Building Better Infrastructure

How a family-owned specialty equipment provider tripled business while prioritizing employees and environment

In the competitive market of specialized infrastructure equipment, Environmental Products Group (EPG) has established itself as a dominant force across the southeastern United States. Operating in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and southern Ohio, the company has carved out a distinctive niche supplying essential municipal equipment.

“We sell best-in-class products in spaces such as vacuum trucks, street sweepers, garbage trucks, and other supporting products for municipalities and contractors,” explains Christopher Haase, CEO and co-owner of EPG. The company’s equipment forms the backbone of critical infrastructure maintenance, with applications ranging from routine street cleaning to post-disaster recovery operations.

What distinguishes EPG in the market is its balanced customer approach. “It’s about a 50-50 split between private contractors and municipalities,” notes Chris Vanderhof, President and co-owner. “Our business initially focused on municipalities because they were the primary buyers of our specialized equipment. But contractor growth has steadily increased over the past six to eight years.” This diversification has proven strategic, particularly as private sector demand for infrastructure maintenance continues to rise.

The company’s equipment played a crucial role during recent Florida hurricane recovery efforts. Haase recounts how EPG deployed specialized vehicles during the aftermath: “When Fort Myers and Sanibel were devastated by hurricanes, we sent street sweepers and sewer cleaners by barge to reinstate their storm and sewer systems. The sand from storm surges had completely filled the pipes, and residents needed basic sanitary conditions restored.” Such emergency response capabilities highlight the essential nature of EPG’s equipment portfolio in maintaining and restoring critical infrastructure systems across the region.

Building a “Hero” Culture in Workforce Development

Founded in 2001 as a family enterprise, EPG has maintained its familial ethos even as it has expanded. The company’s workforce philosophy centers on creating an environment where employees feel valued and respected, a crucial approach during an era of widespread labor shortages across skilled trades.

“We started EPG as a family-based business. My father established the company, making me a second-generation owner. My brother-in-law works with us, as does Chris’s son as a part-time employee,” explains Haase. “When you consider that we spend more time with our work family than our personal families throughout the week, creating a supportive network becomes essential.”

The company’s innovative “Hero Program” directly addresses the skilled trades gap that has widened since the 1970s, when vocational career paths began losing cultural prestige. “Our operational staff, parts team, mechanics, service writers, shop foremen, and service managers are truly the heroes of our business,” Vanderhof emphasizes. “They possess specialized skills that have been declining over decades due to the misperception that not attending college somehow indicates underachievement.”

The program celebrates these skilled professionals through dedicated “hero walls” across EPG facilities, showcasing employees’ specialized certifications in diesel services, electrical systems, hydraulics, and pneumatics. This recognition approach aligns with growing national efforts to revitalize trade education, as manufacturing and infrastructure sectors continue reporting critical shortfalls in qualified personnel.

EPG extends its workforce development upstream through partnerships with local high schools, offering internships that introduce students to various aspects of the business. “Last summer we had high school students rotating through our shop, parts department, sales team, and marketing department,” notes Haase. “We’re already seeing increased interest for this year’s program.”

Advancing Technology for Environmental Protection

For EPG, innovation covers more than mechanical improvements, encompassing environmental protection and infrastructure preservation. The company’s equipment portfolio indicates growing municipal and federal priorities around sustainable infrastructure management, particularly as aging water and road systems face increasing stress.

“Our manufacturers partner with chassis companies that have been mandated by the federal government to produce clean idle trucks,” Haase explains. “This reduces exhaust particulates entering our delicate ecosystems, especially the waterways throughout Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and the arterial systems feeding into the Mississippi.” These cleaner vehicles align with tightening EPA emissions standards for commercial vehicles, which have progressively reduced allowable particulate matter by over 98% since the 1980s.

The company’s advanced sewer inspection technologies represent another innovation frontier. “Our sewer inspection cameras function like remote control cars with GoPro-style camera heads,” says Haase. “These crawlers move through sewer pipes, inspecting joints and lateral connections from homes and businesses.” The resulting data allows operators to identify and address infrastructure issues before catastrophic failures occur through a proactive approach that saves municipalities significant remediation costs.

This technology-forward stance addresses a critical national challenge. The American Society of Civil Engineers consistently rates America’s wastewater infrastructure in the “D” range, with an estimated $271 billion needed for system improvements over the next decade.

Vanderhof emphasizes that innovation at EPG is more than just equipment specifications. “Innovation happens with your business mindset and company vision,” he notes. “We’re focused daily on innovating our business to provide better customer experiences through our systems, data utilization, employee development, and product offerings. It’s more of an innovation movement in our industry than just product innovation.”

