Nora Member Spotlight: Future Environmental

How long has your company been in the industry? What have been the major milestones in the growth of your business?

In May 2016 Future Environmental celebrated its 20th year in business. It has been a whirlwind of growth but Steve Lempera, President of Future can still remember when he custom built his first two trucks. The year was 1995, Steve and one other truck headed out early in the morning. It was business as usual since he has been in the petroleum industry since 1979. His goal was to have a total of 8 trucks, but within the first 5 years his vision had grown. He added two more route trucks, purchased his first semi tanker, a vacuum truck, and a box truck. Quickly realizing he had out grown his 2 bay industrial rental garage Steve founded our corporate office also in Mokena, Illinois.

Future has achieved many mentionable milestones from starting oil filter recycling in the Midwest, purchasing smaller companies and integrating them into our successful collection company, as well as building our fleet to over 450 pieces of equipment. But most impressive is the development of our Industrial division. We are proud to be one of the few full service environmental companies servicing the entire Midwest area. We pride ourselves on our meticulously kept equipment, our commitment to our customers needs as well as the quality of our workmanship. All of our employees are required to go through extensive training, back ground testing and we are pre-audited through several different companies such as ISNetworld, NCMS and Browz to name a few.

What services/products do you provide?

Our primary service is the collection and recycling of used oil along with the collection of used antifreeze and oil filter recycling. We are an OSRO Emergency Response company on call 24 hours/365 days a year.

Future’s Oil Division currently runs 32 oil collection trucks, 35 semis, four 12,000 gal Michigan tankers, and 9 box trucks that also pick up non-hazardous drums and service parts washers. Our Vac Division is made up of 11 vacuum trucks, 5 semi-vac tankers, and 2 semi hyvac combo units. The Industrial Division has an array of specialty equipment that includes Super Sucker trucks, Turbo Vacs, Hydro-Excavating trucks for day lighting utilities, tank spinners, high pressure water blasters for cleaning, door sheet cutters, excavators, dozers, state of the art filtration units, and vapor scrubbers.

All of our divisions work seamlessly together to provide our customers with the best one stop full solution to their environmental needs knowing that we work within all federal guidelines. One example is our ability to provide the equipment and team of trained professionals to clean some of the largest crude oil tanks, as well as respond to crude oil spill cleanup on land and water.

Where does your company provide service?

Future Environmental has offices and services customers in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma.

We have worked alongside many pipeline companies all around Illinois as far out as North Dakota, to Texas, and through Ohio.

Why are you a NORA member? How do you see NORA helping you build your business?

I have been an active member with NORA for over 18 years. NORA is an influential way to network within our industry and establish relationships across the country. Jim Tietz, our Vice President or I try to attend all of the meetings as we know we can count on NORA to provide us with the most up to date regulations to help keep us compliant in our industry.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities you see facing the industry over the next five years?

One of the biggest challenges industry-wide that we all have been facing is the volatility of the oil market. It has become harder to establish a pattern or direction of the market. It has proven difficult to maintain outlets for moving product because of the constantly changing landscape of the economy, the oil market, and the stricter regulations. Being able to stay on top of all business aspects including newly imposed regulations by the government and trucking industry make it a challenge to keep a business profitable.