About Utah: This Utah company's goal brings light to disasters

The Goal Zero force was able to quickly provide non-gas generators that powered up everything from cellphones to music speakers to refrigerators full of insulin for diabetics.

They walked up and down dark streets, noticed people huddled around candles, and greeted them with, "Need a light?"

"We couldn't help everybody," says Swan Workman, Robert's son, who spent three days in New York. "But we were able to affect a couple of hundred lives at least."

And counting. On its website, Goal Zero has reached out to its client base across the country, offering to donate one product to the Sandy relief program for every product bought by a consumer. The offer extends to Nov. 15.

As of the weekend, the total to match was well past $300,000.

The reciprocal benefit for Goal Zero is terrific advertising, of course. Word of how effective a simple solar-power kit can be is bound to spread.

Workman gets that.

"You can't do good and not receive good," he says.

It's that policy that powers his company, from top to bottom, and bottom to top.

Lee Benson's About Utah column runs Monday and Friday.

Email: benson@desnews.com