As Colorado and the nation throw off the shackles of recession, it will take a certain class of entrepreneurs to ensure the emerging recovery becomes something more than simply relief from pain. Perhaps more than any time in modern history, there's a growing sense that business will never be usual again.

The 10 companies and one nonprofit selected as this year's Top Company winners exemplify a business ethic that transcends the bottom line, so it's fitting we're presenting profiles of them in our quarterly Planet-Profit Report issue.

This year's class includes:

» A cooperative energy supplier wrestling with the rise of renewables versus the plentiful supply of coal.
» A credit union that helps consumers living on the margins.
» A health-care provider investing in preventive care to keep people healthy.
» A community-minded law firm whose Denver roots date back to 1898.
» A nonprofit that gathers surplus medical supplies and ships them to impoverished countries.
» An asphalt paving company that asked its workers to sacrifice during tough times - and rewarded them when profit returned.
» A natural foods grocer that trusted customers to embrace a "bag-free" policy to reduce waste.
» A natural resources company that is helping to promote sustainability worldwide.
» A technology firm that is helping corporations - and nonprofits - manage the flood of electronic documents.
» A hospitality company that has been adopting schools and raising awareness for children's charities.
» A solar company that sparked the interest of President Barack Obama as the country embraces a new-
energy economy.

This year, Top Company sponsor Deloitte winnowed the nominations to 33 finalists in 11 categories. A panel of judges composed of business and community leaders selected the winners. All the finalists were honored at an awards luncheon in September at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

On the following pages, we present stories of the winners, a diverse group that underscores the passion and perseverance it takes to operate profitable enterprises - organizations that understand what's good for the planet is also good for business.

-Mike Cote

ColoBizTV
ColoradoBiz conducted video interviews with the executives of this year's Top Company winners. 
Watch them on the Top Company channel at cobizmag.com.

energy/natural resources
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc.

Think of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association as a kind of smorgasbord of innovation in a new-energy era.

Solar: In partnership with Solar Inc., the Westminster-based, nonprofit wholesale energy provider is developing one of the world's largest photovoltaic solar power plants. The sprawling, 30-megawatt, 500,000-panel plant now rising from cattle country between Springer and Cimarron, N.M., should be operational in 2010, providing power to some 9,000 homes.

Wind: Tri-State and Duke Energy are building a smaller scale, 34-turbine, 51-megawatt wind farm in Kit Carson County on the plains of eastern Colorado.

Green power and energy efficiency: For more than a quarter of a century, Tri-State has rewarded consumers with cash back for energy efficient practices - with $1.8 million paid out in 2008 - which has resulted in savings of some 73 megawatts of demand and 80,000 megawatt-hours in energy used.

Environmental stewardship: The association has developed a far-reaching greenhouse-gas management road map and was the first utility to be recognized under the state health and environment department's Colorado Environmental Leadership program.

"All that is actually part of the core values of what we've been doing since the inception of the company," said Tri-State Executive Vice President/General Manager Ken Anderson.

But ask Anderson why the 57-year-old company, which provides power to 44 rural cooperatives in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming has returned money to its members for 20 straight years while increasing assets, operating revenue and sales, and he's quick to answer.

"It's because we've been focused on our primary mission ... which has been and will continue to be to provide a reliable, cost-effective supply of electricity," he said.

That means, of course, providing electricity from coal-fired plants at a time when greenhouse-gas and climate-change concerns have led some to criticize coal power, which accounts for about half of the nation's energy production.

But Anderson said coal isn't going away.

"Renewables are fine products, especially as they become more cost-effective. But they are not there 100 percent of the time," he said. "And you can't idle a work force just because the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining."

If anything, Anderson said, as America moves away from oil-powered transportation and industry, coal will be needed more than ever, to generate electricity for those purposes.

"And if people truly wanted to address carbon, they'd encourage (the construction of) brand-new coal facilities to displace the old facilities quickly," he said. "There would be a 16 percent reduction in our carbon footprint just to swap them out."

- Clay Evans

financial Services | Denver Community Credit Union

Founded in 1934 amid the Great Depression with just $50, Denver Community Credit Union has grown to serve more than 28,000 members and boasts assets of more than $225 million. But the credit union's original ideals haven't changed much in 75 years: to make a difference in people's lives as a community-oriented financial cooperative.

Credit union members gain a share in the not-for-profit organization by opening an account with as little as $25. Profits are returned to members, not to outside investors, in the form of better rates, lower fees and other benefits.

