BusinessTN

After 10 years as a marketing consultant, sustainability and environmental advocate Josh Womack shifted focus from branding to bringing alternative transportation to the mid-South. In 2008, the Franklin, Tenn., native created the comprehensive green lifestyle company, VerdeGoh!

VerdeGoh!, which specializes in electric cars, grew from a desire to counteract what Womack calls "the lack of progress we were making as a state on the commercial and private side." Since last summer, the dealership has offered three lines of low- and medium-speed electric vehicles, including ZENN, Tomberlin and HiLine, with 10-20 different models that simply plug in to standard outlets. The vehicles range in price from $6,500 to $20,000.

Womack intends for his company to work through partnerships to produce electric buses for domestic and international use, as well as provide engine conversion services from gas or diesel to electric. Plans also include possible joint ventures to install public charging stations.

But before VerdeGoh! or other companies like it can pursue more ambitious goals, there's still a need for the renewed interest in electric vehicles to result in practical legislation.

"Legislation on EV's is basically 10 years old," Womack says. There has, however, been some updating -- last summer, a new bill passed in some states, including Tennessee, that legalized medium-speed electric cars. This means "EV's can go 35 mph on roads with speed limits of 40, whereas low vehicles can only go 25 mph on roads marked 35," Womack says, widening the potential range of use.

For now, the growth of VerdeGoh!'s fledgling industry may depend on success with small government entities. Though Womack's company made an unsuccessful run at providing the city of Franklin with a new traffic enforcement vehicle, it's had more success just over the state line in the town of Abingdon, Va. Abingdon officials have made a $16,000 investment in one of VerdeGoh!'s ZENN cars.

The purchase is the first step in going electric with all the town's "errand vehicles" in an effort to "cut energy costs and reduce our carbon footprint," says Floyd Bailey, Abingdon's computer technology director. Used as the town's IT department hub car, the ZENN releases zero emissions while "commuting between buildings and locations in about a 10-mile radius, mostly for transporting personnel and some equipment," Bailey says.

With greater spending power than the average consumer, city councils like that of Abingdon wishing to invest in green technologies for new vehicles or fleets could prove crucial to small companies like Womack's. VerdeGoh!, however, has strategies beyond the four-wheeled kind. The company has an intellectual property division to consult companies in going green, and this past April even opened a General Store in Franklin's Westhaven Town Center. Billed as the Midsouth's first sustainability retail store, it sells items ranging from green building and remodeling products to organic foods. The store currently awaits application for the highest achievable status as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum project, awarded by the United States Green Buildings Council.

Like most endeavors in the alternative energy field, much of VerdeGoh!'s success will in part depend on the ability of the average consumer to stay focused and committed to green issues. Further drops in the price of oil or even a wavering in the government or consumer's attention span may put a dent in the business plan that not even a exclamation point can overcome.