Global Cooling LLC

Changing the way the world cools...

The ability to adapt your business model to suit the changing needs of the market is as fundamental to entrepreneurship as producing a high-quality product or developing a successful marketing plan. Global Cooling LLC, an Athens, Ohio-based manufacturer of energy-efficient cooling products, has, in its nearly fifteen year history, been able to successfully adapt in order to compete. With the help of business assistance from Ohio Third Frontier’s entrepreneurial signature program, TechGROWTH Ohio, and a $1 million grant from Ohio Third Frontier, Global Cooling is now set to launch its premier product, a highly-efficient, portable -80° Celsius commercial cooler, the first of its kind.

When Global Cooling LLC got its start in 1995, in part with a grant from Greenpeace, the company was primarily involved in patenting and licensing commercial cooling technology that would help to slowdown the depletion of the ozone layer.  But as concerns about the viability of the ozone became part of a wider environmental movement for energy-efficiency and sustainability, and as it became clear to founders David Berchowitz and Dale Kiikka that there was room to grow in commercial cooling’s manufacturing sector, the company adapted its mission.  In 2008 the company shifted to developing and building their own line of products, using technology known as a free piston Stirling cooler.

“While the central innovation of Stirling technology has been around for a very long time,” Kiikka explains, “achieving efficiencies in both energy and costs for important applications with strong market potential has been the challenge for many years.”

Berchowitz, Kiikka, and their small team aimed to create a new kind of commercial cooler, which would carve out a niche in the quarter billion dollar -80° Celsius cooling market.  To compete, they wanted to build a cooler that was not only lightweight, portable, and competitively priced, but also held true to the environmentally-friendly tenets of Global Cooling’s original mission.  The result of their work is truly a breakthrough product, an easily movable -80° Celsius cooler which can reduce electric costs and carbon dioxide emissions by 60 to 80 percent.  Using $500 to $1000 less electric power per year than existing coolers, it is unlike anything else currently available. 

“At the moment, we are marketing to professionals in the bio and life sciences, those who, for example, work in stem cells, fertility research, or with other biological specimens,” says Neill Lane, Global Cooling’s president and long-time board member. “With our product, researchers will be able transport samples from lab to lab, with a level of ease that didn’t exist before.  At the same time they will be helping to reduce their impact on the environment, an important concern for any business today.

While the shift to development and manufacturing has helped to prepare the company for the future, the changes have also necessitated adaptations to Global Cooling’s business structure.  To assist with these issues, Global Cooling enlisted the help of TechGROWTH Ohio and its team of small-business experts.  Global Cooling has since received the full range of TechGROWTH assistance.  At no cost to the company, small business advisors assisted the company in honing their business strategy.  TechGROWTH also funded several expert consultants on the senior administrative and executive levels to assist in product focus, human resources decisions, grant applications, and other key areas.  TechGROWTH's assistance and strengthened internal capacities resulted in the award of a $1 million Third Frontier grant in December 2008.  GC will use grant resources to improve and expand its facility for locally-based manufacturing.  Approximately seventy-five new jobs will result.

Kiikka credits TechGROWTH Ohio with helping to push Global Cooling to the next level.  “The services and support from TechGROWTH Ohio were crucial to our success in winning this important grant,” he says, “I’d encourage every new or young company in the region to contact these folks and see how they can also benefit from what TechGROWTH has to offer.” 

With new office and factory space, and its premier product set to launch, Global Cooling has room to grow.  “We are most excited to be a burgeoning business, particularly in this economic climate,” Lane adds.  “Where we were once a group of ten to fifteen inventors and licensors, we are looking to grow to about 100 employees, all based out of our Athens facility and office.  It really wouldn’t have been possible without the entrepreneurial assistance of TechGROWTH Ohio.”

The possibilities for Global Cooling’s breakthrough technology go beyond portable commercial cooling.  They are currently working on developing a range of commercial coolers, both portable and full size, but in the future they would like to tap into the home cooling product market.  Home refrigeration, cooling applications, and the growing area of electronics cooling are all potential areas for growth.