Pioneering Cost-Saving Sustainability

After nearly half a century in business, Jackson Services is making a global impact.

Dale Jackson’s father and uncle started a LaGrange, Ga.-based refrigeration and cooling company that slowly transitioned into HVAC and today is playing an important role in helping businesses regulate their carbon footprint.

Jackson Services has nearly 100 employees and made $18 million in annual revenue in Georgia and Alabama in 2021. A significant portion of business comes from commercial HVAC work.

Jackson believes any discussion of helping companies work smarter, more efficiently and with climate concerns in mind, has to include HVAC contractors.

“We play a leading role in getting the globe to where it wants to go,” he says. “That’s what excites me. We’re now able to deliver the data that enables industries to make smart decisions.”

For example, one of Jackson Services’ biggest customers is carmaker Kia, which has a long-range plan for its carbon footprint.

“It’s great to say you have a plan,” Jackson says. “We are actually the ones here locally who are saying, ‘Here are the decisions you have to make.’ We help them set their budget for the next five, 10 years.”

Jackson is thrilled he gets to help reduce companies’ carbon footprint and promote sustainable products. Reducing climate change, he says, can be rewarding both personally and fiscally.

“Our clients really helped begin this discussion,” he says. “They asked how to lower their carbon footprint in an efficient way. And when you do things more efficiently, you’re also more profitable.”

Think of it this way, he says: “Nobody should be wasteful. That’s not a good trait. So what’s another word for not being wasteful? Sustainable.”

It’s all about using less energy to accomplish more, Jackson believes.

“That’s just good business practice,” he says. “In the industrial world, if you can be more efficient, you can be greener. And, you can make more money doing it.”

Jackson strives to teach all of his employees that each person in the company has a role in serving their clients by helping them be more sustainable. And that, in turn, makes them all better corporate citizens.

Dale Jackson recently joined ServiceTitan’s Jackie Aubel as part of Season 7 of the “Toolbox for the Trades” podcast, which included Jackson’s thoughts on:

• The benefits of a sustainable operating model.

• Why commercial HVAC is critical in the trades.

• Why lowering carbon footprint is cheaper than you think.

• The importance of training in real-world conditions.

• How technology can be a company’s bread and butter.

To hear more stories from the trades, subscribe to Toolbox for the Trades on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, our website, or anywhere you get podcasts.