Energy Frugality makes Good Business!

by Bruce Mulliken
Author, activist, statesman, inventor Benjamin Franklin famously said, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Kilowatts weren’t yet conceived in his day but the experimenter in electricity certainly would have quipped, “Kilowatts saved are pennies earned.”

Somehow I think the man who believed in frugality would have been a vocal proponent of energy efficiency. Today, saving energy and using it more efficiently is not just virtuous, it’s good business. In an economy struggling to get traction, spending less on energy can mean the difference between business failure and staying in it. A penny spent on energy savings can shift a negative number on the balance sheet into the positive column.

For an individual a switch to a more fuel efficient car or truck will make an immediate and noticeable difference in cash outflows. But adding more efficient lighting or beefing up insulation in a home will be barely noticeable on the monthly utility bill. (Rest assured; the savings will be there and evident in the long run.)

However, for a business, energy efficiency measures of all kinds will stand out when the bill comes due. When dozens, hundreds or thousands of light fixtures are changed to more efficient ones the effect on the bottom line will be immediate. Further, calculating the dollars and cents difference between the efficiency investment and long term energy savings can give a business a long term bill of health.

(Maybe as I write, this automakers General Motors and Chrysler are running around switching light bulbs to compact fluorescents in order to cut costs.)

Energy efficiency is not only a good business practice, it’s also a good business to be in.
While much of the economy is cutting back to survive, Massachusetts-based Conservation Services Group (CSG), which provides energy saving strategies, program design, management services and renewable energy technologies to consumers and businesses, is bucking the sorry national trend.

In celebrating the start of its 25th year in business the company is expecting its best year yet. Revenues are expected to top $80 million in 2009. In the past four years alone revenues have increased 77 percent, from $35 million to $62 million.

An increase in revenues also means a steady increase in employment. Since its founding in 1984 CSG has had an average annual job growth of 27 percent. The company now has offices in 14 locations and 400 employees nationwide. New contracts for CSG are still coming in, ranging from a residential home energy improvement program in the Carolinas, to energy efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) programs in Southern California. The company has done business in 22 states overall.

When other businesses are slimming down CSG is expanding. The company operates three call centers – Fall River, Massachusetts, Portland,Oregon,and Victorville, California – that support energy conservation programs nationwide. In the past year, requests for services have grown by 105 percent. To meet the demand, the company’s main call center, in Fall River, is scheduled for expansion later this year. The Victorville office is moving to a larger space in the spring to accommodate additional staffers. CSG will be opening a new call center in Nashville, Tennessee to support programs in the ever expanding Southeast region.

Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Ian Bowles, said of CSG, "For a quarter of a century, CSG has helped individuals and businesses save money on energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This Massachusetts-based company did it before climate change became a global environmental imperative and before energy efficiency became a top national and state priority.”

Slow times? Not a bad time to be in the energy efficiency business.