Video Spotlight: We Waste More Energy Than We Use. Walker-Miller Energy Wants To Fix That
Roughly 60 percent of the energy we produce in this country gets wasted. Sure, thermodynamics play a role, but we can increase efficiency through better infrastructure and better energy management. Walker-Miller Energy Services is helping businesses and people in Detroit do the later.
The company provides a broad range of services to help buildings reduce energy usage. By conducting energy audits, it can suggest infrastructure upgrades, design sustainability programs, and provide training to help reduce energy usage.
Initially, Carla Walker-Miller’s company supplied medium and high-voltage electrical equipment to businesses. She pivoted the company’s focus in 2011 to energy efficiency audits and consulting. With its team of engineers, building analysts, certified energy managers, and technicians, Walker-Miller Energy Services increased its revenue from $4.2 million to $8.2 million between 2014 and 2015. Its projected growth rate between 2014 and 2019 is 404%. With a mission to help customers decrease energy consumption and shrink their carbon footprints, the company is proving our biggest challenges are also business opportunities. Here are some surprising nuggets we learned from talking with Walker-Miller …
In our Spotlight, Walker-Miller tells NewCo, helping businesses reduce their footprint and save money by using less energy is part of why she’s passionate about what Walker-Miller Energy Services is doing. It’s a problem in the U.S., which produced 97.5 quadrillion BTUs of electricity but only used 38.4 BTUs (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory).
The company purposefully recruits Detroiters, and trains employees in energy-efficiency and building science. “I’m really committed to the city of Detroit,” Walker-Miller says. “I think that targeted hiring is doable. If we really are going to come out on top of this beautiful renaissance that we are actually experiencing, then we have to target Detroiters, and be intentional about hiring Detroiters.”
Want to work for Walker-Miller Energy Services? Walker-Miller says, “If we can teach you math, we can teach you energy efficiency.”
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