Powers of Arkansas*

Powers of Arkansas' tagline is "Creating Customers for Life," and that's exactly what President and CEO Alan Hope is focused on. "Make the customer happy and you'll be OK on the financial end," Hope said.
In the case of Powers, happy customers are those with buildings that are both comfortable and energy efficient. The company offers a variety of services related to building-control systems. Hope cited the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality as one example.
"We went in and looked at their building and said, 'If you do these things it will improve your energy efficiency and it will save you money,'" Hope said.
When the ADEQ inquired about the cost, the Powers crew told the agency the job would cost about $7,000. "And in the first year, they saved over $90,000," Hope said. "We didn't put any new equipment in or new hardware or anything like that."
The Powers crew made alterations to the existing heating and air-conditioning system and adjusted its programming. Hope described that type of work as "fixing."
"We have guys here who have 25 to 30 years of experience fixing buildings. If somebody's got a problem with their heating and air-conditioning system, we will come in, diagnose it, give them the answer and then move forward and get it fixed," Hope said.
Hope said the move toward energy efficiency at the state and federal levels would lead to more work for Powers. The company does a lot of work with federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the General Services Administration, and "all those federal facilities are making a big push to get their utility costs down," Hope said.
He also cited the state's goals of reducing energy use in state buildings 20 percent by 2014 and 30 percent by 2017 compared with 2008 levels.
"So that just fits into what we're doing," he said. "We're providing not just the energy-management system, but we're providing the service and know-how to make it operate like it should."

Previous Honorees