Charter Environmental, Inc. President Named SBA's Massachusetts 2008 Small Business Person of the Year

Boston - Robert Delhome, president of Wilmington, Massachusetts-based Charter Environmental, Inc. started his business in 1997 with 2 employees and $300 in seed capital.  Now, eleven years later, Delhome is the 2008 U.S. Small Business Administration’s Massachusetts Small Business Person of the year.

The Small Business Person of the Year award is presented annually to a small business person or persons who exemplify excellence in entrepreneurship.  Robert Delhome was judged on seven basic criteria: staying power, growth in number of employees, increase in sales/and or unit volume, current and past financial reports, innovativeness of product or service, response to adversity, and evidence of contributions to community-oriented projects.   Eva Marie D’Antuono, small business deputy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, nominated Delhome for this award.

Delhome, a graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy worked for environmental contractors for several years before deciding to branch out on his own.  Charter Environmental is a civil and environmental contractor that specializes in servicing the needs of consultants/engineers, contractors, private sector clients and government agencies.

Faced with the challenge of being a smaller, undercapitalized firm competing against much larger businesses in the highly regulated environmental industry, Charter has been able to differentiate itself from the marketplace by delivering successful solutions to challenging environmental problems. 

Born in Panama, Delhome was able to utilize the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program, intended to help socially and economically disadvantaged businesses compete in the federal procurement marketplace.  The 8(a) program helped give Delhome’s company the boost it needed to be successful in this competitive field.

Charter is committed to practicing good corporate citizenship to improve the quality of life in local communities.  As a member of the Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership, Charter contributed services to the Mill Creek Restoration Project, a collaborative, community-based effort to restore biological value to severely degraded estuarine wetlands in Chelsea, Massachusetts.  Charter assisted in the re-grading of the salt marsh to eliminate invasive plants and remove sediment buildup on the marsh as part of this project.

From Charter’s modest beginning as a two employee shop in the spare bedroom of his home, Robert Delhome has grown his business into a $30 million a year operation with over 100 employees.