This year's Top Company winner in the Financial Services category, Denver Community Credit Union also has expanded the scope of its membership over the years. It started out serving employees of the city and county of Denver but now is open to anyone who lives, works, worships, volunteers or attends school in Denver.

A large part of the credit union's role in the community is educational, with an entire department dedicated to outreach and free classes and counseling on subjects such as how to use credit wisely, how credit cards work and instruction on investing for college. Since 2005 the credit union has provided more than 4,600 adults and youths with free financial education. It also partners with more than 40 local organizations to provide education to groups ranging from youth centers to small-business owners.

"We really like to listen to what the community needs and then create products that fit them instead of making somebody fit into a product," says Krista Ferndelli, the credit union's chief marketing officer.

Among the many community-oriented products is a payday lending program - an alternative to the notorious retail payday lenders that charge as much as 400 percent interest. Denver Community Credit Union's rate is 18 percent.

Ferndelli describes this program as "an attempt to break the cycle of the payday lender. But in conjunction with that, they have to do some budgeting and some credit counseling." The program is tiered, so that payday borrowers graduate to higher loan levels as they demonstrate an ability to pay back loans. The final tier is an unsecured credit card.

"That's a big deal, because a lot of people have been so sucked into (borrowing) that they've damaged their credit enough to not qualify for traditional loans. Whether it's with us or not, we'd like to help people get their feet under them."

For some, the credit union is the only place they can get a car loan. In those high credit-risk cases, a device is installed in the car that will prevent it from starting if the borrower is more than 30 days late on a payment.

Along with increasing membership, the credit union has expanded around the city with four branches: the main branch in downtown Denver, a northeast branch near Interstate 70 and Chambers Road, a branch in the Park Hill neighborhood and another on 11th Avenue and Federal Boulevard that serves a primarily Hispanic market.

It's worth noting in these economic conditions - not unlike those under which the organization was founded in 1934 - that Denver Community Credit Union didn't fall prey to any ill-advised lending practices that befell many other financial institutions. Nor did it receive any stimulus money.

"Credit unions in general, but specifically ours, are still well-positioned to make good quality loans to members," Ferndelli says. "There's a misconception that people aren't lending. We definitely are."

- Mike Taylor

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HEALTHCARE | Centura Health

As far as Centura Health is concerned, the fewer people in its hospital beds - the better.

As the state's largest health-care provider, Centura's goal is not only to heal the sick but to make sure people stay healthy in the first place, CEO Gary Campbell says. And Centura is putting its money where its mission is: Over the past three years, it has invested more than $700 million in the health of urban and rural communities from the mountains to the Front Range.

"We've demonstrated we're more than a hospital system," Campbell says. "We're truly a health system promoting health in the community."
Centura is also a nonprofit faith-based organization sponsored by Catholic Health Initiatives and Adventist Health, a fact that guides and informs its decisions.

More than 500,000 Coloradans receive care from 13,000 employees at its 12 hospitals, seven senior living communities, and home health and hospice services. In fiscal 2009, $57 million went toward uncompensated care to the poor, elderly and uninsured.

"We have a mission that goes beyond purely financial interests," Campbell says. "That's what our mission calls us to do, but we have to do it in a fiscally responsible way. There is a balance."

Centura contributed nearly $16 million to 300 community service activities throughout the state this year, including parish nurse programs, flu shot clinics, blood drives and family education classes. In the Denver metro area, Centura's 10,000-member Health Passport program offers wellness classes and programs to help people manage chronic diseases or prevent falls by the elderly.

Its statewide Ask-A-Nurse call center gives communities a direct link to health-care resources, and Centura is dedicated to expanding that kind of outreach, Campbell says.

This year, Centura has partnered with UnitedHealthcare, the Colorado Rural Health Center and the Colorado Community Health Network to set up telehealth clinics, featuring sophisticated audio, video and health-care technologies to connect doctors with underserved areas. The Connected Care sites, which will be installed in several Centura Health facilities as well as federally qualified community health centers in 2010, will make it possible for rural residents to have access to specialists they might otherwise never see.

"We believe all Coloradans should have the same access to high quality specialized health-care service, regardless of where they live," Campbell says.

A recently completed strategic plan, Centura Health 2020, focuses on strengthening Centura's services as it continues to reach out across the state.

