This is our story. Where a mission to create healthy and safe indoor environments started with a team of 2 working from a Louisville, Kentucky basement. With $30,000, passion, grit, and hard work, Kyle Hoylman and Jeff Sims established Protect Environmental.
A lot has changed in the 15 years of Protect Environmental. We have grown since 2005 to a $35 million company with more than 200 employees now providing our professional radon testing and mitigation services in all 50 states and 2 U.S. territories. In honor of wrapping up our 15th year providing expert service from trusted professionals, this is our story of how we got here. And to quote The Grateful Dead in their song Truckin “What a long, strange trip it’s been.”
Where It All Began
Kyle Hoylman was working in the real estate business having started a data mining company specializing in real estate listings operating from 1991-2003(?). Hoylman had never heard of radon before a seemingly random conversation over dinner with a science professor. Intrigued, Hoylman went to work researching radon gas.
In testing his childhood home, he was shocked to find radon gas levels of 83 pCi/L on the main level. This result was way above the EPA action level of 4.0 pCi/L. Within months after this discovery, Hoylman’s father was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer as a healthy and active never-smoker. Hoylman was also diagnosed with cancer within a couple months of his father’s diagnosis.
The radon mitigation business model was always more than just a way to make money, it was a way to save lives. With the tragic loss of his father in 2009 and his own battle with cancer, the fight against radon became personal.
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Kyle Hoylman
Jeff Sims came from a background in car sales and had years of experience in customer service, management, and business. Sims had also never heard of radon gas before he was approached by Hoylman to take on this business venture together.
The company was founded in 2005 by Jeff Sims and Kyle Hoylman where the two worked out of Sims’s basement in Louisville, Kentucky. “We were unfamiliar with the radon industry and decided to take a leap of faith to start a radon mitigation company and expand as we learned.” said Sims.
Uncharted Territory
Originally, Protect Environmental started as a home inspection company before pivoting to become one of the first companies to specialize in radon mitigation in the Louisville, Kentucky market.
The radon industry in 2005 was still new and widely unknown. Therefore, there was not a lot of research or information out there to guide them. Sims and Hoylman decided to roll up their sleeves and try their hand in this open and evolving industry, to be key players in shaping it from Kentucky and beyond.
Breaking Ground
The first job Protect Environmental completed in 2005 took place at a residential home in Louisville, Kentucky. In those early years, Kyle and Jeff completed the installations themselves, and continued to do so until the first crew was hired.
The team of two eventually grew to add Sims’s sister and Hoylman’s partner, Jennifer Sims, as the receptionist and office manager. Today, Jennifer leads the company’s consulting department as the Director of Consulting. The original mitigation team was a three-man crew. Two of the three crew members, Doug Webster and Greg Turner, are still with the company today.
"Protect Environmental is truly a family and it is overwhelming to think how much we have grown as a team and learned about this industry over the years.”
- Doug Webster, Residential Project Manager
After working in Sims’ basement for about 6 months, the team moved to their first office located on Shepherdsville Road – a family-owned property that Hoylman and Sims were allowed to use until they got on their feet.
The company remained at this office for about 8 years until they relocated to their current headquarters on Bluegrass Parkway in Louisville, Kentucky. Business was booming after just three years of building the company name and spreading awareness in the Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky markets. The crew grew from three men to about 15 in just a few short years.
Our Family Values
From the beginning, Jeff and Kyle have established strong core values that have carried Protect Environmental to success over the years. It has grown into a strong and successful company, made up of great, hard-working people. To be a part of Team Green is to be a part of a family. Despite any ups and downs along the way, the team at Protect Environmental has persevered together toward the mission to create healthy, safe, and sustainable indoor environments in Kentucky and beyond.
Our core values of Expert, Professional, Trustworthy, Healthy Sense of Urgency, Customer Focused, and Flexible are what push us as a team to provide expert service from trusted professionals for our clients’ peace of mind protection every day.
Expert
We are the experts in radon and chemical vapor intrusion risk and liability management. We never stop learning and asking questions to push ourselves and the industry to provide better service to stakeholders. We are focused on the future by looking proactively toward what’s next in technology, best practices, and the anticipation of consumer needs.
