Parker Grissom wants people to get healthy and go green.

An exercise science major at University of North Carolina Wilmington set to graduate in the spring, Grissom started Renewable Recreation earlier this year with the dual aims of helping people meet health goals as well as helping gym owners go green.

“I pursued exercise science because I have been a high level athlete my whole life including baseball, basketball, soccer, football and golf in high school and ultimate Frisbee at UNCW. I saw exercise science as a way to help as many people as possible with my life,” he said.

Grissom started working for SportsArt Fitness, a cardio equipment company, last June after it introduced its ECO-POWR line. The upright and recumbent bikes, ellipticals and bikes contain a microinverter, which allows the machines to invert the energy the user makes back into the grid.

“You pedal on the bike, and you plug it into the wall,” Grissom said, “and that energy goes straight from your legs into the outlet, and it’s used by the lights immediately to offset your energy bill.”

Parker is helping Adam Boesel sell SportsArt equipment. Parker is an independent contractor who earns a commission on sales of SportsArt equipment through the Green Microgym.

Renewable Recreation LLC marries two of Grissom’s passions: exercise and clean energy.

“I really like green energy because I see it as the solution to multiple global issues,” he said.

The company is focused on helping gym owners make their businesses more energy efficient.

“The LLC portion has commissioned relationships with SportsArt Fitness, solar panel companies and four small-scale wind turbine companies from the Netherlands, Australia, France and Spain,” Grissom said.

The combination of energy-capturing workout equipment and renewable systems such as solar and wind are intended to cut down on a client gym’s overall energy usage.

SportsArt Fitness is its green exercise equipment provider.

The wind turbines are being sourced from small companies just getting started.

“2016 is the pilot year for a lot of them. We’re trying to get some of them sent over here so we can test out different locations with the wind turbines,” Grissom said.

Renewable Recreation is paired with two Wilmington-based solar panel companies and has a potential relationship with SunEdison, Grissom said.

When going into a different city, the goal will be to support the local economy as much as possible while trying to help gym owners in going green, he said.

“The model of Renewable Recreation is to go to a city like Charlotte or Raleigh or Asheville and put a bid out to the local solar panel provider and see who can give us the best deal on solar panels,” Grissom said. “So that’s the game plan.

That’s what we want to do. Then if nobody can give us a good deal, then we’ll go with SunEdison.”

Green equipment isn’t any more expensive than typical gym equipment, he said.

“This equipment is the same price as dirty [non-green] equipment. So it makes transitioning very easy,” Grissom said.

Each gym has unique needs that he works to tailor a plan for.

“We create a custom plan for each gym to go green,” he said, adding that a gym owner can choose to install wind turbines or solar panels or green exercise equipment first.

To move forward with the company, Grissom plans to go to an incubator in Charlotte in January called CLT Joules that focuses on energy startups.

“They’re going to help me get a board of advisers and a connection to Duke Energy,” he said.

Grissom also envisions a nonprofit component to Renewable Recreation fueled by art created by Grissom and five other artists. He said he’s currently looking for a venue.

The hope is that side of the company will eventually fund gym memberships to help those dealing with obesity and sedentary lifestyles, Grissom said.

Getting that part of his plan underway has been hampered by not yet having a host gym.

“It will be an application process. We bring them in for an interview and explain the whole project. So we’re still  attempting to pilot that,” he said. “We’ll definitely have funding for that in January [after CLT Joules], but we need a good host gym, which we haven’t been able to secure.”

Gym memberships for those chosen will remain free as long as they continue to meet certain goals.

“They just have to hit the specified energy goals – they have to produce a certain amount of energy – that correlate with health goals,” Grissom said. “Their personal trainer or the health professional will make sure that the health goals match the energy goals and that it’s realistic.”

They’ll keep a tally of energy and health goals by using an app called EcoFit slated to be released in January by Hipwood Digital. Until then, users of the equipment have been taking photos of the energy summaries at the end of their workouts.

“Each piece of equipment has energy summaries at the end of the workout. We take pictures of that, document it and put it in an Excel spreadsheet, which is what we’re doing currently at UNCW,” Grissom said.

UNCW Board of Trustees member Michael Drummond donated a recumbent bike from SportsArt Fitness that’s now at the school’s rec center, Grissom said. Students do energy competitions using the equipment.

He said that two bikes also were donated by Ron Vetter, dean of UNCW’s graduate school, and Charles Hardy, dean of UNCW’s College of Health and Human Services. One bike is located in McNeill Hall, and the other will be accompanying Grissom to Charlotte to CLT Joules as a demonstration bike.

UNCW’s isn’t the only student recreation center Grissom wants to update. He’d like to have all of the rec centers in the UNC system go green.

“I’ve started building the connections to get all the UNC school system rec centers to have green equipment by 2020,” he said. “The goal is starting simple.”