"We want to create systems of care that provide Colorado with a network of services," Campbell says. "Centura feels a commitment to move from a sickness care system to a health-care system."

- Lisa Ryckman

legal | Holme Roberts & Owen LLP

Big law firm. Ton of history. High-profile cases. Almost sounds like something you'd seen on television.

"I'm always having to tell the kids at home, ‘That stuff never happens at our firm. There is no kissing in the hallways,'" says Patty Fontneau, chief operating officer at Denver's historic Holme Roberts & Owen LLP.

But there is much about HRO that might surprise those unfamiliar with the international firm, which employs some 250 lawyers and has eight offices, from Denver to Europe.

For one thing, the firm traces its roots to Denver in 1898, which likely makes it one of the three oldest law firms in Colorado (though it isn't always easy to trace the provenance of firms whose names have changed over the years).

"The firm was always named for its founding partners, and when they left, their names came off and new names came on," Fontneau says. The third name on its current shingle, Owen, belongs to the famous Church Owen of the 1920s.

HRO's deep commitment to community service also began with Church Owen. Virtually every employee gives his or her time to assist various causes, from Meals on Wheels to Denver's Passport to Peace program, and the firm provides pro bono work for organizations as varied as the American Civil Liberties Union and Ronald McDonald House.

In October, the firm held its third annual Jim Bye Day, in honor of a late colleague, providing costumes, candy and coats to homeless children while raising tens of thousands of dollars for the city of Denver's "Road Home" program to help end homelessness.

"Community service is part of the culture of this firm," says Managing Partner Ken Lund. "When I started here in 1990 ... I was amazed to be working shoulder-to-shoulder with the senior partners in the firm" on such community-service projects.

Holme Roberts & Owen also has a richly diverse practice, in the past year representing clients from the Homestake Mining Co. to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (in a high-profile case disputing the claims of professional cyclist Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his Tour de France victory in 2006).

HRO is proud of its diversity, particularly its representation of both "old" energy companies and "new" energy and environmental concerns.
"Hey, when this company started, oil and gas companies were the ‘new' energy," Lund says. "And now we are representing some of the leading alternative energy companies ... some of which are at the very forefront of Gov. (Bill) Ritter's new energy economy."

- Clay Evans

NONPROFIT | Project C.U.R.E.

In a giant warehouse in Centennial, a small group of volunteers sort through piles of medical supplies and pack them in boxes bound for Third World countries. Everything here has been donated, from the blue medical garb factory samples to the cardboard cartons that once housed copies of the latest Dan Brown thriller.

Row upon row of supplies are stacked nearly to the ceiling, some pasted with warning labels that they should be handled only by trained medical professionals - the kind of people Project C.U.R.E. helps to send to impoverished nations along with the supplies they so direly need.

While the United States is grappling with health-care reform, Douglas Jackson sees the world's medical needs from a different perspective. In the countries the CEO of Project C.U.R.E. visits, just getting pregnant can become a lethal condition.

"There are 1.2 billion people in the world - four times the size of the U.S. - who live on a dollar a day. And on a dollar a day, you just can't afford health care," he says. "So when they get sick, they die.

Project C.U.R.E., founded by Jackson's father, Jim Jackson, in the family garage in 1987, has become the largest distributor of donated medical supplies and equipment to the Third World. But while its reach has become global, the organization has remained small, relying on an army of volunteers to fill the truck trailers that are shipped overseas.

"We run in an economy where a good nonprofit will run at about 10 to 15 percent operating overhead," says Jackson, a former attorney. "We're at about 2 percent, our auditors tell me."

Thus, those cardboard boxes that came from a bookstore.

"Almost everything we have in the whole organization is donations, from the furniture in my office, to the boxes, to the equipment, to the warehouse," he says. "We take those donations, and that savings and money, and pass it along to people who need it the most."

Jake Jabs, president and founder of American Furniture Warehouse - a two-time Top Company winner and a finalist this year - has been a major contributor to Project C.U.R.E. and helped pay for the construction of the warehouse that now bares his name. Project C.U.R.E also has built relationships with Newmont Mining Corp., Molson Coors and Centura Health, which sends doctors to Nepal, Rwanda and other countries Project C.U.R.E. serves.

Jackson also emphasizes the bonds the organization has built with other nonprofits, including fellow 2009 Top Company nonprofit finalists Denver Rescue Mission and Colorado Uplift, which have both brought people from their programs to work at the warehouse.