PROFESSIONAL
We provide peace of mind protection to our clients through a results-driven approach built with integrity at every step of the way. We are a hardworking team who delivers on quality and follows through on our commitments. After all, we are in the business of saving lives, and our work reflects the level of care that our clients deserve.
tRUSTWORTHY
We are open and transparent about our capabilities, services, and pricing because our customers deserve an honest and ethical partner. Our integrity and customer-centric values will lead our moral compass to always do what is best for our clients, even if it means that we do not provide the service.
hEALTHY SENSE OF URGENCY
For our clients’ peace of mind protection, we attentively listen to their needs and then get working to resolve their issues or concerns as quickly as possible and within reason. In each case, we aim to communicate openly with our client to set realistic expectations, while at the same time working to efficiently mitigate their risk.
CUSTOMER FOCUSED
We are qualified, certified, and the leading experts in the industry, although our professionalism goes beyond our skills or certifications. Our expertise, knowledge, professionalism, and customer-centric model are the cornerstones of maintaining our industry-leading position.
FLEXIBLE
Our expertise empowers us to be flexible and enables us to grow and adjust to the needs of our clients. We must be ready at all times to embrace a new challenge and remain adaptable to our customers’ needs. Being flexible translates to our company culture as a whole, in the way we work together to overcome challenges.
These core values are the foundation on which Protect Environmental was built and is what pushes our team toward excellence in all that we do. The familial culture established by our founders permeates the workplace in the ways we interact as a team and extends to how we serve our clients.
"Helping to build and be a part of a company like this – one that takes customer service seriously, cares enough to do things the right way, appreciates its employees, and most importantly, helps to keep people healthy and safe – is something I am very proud of.”
- Jennifer Sims, Director of Consulting
A Mission to Save Lives
Protect Environmental takes seriously its mission to spread awareness of and protect against the dangers of radioactive radon gas exposure in the places we live, work, and learn.
Giving back has always been a big part of the culture here at Protect Environmental. Our team actively supports and participates in events that support lung cancer advocacy, research, and fundraising for the benefit of lung cancer prevention, treatment, survivorship, and awareness efforts.
Lung Cancer Awareness – Prevention, Treatment, and Survivorship
How to Support Lung Cancer Awareness & Amplify the Radon Message
Leah Phillips’ Lung Cancer Survivor Story
Chasity Harney’s Lung Cancer Survivor Story
Lindi Campbell’s Lung Cancer Survivor Story
Over the years Protect Environmental has maintained a strong social presence within the environmental industry. With the Fight for Air Climb, Butterfly Benefit, as well as many other environmental outreach events, the company helps to carry out its mission to raise awareness about the dangers of radon gas exposure and save lives by creating healthy and safe indoor environments.
15 Years of Protect Environmental
Protect Environmental, over the course of 15 years, has developed into a well-known, and trusted company throughout Kentucky as well as nationally. It has by no means been easy, but all that has been accomplished over the years is more than enough to be proud of.
Looking Ahead
Today, in 2021, Protect Environmental closes out its 15th year of creating healthy, safe, and clean indoor environments by announcing its acquisition by Rockbridge Growth Equity and the accomplishment of completing projects in all 50 U.S. states and 2 U.S. territories – both of which are exciting milestones for the company. Today, Protect Environmental is established as a national leader in the radon and vapor intrusion mitigation industries with over 200 employees and 5 office locations across the United States.
As the radon and vapor intrusion industries move toward rapid growth, Protect Environmental’s recent acquisition by Rockbridge Growth Equity positions the company toward national consolidation. We are looking forward to an exciting time of national growth to see our mission to create healthy, safe, and sustainable indoor environments expand across the United States.
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- Kyle Hoylman
As radon awareness continues to spread, the need for accessible professional radon services will become more and more prevalent.
With its recent acquisition the company has grown from around 30 employees to 200 in just a few short months. Protect Environmental’s headquarters remain in Louisville, Kentucky with multiple locations scheduled to open across the country.
Fifteen years have flown by for the once small company. Throughout all the changes, accomplishments, and milestones, it has only made the team here at Protect Environmental stronger together.
“It is amazing how far hard work and integrity will take you when you have nothing, in order to succeed and accomplish what you believe in.”
- Jeff Sims, Co-Founder and Partner
