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.
Where Will All The Solar Go?
This was published as an op-ed today in the Vineyard Gazette.
Wind turbines get all the negative ink. Noise, vibration, flicker, interruption of beloved views. Big troublemakers, aren’t they?
Solar panels, on the other hand, are considered to be quite benign. The Nantucket Historic District Commission doesn’t like them much, and some people would rather see roofs without them, but by and large they have come to be widely accepted.
But what about when we scale them up with considerably larger installations that can make a meaningful contribution to our energy supply? Are they really so benign?
LARGE SCALE PV ON MV
Stanford Ovshinsky, one of the great thinkers of our time, is 88 years old and starting a new business. “His audacious goal,” according to an article by Laurence Fisher in Strategy + Business Magazine, “is to drive the unsubsidized cost of solar power below that of coal – to create, in effect, a Moore’s law for energy.”
There’s no reason to doubt he can do it. Read more
FINAL DECISION
I had to take a break from writing, and haven’t said a word since March 18th – too much on my plate. Business is challenging at SMC right now, but all is well, projects are good, everyone’s busy, and we’re all in it together, working hard to keep working.
But the Cape Wind announcement in Boston last Wednesday took my mind off that and inspired me to get back to this.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said a lot about Cape Wind. But the best thing he said was, quite simply, “This is the final decision of the United States of America.” Final Decision. Good decision, great decision, unequivocal decision – by the United States of America! How rare is that?
Here Comes the Island Plan
The Island Plan is complete.
For now.
Four years in the making, this long-term plan for the future of Martha’s Vineyard, initiated by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, engaged hundreds of people in the collaborative process of its production. 
To quote from the plan: “ The purpose of the Island Plan is to chart a course to the kind of future the Vineyard community wants, and to outline a series of actions to help us navigate that course. The Island Plan is both a blueprint and a call to action.”
I served on the Steering Committee and chaired one of the nine work groups – Livelihood & Commerce (the others are Development & Growth, Natural Environment, the Built Environment, Energy & Waste, Affordable Housing, Transportation, Water Resources, and Social Environment).
I spent more time working on the plan than I wished to and less time than I should have.
WINDTRIGUE ON THE VINEYARD
While the eyes of the world focus on Copenhagen, here at home on Martha’s Vineyard wind energy has been receiving a mighty dose of attention – more than ever before. Are we making progress? Maybe some. You be the judge.
Wind has been in the local news in four distinctly different regards at once: the release and reaction to the draft Massachusetts Oceans Management Plan, the public coming-out of a new organization called Vineyard Power, the continuing saga of Cape Wind, and the adoption of a new wind by-law in Aquinnah.
Before diving in, some context might be useful.
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JOHN ABRAMS is co-founder and CEO
of South Mountain Company and the author
of COMPANIES WE KEEP read more
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COMPANIES WE KEEP is published by Chelsea Green Publishing
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