"What's great is we have a group of people in this community who are all working together," Jackson says.

- Mike Cote

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real estate/construction | Colorado Asphalt Services Inc.

Wayne Leiser, CEO of Colorado Asphalt Services, says that in June 2008 he saw a "tsunami" coming into his industry.

"New construction was coming to a halt," he says. "Contractors would say, ‘We're glad you got the bid, but we don't have the funding.'"
Leiser says he met with his management team - just three people, including himself - and they came up with an aggressive plan. They met with the heads of departments and gave them two options - they could take a 10 percent pay cut across the board, or they would have to cut 10 percent of the work force.

They voted, and it was unanimous that no one would lose their job.

Leiser also worked on making small cuts to the company's spending; employees who were given clean workshirts every day were scaled back to every other day. The annual holiday party was canceled.

But in November he got good news - it seemed the scrimping had paid off, and it looked like the company was actually going to make money. He reinstated the holiday party and waited until that night to tell all of the employees of his surprise.

"I got up and thanked the work force for working so hard and doing what they did to make sacrifices. And then I told them that every single person in the company gets an additional week's pay," he says.

Despite that success, Leiser says that there's still a hard road ahead, and he's worked to diversify Colorado Asphalt's offerings. Though the company offers a full range of asphalt and concrete services, as well as producing its own asphalt, he also bought the company its own concrete truck, instead of hiring a middleman.

Colorado Asphalt Services is also one of the few producers of EZ Street, the world's only permanent cold asphalt. Typically asphalt's cold-weather mix is a temporary fix, but a company discovered a new polymer that allows the oil to bond to itself when a certain amount of pressure is applied. Once the bond is formed, the asphalt is permanent.

"When we fix a pothole, that fix will last longer than the asphalt around it," Leiser says.

Leiser says the EZ Street founders are extremely choosy in partnering with asphalt companies, and that they won the contract because of their business rewards, reputation for being ethical, and involvement in community service.

Colorado Asphalt Services recently developed the Heart Friendly Parking Program. The company partners with merchants and offers to paint a heart in certain stalls farther from the stores, encouraging patrons to walk a few extra steps each day.

-Jennie Dorris

RETAIL/WHOLESALE | Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage

Most shoppers still know it simply as Vitamin Cottage even though the Lakewood-based retailer modified its name about two years ago to reflect the fact that more of its business now comes from groceries than from vitamins.

Whether it's vitamins, organic food or free information from a nutritionist onsite at each of the chain's 33 stores, Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage still adheres to the principles laid down 54 years ago by Margaret and Philip Isely when they borrowed $200 from Margaret's mother and started going door to door in Golden, sharing books on nutrition and taking orders for vitamins and bulk foods.

"We've stayed consistent to our core values ... rather than trying to chase every trend that goes on out there," says Kemper Isely, a son of the founders who serves as co-president along with his brother Zephyr. "When my parents started the company they wanted to provide natural foods at affordable prices. That would be the first value we've always kept, to keep our prices as low as they possibly can be so people can buy the products we sell. Secondly, to educate people about their health so they understand how to take care of themselves."

The third value practiced by this year's Top Company in the Retail/Wholesale category is as much about what Vitamin Cottage doesn't sell as what it does. A page on the company's website at www.vitamincottage.com is titled "What we don't sell and why," and contains a description of more than 30 supplements and ingredients - many of them sold by other supplement retailers - that Vitamin Cottage has deemed to be of questionable quality or safety, or requiring a doctor's supervision to be safe.

"We are real selective about the products we carry in our stores," says Kemper Isely, one of 10 Isely offspring or in-laws with the company. "We only stock things that are good for your health. We also are careful not to stock things that contain artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, hydrogenated oils, etc. People appreciate the fact that they can come into our stores and not have to necessarily read labels - although they should read labels. But they don't have to, because they know the ingredients in the products we carry are going to be clean."

Vitamin Cottage was one of the first grocery chains in the country to go "bag free," introducing the practice about a year ago and launching it officially on Earth Day, April 22, this year.

"We stopped ordering bags on April 1 this year," says Isely, who reports that customer response to the bagless format has been "almost 100 percent positive. There's been a couple people that get grumpy about it. If somebody gets real grumpy we give them one of our reusable bags and say, ‘We still have bags.' That makes them happy. And then they usually bring them back the next time."

