Elizabeth Gregg's first business, Environmental Service Laboratories, started out in 1988 with two people in an Indiana County business incubator. Now she employs about 80 people between her two businesses, both located in Indiana.
Environmental Service Laboratories started out testing samples for the oil and gas industries. Gregg says that market was promising because new regulations strongly recommended that companies test water sources in the areas where they drilled. It has since expanded to test samples of water, soil, food, and other materials.
About a year ago the business began testing toys and other products targeted at children up to the age of 12. And that comprises a huge market. “That's Happy Meal toys,” Gregg says. “That's glasses they give away at McDonald's.” Echoing the reason that the oil and gas market was ripe for new business in the 1980s, she says new standards from the Consumer Product Safety Commission opened up plenty of opportunity for labs equipped to handle testing for a range of safety concerns.
Drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation has also been fortuitous for the lab business. It opened up two new offices, one in Williamsport and one in the southwest PA town of Van Voorhis. “We knew the oil and gas industry,” Gregg says. “We know the regulations.”
Her other business, Environmental Land Surveying and Solutions, has evolved to provide much more than land surveying. Much of its business comes from project engineering and helping clients secure necessary permits for their development projects, she says.
Source: Elizabeth Gregg, Environmental Service Laboratories / Environmental Land Surveying and Solutions
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen