34 · San Diego Business Journal
· April 29, 2002
Cost of Gas No Worry for Company of Telecommuters
Energy: Vista Firm Has No Physical Plant To Heat or Cool
BY RENE'E BEASLEY JONES
Staff Writer
VISTA - While San Diego gasoline prices averaged $1.65 or so last week, some
local employees didn't spend a penny commuting to work.
Medical Development Services, Inc. of Vista may be the first company of its kind,
said President Richard Hannah. The small firm employs only teleworkers. The company's
employees -- four on staff and two contract workers -- live in Vista, Mira Mesa, and Sunnyvale.
Although many companies use digital work forces, their workers generally commute to a central
location each day.
With MDS, no physical plant exists to heat or cool. Each employee -- including Hannah --
works from his or her home, making MDS a pioneer of the digital world, he said.
The MDS model intrigued Greg Newhouse, associate dean of advanced transportation technologies
at Miramar College. "From an energy perspective, it's a great idea and certainly can allow for
fewer air emissions", Newhouse said. Reducing congestion on roads is another
byproduct, he said.
With the exception of lab work, MDS performs technical tasks related to pharmaceutical and
medical devices.
Hannah declined to disclose the private company's earnings.
Before starting MDS, Hannah worked at Puritan-Bennett Corp. in Carlsbad, which
manufactures medical devices.
Since MDS opened in January 1994, it has earned the attention of business leaders in Canada,
England, Japan and Germany along with top U.S. government officials who explore ways to conserve energy.
The MDS idea came from talks with Hannah's friends and family about the need for society to
prepare for the tech age, Hannah said. Those discussions spilled over into Global Warming and curbing
energy consumption.
High energy costs have driven some companies to reduce work forces or close up shop.
"Rather than consolidating and eliminating jobs, we wanted to look for an alternative to employ
American people", Hannah said.
Scott Anders, program manager at the San Diego Regional Energy Office, said the MDS model
deserves some study.
"The concept has a lot of merit", Anders said. "We have to be careful to look at all the
comparisons."
There's no doubt telecommuting saves on transportation energy, he said.
"But people don't go into an energy vacuum. They're still consuming energy. Just because
you're not at work doesn't mean you're not consuming energy."
MDS' business model might be difficult to reproduce on a grand scale, Newhouse said. "But it
does provide a wonderful example."
Hannah said other small companies now are going all-digital like MDS.
"They are probably in the stage we were in about five or six years ago", he said.
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