Despite the recession, Vitamin Cottage has continued to grow, though not at the 20 percent annual rate of revenue growth it had been averaging consistently since the late 1980s.

"We're still having same-store positive sales growth," Isely says.

The natural-grocery chain is up to 33 stores in four states - Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Utah - and plans to add at least six stores a year and expand into other Western states.

"We should easily be double where we are now in five years," Isely says.

- Mike Taylor

Services | MWH Global

MWH Global prides itself on having the greatest possible impact with the smallest possible footprint.

With employees on six continents - including 600 in Colorado - the company has established itself as a world leader in the wet infrastructure sector, concentrating on water, industry/infrastructure and renewable energy/sustainability.

But MWH is as committed to green practices in its own offices as it is across the globe, CEO Robert Uhler says.

"We do our best to ‘walk the walk' on climate change, so you'll see many things happening in our organization to lessen our footprint," he says. "Everything from limited travel in favor of video conferencing to trying to use washable dishes as opposed to disposable ones in our office break rooms."

It's all part of MWH's multiyear, multifaceted Climate Change Commitment, which uses education and advocacy to promote sustainable projects and reduce energy use and emissions.

"Here in the U.S., we've pulled together a new practice area to best provide our clients with the expertise we have in energy efficiency, renewable energy, carbon footprinting and accounting, and water sustainability," Uhler says. "Recognizing that sometimes getting started can be the hardest part, we've also developed a quickStart program that helps show organizations where to begin when it comes to implementing sustainable practices."

As part of its mission - "Building a Better World" - MWH employee volunteers also have reached more than 3,500 students in the firm's Climate Change Educational Outreach Program, including 400 students in Denver Public Schools.

"The goal here is to educate students about climate change and inspire the younger generation to get involved to make a difference at home, at school and in their local communities," Uhler says.

The company supports Water for People, a Denver-based nonprofit that helps developing countries develop locally sustainable drinking water sources, sanitation facilities and hygiene education programs; and Engineers Without Borders, a program that partners with developing countries to help improve their quality of life.

Those groups reflect MWH's own philosophy of taking projects beyond construction and engineering to make an even more profound difference. Case in point: the Tekeze Hydropower project in Ethiopia, a country of 80 million without reliable access to light, heat and water.

The company has worked more than 10 years on the dam, Africa's highest at more than 600 feet. But because the hydropower plant is nearly three hours from the nearest city, MWH also helped build 22 miles of roads and three small towns where nearly 3,000 workers now live.
The wife of the MWH chief design engineer led the effort to build a school, and during the project, several hundred local engineers and technicians received formal classroom and on-the-job training.

"This project will provide sustained economic and social growth for the country," Uhler says. "And that is something we are very proud to be a part of."

-Lisa Ryckman

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technology/media/telecommunications 
Catalyst Repository Systems

John Tredennick says his wife calls his company "Google for lawyers." It's a quick way to describe Catalyst Repository Systems but only hints at the complexity the legal database software company simplifies for its customers.

In a world where a civil suit could turn on a Facebook posting, electronic discovery has transformed the way attorneys practice law - and created a growing business for companies like Catalyst.

Spun off a decade ago from the law firm Holland & Hart, the Denver-based company has grown from six people to a staff of 110 spread out in several locales around the globe.

"What we do is help large corporations and their law firms manage electronic discovery," says Tredennick, who founded the company after a 20-year career as a trial lawyer. "Electronic discovery means discovery of electronic documents - e-mails, Word documents, PowerPoints, Excel files - you name it. They're at the heart of civil litigation these days."

Those documents have exploded in both size and number in the Internet age, Tredennick says, making it more difficult for attorneys to manage the flow of information.

"What used to be a big case involving 30,000 documents is now a case involving 3 million e-mails, PowerPoints, videos and the like," says Tredennick, who this fall is teaching a course on electronic discovery at the University of Virginia.

That rapid increase in volume has helped fuel the company's rapid growth over the past few years. A desktop computer is no longer enough for an attorney to manage civil litigation. Catalyst can help its clients manage an unlimited number of documents in multiple languages, including Russian, Arabic and Japanese.

"The companies we work with all have companies across the world, and they communicate in dozens of languages," Tredennick says. "We've hosted 3 million Chinese documents for a large software manufacturer. ...The combination of the growth of electronic communications with multiple languages has led people to companies like ours who are really set up to handle them."

