas prices. To that end, the company has retrofitted two of its drill rig engines to burn vegetable oil. Beyond the gas savings, there also are environmental benefits. "It's been a real good investment as well as a marketing tool," Schaefer said.

Schaefer and his wife, Karen, who is president, started the company in 1986, working out of their basement. Managing growth has been an ongoing challenge. Schaefer said the company has operated out of five locations, but he noted that Sunbelt's 10,000-square-foot facility at 621 N. Prince Lane offers growing room. Since 1986, Sunbelt has removed more than 1,000 leaky petroleum storage tanks and cleaned up the soil and groundwater as needed, and employees have responded to more than 2,000 emergency chemical incidents. Its latest service - added in 2004 - is the installation of geothermal well fields for ground-source heating. Schaefer credits his wife with pushing the business in that new direction.

"She saw this sustainable environmental initiative, where you're not continuing to use up resources like coal and oil," he said. "Ground source only provides 1 percent of the nation's heating and cooling, but I can really see ... it providing 10 (percent) to 20 percent."

The company posted 2008 revenues of $2.9 million.