Populus taps popular energy-efficiency drive

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,…