Tredennick came from a law firm that has always made pro bono work part of its credo, and that community connection continues with Catalyst, he says. In addition to traditional charitable work, Catalyst provides its document management software to nonprofits like the Denver Dumb Friends League.

"They have a board that is spread out across the region and across the country, and it's very important the board be kept abreast of what the organization is doing," Tredennick says. "We donated a Catalyst system that they can use to manage and organize the board."

- Mike Cote

tourism/hospitality | Sage Hospitality

Sage Hospitality, known for developing the Oxford Hotel in Denver, as well as the historic Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, has completely stopped new construction since May of this year, due to the economy. The company has, however, been busy building different types of programs.

As Sage celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, the hotel management and development company simultaneously launched a new community outreach program called Best in Class that assists at-risk students and urban schools.

"We're kind of adopting the schools," CEO Walter Isenberg says. "Our management team helped out the schools by performing as teachers' assistants and helping with book drives."

Isenberg, who also started the nonprofit Concert for Kids, which raises awareness for children's charities, says Sage has always been involved in charitable work because he simply sees it as the "right thing to do."

"We noticed that our associates really appreciated the fact that we were giving back - they thought that we were a great place to work because we really cared about the community," Isenberg says.

While Sage prioritized giving back, Isenberg says he also brainstormed how to drive revenue creatively.
"The business climate for all industries has changed so dramatically; we knew we had to really change the way we looked at our business," Isenberg says.

Sage rolled out Half Price for Heroes, which offers rooms at half the cost for members of the military and their families. Additionally, during this past summer Isenberg says the hotels "broke out the tie-dye and '60s music" with the Summer of '69 program, where rooms were offered for $69. Finally, Sage gave volunteers a nod by creating the promotion Give a Day, Get a Night - volunteers who work for eight hours at a community nonprofit get a free room.

Isenberg says that driving revenues is one piece of the equation; the other, inevitably, is cutting costs.

"We have no new construction," he says. "We've shifted our strategy from developing hotels to working on existing properties where owners are looking to change management."

As he evaluates management, he's also closely monitoring processes to see if things could be done in a more efficient way. He says he has combined the engineering and housekeeping facilities into a single role, which has both improved efficiency and created payroll savings.
Isenberg has another thing helping him ride out the tough times - experience. He started in the hotel business at 14 years old as a dishwasher.

"I worked my way up," Isenberg says. "And became a bus boy. And then a waiter, and then a cook. I also made a lot of beds."

- Jennie Dorris

new energy | Namasté Solar

For a few moments in February, the clichéd notion of 15 minutes of fame was far surpassed for Blake Jones. The Boulder-based CEO of Namaste Solar gave a rooftop tour of Namaste's solar panel installation at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden before introducing the president as he signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"The rooftop tour was an amazing experience; this was the 15 minutes I'd always dreamed of," Jones says. "I was able to talk with the president and vice president about my favorite subject and explain how solar works and discuss global solar market trends."

Jones, a self-described "energy patriot," is passionate in his belief that green industries will be some of the most important of the century.
"Unfortunately, we're behind right now," he says. "We're not putting into place the right policies to ensure we'll be a world leader in green industries. We risk being stuck with our over-dependence on fossil fuels and an outdated energy infrastructure while competing countries such as China and Germany take the lead and compete better."

On the home front, Namaste has grown quickly in five years and was awarded the No. 56 spot on the 2009 Inc. 500 fastest-growing private U.S. companies list. "About this time last year the economy tanked, and we were affected with lower sales and commercial projects being put on indefinite hold," Jones says. "We had a tough fall and winter with a sales backlog but no new sales. We worried until the (Recovery) act passed in February, providing a much-needed injection of optimism."

Boulder County's ClimateSmart program, which will be replicated by Denver County and other municipalities, boosted Namaste's residential sales, he says. "A perfect example of the commercial market resurrection is our recent installation at the Eldorado Artesian Springs bottling/distribution facility in Louisville, which was put on hold last fall."

Things are going well considering the economy, Jones says. "We're not growing at our previous rate, but we're feeling very fortunate. We're moving into a new, expanded Denver office in mid-November. Colorado was fast out of the gate, but now we're at a critically important crossroads and we need to establish bold, long-term goals to ensure that the renewable energy market in Colorado continues to grow long into the future.

"I was ecstatic to see that the president is taking it seriously," he says. "It meant a lot to know he understands the big picture of what's happening on a global level."

- Karen Mitchell

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