SolarCity is a national leader in solar power system design, financing, installation, monitoring and related services. It was founded with the mission to help millions of homeowners and businesses adopt solar power, protect themselves from rising electricity costs and protect their environment from polluting power sources by offering affordable leasing options. The company’s SolarLease™, PurePower™ and Commercial Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) options make it possible for homeowners and businesses to switch to clean, solar power for less money than they currently pay for electricity. SolarCity currently serves more than 500 communities in Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon and Texas. Additional information about the company is available on the Web at www.solarcity.com.
We spoke with Peter Rive, co-founder and chief operations officer of SolarCity, to find out how a start-up company can invest in environmentally sustainable business practices and still prosper.
KAREN:
What inspired you to establish Solar City?
PETER:
My brother and I founded Solar City about 3 years ago with a pretty simple goal of trying to accelerate the adoption of solar power among home owners and business owners. When we looked at the state of the solar industry at the time, there weren’t any businesses out there trying to bring any serious economies of scale to bear on the solar design and installation front. There were definitely a lot of businesses focusing on new modular and technology development, but very few were actually focused on the consumer experience and reducing the cost of installation. So we wanted to create a company that would have a positive impact on what we consider to be one of the most pressing dangers facing the planet today, global warming.
KAREN:
As a startup company. how challenging was it to integrate environmental costs and savings into your bottom-line analysis?
PETER:
One of the key things in adopting so many of these environmental options is financing, because so many environmentally friendly solutions require an upfront investment with a payback over time. But given what we do, it was especially important that sustainability be a guiding principle. The last thing we wanted to be doing was to be selling and promoting a solution to lower our customer’s carbon footprint, yet be increasing it at the same time with our own operations.
KAREN:
What do you consider to be the highlight of your sustainability efforts in the two years since you established your company?
PETER:
One of our immediate priorities was making sure that our fleet of vehicles would be environmentally sustainable. We chose a combination of hybrids and 5 cylinder diesel vans that get about 25-30 miles per hour compared to average construction vehicle that gets about 12. As a result, we have the most fuel efficient construction fleet in the nation. Now the trucks themselves are slightly more expensive but the environmental benefits are huge. We also have incentive programs for employee transportation which encourage car-pooling and public transportation.
KAREN:
Tell us a about your approach to ensuring your product is as green as possible.
PETER:
At Solar City we thinking about sustainability as it relates to the full life span of solar power system, all the way from production through to the product’s end-of-life. We make sure that the vendors that we select for our products have the lowest overall carbon footprint in terms of production. And we also want to be sure they’ve addressed end-of-life recycling. On other words, when the solar panels useful life is over, can it be recycled? Do they have a program and are they willing to bear the costs? We also make sure that we our excess waste materials are recyclable
KAREN:
What role do your employees play in your sustainability efforts?
PETER:
It’s obviously very difficult for a management team to be able to focus on every single decision that may impact your environmental system, so many of our environmental initiatives have been spearheaded by employees. Our transit incentive program originated with our employees. And, recently one of our employees took the initiative to find local alternatives to the individually wrapped snacks from Costco. Now we have local growers deliver fruits and nuts. For a short time we used bottled water and soda from cans. But now we have filtered water and a soda fountain. And this was all spearheaded by an employee. It’s important for the management team to stay open and embrace this kind of initiative.
KAREN:
Do these ideas just bubble up naturally, or do you have to work at keeping your employees around motivated green work initiatives?
PETER:
We created an internal “Be the Difference” PR campaign to get employees excited. I sent out a memo that had a fun, cartoonish slant to it that said “Here’s a list of things that we’re doing right now and we’re doing these things to reduce our environmental impact. Now here are the things we’d like to get from you. We’d love to have you send us suggestions on what we could be doing better; and what we’ll commit to you is that once you’ve sent these suggestions we’ll provide a timeline for implementation or we’ll be able to provide an honest response about whether we think these things are feasible in regards of potential cost. As a result of this campaign, we just continue to get great ideas coming to us.
KAREN:
As the employees realized that they could have an influence in your operations, did you have any challenges in managing their expectations to the realities of implementing initiatives strategically?
PETER:
Well, it’s critical that you ask for patience along with the ideas. Everyone needs to know that no matter how committed you are to change, there are some things that may take years to completely solve. We make sure that we provide honest feedback to every idea so they know they’ve been heard, and understand the decisions that we’re making. It’s also important to keep the communication going. Every six months we re-publish the list and provide an update on both big accomplishments and small incremental improvements we’ve made in our practices.
KAREN:
What advice would you give other small companies and start ups?
PETER:
For anyone reading this article, the key takeaway should be that so many of these environmental initiatives can save you money. Just by changing out our snacks, we save close to $1200 a month. And this is one small example. Installing motion sensor lights and time-activated HVAC, can dramatically electricity costs. Everything we’ve done from our vehicle fleet, to recycling waste materials has saved us money.
These decisions have to be viewed as an investment. You’ve got upfront costs, and you have a payback over time. The great thing is you get an environmental payback as well as a financial payback.