A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
L.E. Baskow / Pamplin Media Group
ECO-ENTREPRENEUR — A stint working at Ford of Europe, where the printers overflowed with superfluous pages, got Hayden Hamilton thinking, then acting. The result: GreenPrint’s application, which detects the unnecessary pages in a print job and alerts users.
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We expect a lot from computers, but sometimes they deliver things we don’t want, like pleas from Nigerian diplomats, offers for discounted hair loss products and that extra page or two of gobbledygook that often comes out when we print.
Most people just shrug off the problem, but for Hayden Hamilton those excess pages represent an unnecessary waste of money, waste of paper and an opportunity to create entrepreneurial software. Hamilton’s concern led to his just-launched company, GreenPrint.
The concept for GreenPrint emerged when Hamilton, 29, a Hillsdale native, was consulting at Ford of Europe. He says he discovered in Ford’s office “10 print stations with two or three printers each, overflowing with orphaned pages.”
He already had been thinking about paper waste while on a fellowship to study ecotourism in Southeast Asia in 2000 (he has an MBA from Oxford University), where quality paper was scarce.
After some typical startup challenges, Hamilton is now receiving calls from Portland businesses thanking him for bringing recognition to the local green sector.
GreenPrint’s launch in November garnered an unexpected amount of national press as well, including a coveted review by Walt Mosser in the Wall Street Journal and praise on CNBC.
Hamilton, a Wilson High School graduate from the class of ‘95, said his largest hurdle has been reaching the home market and convincing individuals that they too can have an impact on the environment by reducing home waste.
Expertise in paperless realm
The scarcity of access to quality health care had been Hamilton’s cause before he turned his attention to overflowing office printers. In 2004, he founded ProgressiveRx.com, offering prescription drugs on the Web at 80 percent to 90 percent below U.S. retail prices through an office in Bangalore, India. The next year he founded the nonprofit Progressive Health Worldwide, which works to supply medical supplies and technology to African agencies. Hamilton’s father Robert, a member of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association, now serves as the director of that company.
About a year ago, Hamilton began working with friend James Kellerman, whom he had met at Ford, to acquire investors and develop a beta version of GreenPrint. Hamilton said he credits his grandmother, a strong advocate of the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations, as the source of his green conscience. (The Sierra Club is now judging GreenPrint for a green technologies award.)
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