Emphasizing Energy And Expanding Our Geography
Rodney North, of Equal Exchange, the enduring Massachusetts worker co-op fair trade coffee company, in response to my last blog post, said (I’m paraphrasing here):
It’s great to see how SMC is diversifying. I’m guessing this evolved out of some mix of client demand/SMC interests in renewables & the need to diversify during lean times – yes? I’d be curious to know if this new line of work meant re-training for current SMC staff &/or bringing on new staff w/the necessary skills. And does it now mean that SMC needs to have 2 (or more) pipelines of projects lined up so as to ensure fairly steady employment for staff?
I also noted – for the first time to my knowledge – that SMC finally took on some projects off the Vineyard. . . . I’ll be interested to hear more about how SMC arrived at that change in policy and hope it works out well. As a mainlander I’m happy to see that now some of our communities will enjoy some of the gifts of SMC that the Vineyard has had all to itself all these years.
Rodney inquires about two of the three most important SMC changes of the last few years: concentrating greater efforts on Energy and doing select projects off the island (the third is a rigorous focus on planning for the Next Generation of SMC).
I’ll touch on the first two here.
In July of 2011 I wrote “In 2007, our 17 owners endorsed our business plan to establish SMC Energy. The idea was to bring energy efficiency and renewable energy to residential, commercial, and institutional customers on Martha’s Vineyard. We had been trading in solar and energy efficiency for 30 years, but this was the first time we actively marketed these services outside our own projects. We invested heavily in new learning and the development of this new endeavor.
In every way, SMC Energy has surpassed our expectations during the last four years.”
Its ascendance continues. There is now a very-skilled, highly trained, immensely effective full time staff of four (soon to be five) doing Energy, and many of the rest of us play significant supporting roles as well. It has become an essential part of our core business. One of the most exciting aspects is that we are now able to offer very favorable solar leases to homeowners which do not require any significant up-front payment. This means solar is available to nearly everyone! Solar for the other 99%. Here’s a copy of a recent ad:
Also, because we do many small solar jobs, it puts us in touch with a much larger clientele, and some of the solar jobs lead to design/build jobs. The one pipeline feeds the other.
And way back in August of 2009 I wrote, “We have had a long-standing policy of only doing work on the Vineyard, the place that we know. That one flew the coop when we had the opportunity to do an extraordinary project across the water, for the Woods Hole Research Center, a world class climate change research organization, at a time when our future workload was less secure than usual. It wasn’t the first time we had such an opportunity, but this was the first time we forced ourselves – due to circumstances – to confront the logistical hurdles and internal complications these projects bring.”
That project – a complete deep energy retrofit of an old carriage house for their growing net zero energy campus, has now been complete for some time (photos above). We have done one other in Woods Hole, we are working on several on Nantucket, and, as I mentioned in my last post, we are working on another in Falmouth and one in Vermont. We have learned that in certain circumstances, with very specific kinds of projects that are perfectly aligned with our mission and values, it makes sense to extend our reach when we have the opportunity. Our selective participation in off-island projects now stems more from desire than need. We still believe that our sweet spot is right here on the Vineyard, but we are less doctrinaire about the commitment.
Let us know what you’ve got going – maybe there’s a match!!
25 IN 2012 . . . AND RISING
On the first day of this new year, South Mountain began its 25th year as an employee owned company (and its 38th year in business). It was on January 1, 1987 that we converted from a sole proprietorship in my ownership to a democratically owned worker co-operative. As I’ve so often said, it was a hinge point in the history of the company.
When I started South Mountain in 1975 I was 25. Now there’s a group of us in our sixties who will gradually retire during the coming decades (starting with Mike Drezner at the end of this year) and a collection of new, younger owners poised to lead SMC in to its 2nd generation, and beyond. My personal goal: to still be going strong in 2025, when SMC turns 50 and I’m 75.
The last few years, however, haven’t been easy. We’ve been on semi-permanent scuffle: working hard, all the time, to keep everyone working, to keep adjusting, and to keep expanding the diversity of what we do. In our many years in business there have, of course, been other tough times, but never did it require such prolonged arduous efforts. One thing is for certain: we have left no sacred cow un-skewered.
And we’ve emerged. We scuffle no longer.
SMC is wide awake and our temperature is rising. Now we are faced with managing fulfillment of the many exciting projects we have before us. And I’m one helluva lot happier to bust our tails trying to figure out how to get things done than to bust our tails trying to figure out how to have enough to do.
As we begin the year a quick survey of the projects in progress serves to remind me that we are a very different company than the SMC of several years ago. From many connected new endeavors and approaches a new dynamic of diversity is emerging and rapidly becoming the norm.
Right now we are finishing the following: renovations in Oak Bluffs and Edgartown; a sweet little high performance home in Aquinnah for the daughter of old friends and former SMC stalwart Bruce Ignacio; a deep energy retrofit to a 1930’s Chilmark cottage where SMC owner Billy Dillon and wife Amy live, and a 70 KW solar electric system and associated energy improvements that will make a large Chilmark property – where we have built three homes over 20 years – energy neutral! Meanwhile, every week or two we complete a new residential solar electric system, and they keep on coming.
We have just begun a remarkable renovation project for the wonderful new owners of a storied Chilmark property that has a very tight schedule and some interesting architectural excursions. Phase One will be completed in June, after which we’ll drink a cup of coffee, take a deep breath while the owners enjoy, and continue in the fall with Phase 2.
We are designing a large barn/workshop/gallery for an artist in West Tisbury; it will include a greenhouse, composting toilet, and rainwater collection, as well as a large solar electric system that will provide all the electricity needs for this 50 acre property (see a pattern here?).
Meanwhile, along with our other design projects, we are working with Vineyard Power on permits and design for two very exciting commercial solar electric projects: 50 Kilowatts on the Aquinnah landfill for municipal power, and three parking lot canopies at Cronig’s supermarket that will provide 210 kilowatts and be the largest renewable energy project – by a fair margin – on Martha’s Vineyard to date, and the first parking lot canopies in Massachusetts.
We are also beginning some new projects off-island as well, including a planned net zero deep energy retrofit of a 50 year old 25 unit affordable housing complex in Falmouth, and a design for a new house in Vermont, which is way off our usual beaten track!!
So our 25th year as an employee owned company looks like it will be a thrilling one. We owe a lot of the excitement to the structure that has allowed us to safely navigate the rough waters of the last few years. With all oars pulling together we’ve been able to haul ourselves out of the storm. For now, we’re clear.
Happy New Year. Onward we go.
-
JOHN ABRAMS is co-founder and CEO
of South Mountain Company and the author
of COMPANIES WE KEEP read more
-
COMPANIES WE KEEP is published by Chelsea Green Publishing
read more -