From Paper Files to Sustainable Business Systems

EPG’s sustainability initiatives include comprehensive digital transformation, a shift that has simultaneously improved operational efficiency and reduced environmental impact. “Ten years ago, everything in our business was printed  and thick manila folders with sticky notes and handwritten notes covering the paperwork,” Haase recalls. “Since late 2016, we’ve transitioned away from being a paper-based company to utilizing digital platforms for our enterprise systems.”

The company’s digital ecosystem now integrates enterprise resource planning (ERP) with customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities in a comprehensive platform. “Our enterprise system manages our sales, rentals, finance, and operational teams within a single ecosystem,” explains Haase. “Everything is 100% digital, from our fleet profiles for new, used, rental and demonstration equipment, to customer-owned units.”

This integrated approach allows EPG leadership to monitor business operations regardless of location. According to recent McKinsey research, companies with highly integrated digital platforms demonstrate 20-30% higher productivity and up to 25% greater profitability than industry peers using siloed systems.

Vanderhof emphasizes that their digital transformation strategy differs from many peers in the equipment dealership sector. “Many dealerships have been doing the same things for 30 years,” he notes. “We’re always exploring different approaches using innovative products, whether that’s business intelligence tools, CRM programs, or ERP systems. We give our employees the tools to make good decisions and empower them to act independently.”

Expanding Products and Partnerships

EPG’s remarkable trajectory since the pandemic illustrates the company’s strategic agility and market foresight. At a time when many equipment providers faced supply chain challenges, EPG engineered a period of extraordinary expansion, leveraging both core capabilities and new market opportunities.

“Our business has actually tripled since the pandemic,” Haase states. This growth rate significantly outpaced the heavy equipment industry’s average compound annual growth rate of 4-6% during the same period, positioning EPG as an outlier in its sector. The company attributes this success to strategic relationships across multiple fronts.

“We’ve been fortunate to have loyal customers, suppliers, and financial partners,” explains Haase. “Our financial partnerships with major institutions like PNC Bank, South State Bank, and Wells Fargo allow us to make independent business decisions.” Such banking relationships have proven crucial during recent equipment financing challenges, as interest rate increases have impacted traditional municipal and contractor purchasing models.

The company’s supplier relationships form another pillar of its expansion strategy. “Our core group of suppliers includes Vactor Manufacturing for sewer cleaners, Elgin Street Sweeper, TRUVAC Hydro Excavators, and Envirosight Sewer Cameras,” notes Haase. “These partnerships have remained constant and unwavering as we’ve grown in both volume and geographic coverage.”

A significant catalyst for EPG’s rapid growth came through strategic product line expansion. “The refuse industry was something we took on about three years ago, which contributed substantially to our tripled growth,” Vanderhof explains. “It wasn’t an unfamiliar segment to us, and the timing was right. We became a major dealer overnight, acquiring distribution rights across four states for Labrie Environmental Group products.”

Adaptability and Deep Roots for Future Success

In an industry where technological change intersects with evolving municipal priorities, EPG’s leadership emphasizes adaptability and continuous learning as foundational principles. “When you stop learning, you become stale,” Haase asserts. “Chris and I are both part of best practice groups of second and third-generation business leaders. We’re constantly exchanging ideas, articles, and observations.”

Vanderhof emphasizes that learning occurs across hierarchical boundaries. “Learning isn’t one-directional. You can learn from people in various positions who may have more subject knowledge than you do, regardless of title or role,” he notes. “Being open to learning from every situation and individual makes you more effective at mentoring others and providing good direction.”

Looking ahead, EPG plans to consolidate recent expansion rather than pursue additional territory. “We’ve grown substantially and now want to ensure we’re delivering on our promises,” Haase explains. “We’re focusing on stability and balancing our market presence to ensure our roots grow deep rather than shallow, allowing us to weather any economic storm.”

Vanderhof reinforces this measured approach: “Growth isn’t linear. We won’t keep stacking pieces simply because growth becomes addictive. We’re focused on supporting our existing territories and honoring commitments to our suppliers, customers, and most importantly, our team of 140 employees, or rather, 140 families depending on our decisions.”

In a specialized equipment sector increasingly shaped by technological advancement and sustainability requirements, EPG’s blend of family values, technological innovation, and strategic restraint positions the company for continued success well beyond the southeast region it now dominates.

AT A GLANCE

Who: Environmental Products Group (EPG)

What: Premier supplier of specialized municipal infrastructure equipment including vacuum trucks, street sweepers, garbage trucks, and sewer maintenance vehicles

Where: Florida and other locations in the US and Caribbean

Website: www.myepg.com