Going Green From Strictly Business
Pushing the (Building) Envelope – ECP
By Carolee Smith
Reprinted from Strictly Business, June 2008 (published by The Northeast Group)
Going green can be confusing. What should you recycle? How can you save on energy? And how can you do it all without spending a fortune?
A low profile business with a year-old building at PARC is helping to recycle, helping people save on energy, and doing both while saving their customers a lot of money.
Randy Whisher, CEO of ECP Building Envelope Specialists, Inc. explained that his company offers a state-of-the-art insulation called Nu-Wool and works primarily in commercial and industrial markets.
A State-of-the-Art ‘Green’ Insulation
“Nu-Wool,” he explained, “is a very special, and especially ‘green’ product. Not only is it made from recycled newspapers, but it also works so well that clients can cut their energy use and their energy costs by more than they think possible. We call it a ‘building envelope.’”
Whisher demonstrated the product in his office with a small box containing two sections, one filled with traditional fiberglass insulation, the other with Nu-Wool. A small tube protrudes from the top of each section of the box and both tubes have a ping-pong ball sitting at the bottom. A fan is located at the bottom of the box (photo on page 8).
“Ready?” he asked, then hit the switch. The ball in the fiberglass-filled section flew across the room. The other never moved.
Pretty impressive, but what else can it do? As it turned out, plenty. Whisher produced a CD that showed off the product. First, Nu-Wool is so dense that it has a much higher energy rating than fiberglass, as it keeps much more heat in during the winter and out during the summer than traditional materials. The chemical composition also prevents small animals (i.e., mice, squirrels or other rodents) or insects from burrowing into it and setting up housekeeping.
Moisture does not affect the insulation and Nu-Wool is guaranteed not to develop mold or mildew.
Nu-Wool is virtually fireproof, as shown by a technician turning a blowtorch on a bundle of the material that he is holding in his bare hand. The Nu-Wool does not ignite and, more importantly, neither does his hand!
Finally, Whisher said, “it even cuts sound more than some sound-proofing materials.” He demonstrated that by setting off an alarm wrapped in Nu-Wool. That feature has made it very popular with hotels, motels and apartment complexes.
The, he laughed, and said, “All of this makes it a hit with insurance carriers.”
When applied, the product is sprayed between wall or floor joists. It almost looks like gray cotton candy when it’s sprayed. As is dries and hardens, workers shave off the excess material protruding from the joists, then pack it back into the sprayer and start again. There is no waste.
And, it’s completely non-toxic.
A Little Business History
Whisher, who grew up in AuSable Forks, has a great deal of experience in the industry and construction. He earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial management from Ithaca College, but in the early 1980’s, good jobs weren’t plentiful in the North Country. He headed west to California and then to Puerto Rico, setting up manufacturing plants. Life was going well and he enjoyed his career.
Unfortunately, his father, well-known area athlete and coach Hank Whisher, fell seriously ill and Randy decided to come home.
He took a job ast the JCEO’s weatherization director and learned even more about energy issues, especially how to cut heat loss. Along the way, he acquired training in building science at the Florida Solar Research Center.
“Fifteen years ago, the large performance contractors weren’t too interested in energy savings. Fuel costs were low and they hadn’t seen any convincing proof that tightening the shell of a building could make a significant difference in its operational costs,” Whisher said. “Most contractors really didn’t understand building science. The field has evolved since 1988.”
Convinced that he could make a difference, Whisher, with the help of his wife Mary Ann, decided to go into business making buildings more energy efficient. They started out with residential construction. One of their first purchases was a ‘blower door,’ a fairly simple device which allowed them to locate the cracks and crevices in a house that allowed heat to flow out. Then they plugged the cracks.
It didn’t work out that well. “We did a lot of assessments for people,” Whisher laughed, “but we didn’t get a lot of building envelope work out of it.”
ECP’s Business Today
In his earlier career, Whisher had made contacts with and earned the respect of people at some very large construction companies, the companies that build huge office buildings, apartment complexes, and warehouses. Times had changed and now those people were interested in energy issues.
He talked about one of this first subcontracting jobs for the Honeywell Corporation. “An engineer did his own energy audit, but it turned out to be faulty,” he recalled. “Honeywell asked us if we could fix it. We diagnosed the problem and fixed it for free.” That earned us some points. “So Honeywell asked us to do some other assessments,” Whisher said, “and we really took off from there.”
Today, Whisher and ECP work almost exclusively with Honeywell and other large performance contractors, sub-contracting to do the building envelope part of their projects. “Now we tell them how long it will take to recover the costs of the project through energy savings,” he said, “And they trust us enough to guarantee their clients those savings.”
“We have more work outside this area than we do here,” Whisher said. “We have four crews with a total of 14 workers and they are usually working 200 miles from here.” On the day of this interview, ECP crews were working in four different states.
All are highly trained in applying insulation and are required to take continuing education courses on a regular basis to make sure they are totally up-to-date on procedures.
“We do a tremendous number of energy retrofits,” Whisher said. “In New York State alone, we have retrofitted more that 480 school buildings. In fact, we’ve done more schools than any other company in the country.”
Whisher is adding a new product to his business. Stayflex is another spray-on material designed to be applied to surfaces such as the interior wall of a metal warehouse. “It’s guaranteed to provide terrific thermal insulation and air leakage control for buildings that are not general insulated property.” At the time of the interview, Whisher’s technicians were receiving a lesson in how to apply the material.
The Key to Success
The business has certainly grown over the years. “We sued to work out of our house on Palmer Street in AuSable Forks,” Whisher laughed, “but that got too small. We moved to a building on route 9, just south of the City of Plattsburgh, then we bough a former convenience store near AuSable Point. Last year we decided to build here and we did it ourselves. Everyone who worked here helped with the construction over the Fourth of July week and it was great!”
“Customers only want a few things,” Whisher said. “They want us to be clean and neat, to be courteous, to know what we’re doing, and to get the job done and get out. They’re willing to pay for a quality job if we pay close attention to the details. We use that model of doing business and we’ve never had a problem.”
Mary Ann Whisher is the majority stockholder in the business and handles the financial end. Whisher gives her a lot of credit for the business’ success, then confesses, “I can make money, but I wouldn’t have any of it without her!”
After ‘growing up in the business,’ son James received a degree in mechanical engineering from Alfred State University and is now the company’s energy engineer. The Whishers have two other sons and a daughter.
What does the future hold? “With the cost of oil and the need to think ‘greener,’ we’re very optimistic about our future,” Whisher said. Then he added, “We’d love to do more work in the North Country. I know we can save people here a lot of money!”