Top Company 2020: Energy

In its 33rd year, ColoradoBiz‘s Top Company honors the Colorado companies that have drive, determination, a vision and a plan and are ultimately making the state a better place to live and work. These three companies – one winner and two finalists –represent the 2020 Top Companies in Energy.

Winner

Blue Raven Solar

Orem, Utah 

Take 354,000 cars off the road for a year, and you’d have the equivalent of the carbon emissions Blue Raven Solar has offset with renewable energy. And the company hopes eventually to offset the footprint of three times that.

“Our product is more relevant now than ever,” CEO Ben Peterson says. “Americans are looking for ways to protect and invest in their homes; they need additional ways to save money, and they are increasingly interested in protecting the environment.”

Blue Raven Solar has shifted from using outside installers to doing all the work in-house, a strategy that fueled a three-year growth rate of 1,600%. It now handles everything from first point of contact to the installation/energization and beyond, with installs within 60 days. The company fosters trust by offering a 10-year workmanship warranty, a 25-year equipment warranty and a production guarantee.

The Blue Raven team, which has grown to more than 1,200 in just six years, abides by three main values: Develop a high trust culture; be efficient; and continuously improve. “Every employee spends time with me learning about our values,” Peterson says. “Each month, employees nominate each other for living our values. We also ask employees regularly how they have seen our values exemplified. Comments and feedback have been essential for determining and implementing meaningful improvement.”

Blue Raven has donated more than $200,000 worth of solar systems to families, and for every customer who goes solar, Blue Raven Solar donates $20 to Givepower, which provides access to clean drinking water for one person for 20 years. As of March 2020, Blue Raven Solar had helped more than 5,000 people gain access to clean drinking water, and the company expects to double that number by year’s end.

Finalists

East Daley Capital

Centennial 

As the oil and gas industry faces unprecedented challenges, East Daley Capital’s energy data and market insights have become even more valuable. Employees adjusting to working remotely found themselves working nearly around the clock to serve clients who often were ill-prepared for the situation. The outcome has been a more-than-ever unified team that fulfilled client needs and helped make the company a market leader within the industry.

EDC develops products that provide micro-level data paired with macro-level insights to clients from the entire oil and gas supply chain, including many of the largest oil and gas companies, capital market participants and investment firms.

To give back during the pandemic, EDC sponsored lunches for frontline workers at Sky Ridge Medical Center and Swedish Hospital and invited its employees and their families to write letters, make cards and draw pictures for quarantined residents of two nearby senior living facilities.

Colorado Geothermal Drilling Inc.

Brighton 

CEO Dan Rau’s engineering background and childhood on a Midwest dairy farm have made him passionate about building safer and more efficient equipment. That helps family-owned Colorado Geothermal Drilling install its cost-effective heating and cooling systems with less equipment and manpower.

“Because of geothermal’s unique heating and cooling benefits, the industry is really growing,” says co-owner and Vice President Kari Rau, Dan’s wife, noting that it can reduce peak loads for utilities and reduce fossil-fuel dependence. “As more thought goes into developing our homes and communities to be more energy efficient, geothermal is truly a natural way to do this and works well with other renewable energies like wind and solar.”

The company belongs to Brighton Business Builders, the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association and the Greater Brighton Chamber of Commerce. It contributes to area schools and the Richard Lambert Foundation, a local nonprofit that provides bereavement support to families that have lost a loved one.