April 27, 2012 12:00:00 am

Populus taps popular energy-efficiency drive

By Jeff Thomas

BOULDER — For those who think selling homeowners on energy-efficiency improvement only comes down to dollars and thermal units, a fast-growing Boulder company has shown them the error of their ways.

“Even in Boulder, where you have a number of people from the labs and university who want to look at all the numbers, maybe 1 percent (of the homeowners the company works with) actually look on it as an investment,” said Laura Hutchings, chief executive of Populus LLC.

“In this community, people care a lot about the environment, but ultimately that’s not the reason” most people opt for home energy improvements, Hutchings said. “But energy security, we find that resonates everywhere. They want to have more disposable income in their retirement, and a buffer to the volatility of utility costs.”

Populus has developed what may be the go-to model for communities or utilities seeking to improve residential energy efficiency, a big reason the company now is running programs for the city and county of Boulder and recently added the Denver Energy Challenge. Hutchings said a custom approach for potential clients of these programs led to success in recruiting participation, which in turn fed the success of Populus.

The company has grown from three to 29 employees in the past three years, along with growing its revenue 3,500 percent. Hutchings said her company’s revenue is between $2 million and $4 million annually. Most of that growth is from implementation of the municipal programs, which account for about 80 percent of the revenue.

Unlike many similar programs, which run the energy diagnostics and leave a “laundry list” of potential items for homeowners that could reduce energy costs, Hutchings said her company’s energy advisers go a great deal further. A key factor, she said, is to whittle that list down to four or five key items that would translate to most easily obtainable energy savings, but might also add another dimension, such as increased comfort, to the home.

“If you engage the person, you can get an idea of how they interact with the home, and what they feel is important,” Hutchings said. In addition, Populus goes the extra mile in helping to secure multiple bids from qualified contractors.

The result shows in the conversion of homeowners who conduct an energy audit to those who actually turn that audit into home energy improvements.

“Nationwide, it’s not uncommon to see a conversion rate of 8 (percent) to 15 percent,” she said. “We’re getting a lot of attention because we’ve achieved a conversion rate of more than 50 percent.”

In addition, Populus may have a technological edge over many companies with which it competes on community projects. The company was started on a much different model, when Hutchings’ husband, David Neiger, started out helping builders and architects find energy-saving designs and additions which reached or closely approached zero-energy usage.

That energy design expertise was the basis of the company, and Neiger also was tapped by the city of Boulder to help develop SmartRegs, which promotes energy efficiency in rental property, the first such ordinance in the nation. He continues this work, and is listed as the company’s founder and “chief geek,” a practice which brings in $2,000 to $3,000 for most buildings, and larger amounts for multi-residential and larger buildings.

“He gives the entire spectrum of the company a technological edge,” said Hutchings, who appears to have a great deal of belief in that expertise. She left a top Boulder law firm just after the economic meltdown of 2008 to be Populus’ second employee.

But for at least the immediate future, Populus’ income growth seems firmly tied to large-scale community programs, work which has earned the company projects in New Mexico and Idaho as well as attention from national programs.

The $1 million contract for the Denver Energy Challenge is first on the list, however, and Populus hopes to bring down the cost of the energy-advisor program to less than $200 per client by installing a new energy hotline. Still, Hutchings said even phone advisors will focus on specific neighborhoods, allowing an expertise to be developed and also a bit of a marketing edge.

“There’s an advantage in knowing the houses in certain neighborhoods,” she said. “And there’s an aspect of helping you ‘keep up with the Joneses’ in term of energy efficiency. No one wants to have the worst-looking utility bill.”