By Sally Huggins

Entrepreneur: Sharla Riead
Company:
Hathmore Technologies, LLC
PO Box 1157
Blue Springs, MO 64013
(816) 224-5550
www.hathmore.com
Type of Business: Environmental Science
Year Founded: 1978
Number of Employees: 7
Keys to Success: "Basically we decided we needed to focus on the built environment because it's an area where everyone can make a difference. The architect who designs the building, the builder who builds it efficiently, and the buyer who educates himself and knows what it takes to have an energy efficient home all can make a difference," Sharla Riead


How do you build on a site to take advantage of the natural elements? How can you dramatically affect the energy efficiency of a home in times of soaring energy costs?

Sharla Riead and Hathmore Technologies have been waiting nearly 30 years for you to ask.

To build a structure that is truly one with its environment, you need to incorporate green technology and philosophy from the design forward. The changes that can be made later on are not as effective and usually more expensive.

Riead founded Hathmore in 1978 while living in Colorado. When she moved to Kansas City in 1981, she brought the company with her. But until three years ago, the company was her "other" job while she worked in finance for companies such as Sprint and Marion Labs.

When it appeared that people in substantial numbers were taking an interest in building green, Riead decided the time was right to turn her hobby into her livelihood. In 2004, she quit her job at Sprint and took the plunge.

Hathmore Technologies provides energy and environmental consulting for residential and commercial customers, including energy audits, building upgrades and consumption reduction strategies for new construction and existing buildings.

Lifelong Interest in Environment
Riead is a native of Colorado who ended up in Kansas City after meeting her husband, Ken Riead, a Kansas City native, while in school in Denver. Ken is the company's director of marketing and senior consultant.  

"I was interested in the environment just from being a child of Denver-seeing the smog over the mountains. I was always concerned about what I could do to help the generation of tomorrow-to help the children," Riead said.

When the energy crisis of the late 1970s hit, the time seemed right to start a company to help the public deal with the repercussions, such as skyrocketing costs.

"We were in Denver, the solar capital of the U.S. We wanted to educate. We wanted to get the word out as much as possible," she said.

In the beginning, the company taught consumers how to build and install solar hot water systems. Because of a tax credit being offered for having one in your home, several companies began installing them at a high cost, Riead said. Through her company, she would show consumers how to do the work themselves to get the tax credit.

In 1981, the Rieads moved to Kansas City and brought the business with them.

"I ran the company as a small side business while I was working other places. We wanted to help people who were beginning to think about energy and how it was used," Riead said. "The tide turned with an energy crisis, again. People started getting interested again and I decided to turn it into a full-time business. I hired other professionals and built the business."

Carbon Footprints
Riead decided to concentrate on buildings because it is an area of environmental science where everyone from a building contractor to a homeowner can make a difference. Once a house is built, the amount of energy it will use has been affected by the design.

"The architect who designs the building, the builder who builds it efficiently, and the buyer who educates himself and knows what it takes to have an energy efficient home all can make a difference," she said. "Once the house is in the ground, it will continue to use the energy for 60 to 100 years. You've committed to that level of energy consumption for the next century."

Hence, the greatest impact comes from educating people before construction begins, she said.

"We want to get to people before they put a home in the ground to make a difference in the carbon footprint it makes," she said.

Greenhouse gases are a big part of global warming concerns and 48 percent of those greenhouse gases come from buildings, Riead said. And, buildings consume, just for their operations, 76 percent of all electricity produced.

"It's an area where we can make a huge difference," she said.

Hathmore conducts testing and certification for new construction. An important element of the company's service is certifying a structure for the Energy Star label. Since 1998, Hathmore has qualified buildings for the Energy Star designation, which can provide tax credits as well as energy cost savings to the owner. Energy Star is a national program from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that offers a comprehensive, whole-house approach to improving energy efficiency and comfort in a home. Energy Star qualified products and practices help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by meeting strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the EPA and DOE.

Replete Residence
Part of the work Hathmore does is to educate builders and people planning to build a home so that they can see alternatives to traditional construction.

Changes can include different heating and cooling systems, positioning on the site, window selection, insulation choices and use of light, Riead said.
In 1999, the Rieads built The Replete Residence in Blue Springs, which serves as a model energy-efficient house, as well as their home and the company's offices. The house was built to demonstrate to builders that the techniques and strategies the company was promoting could be efficient and attractive at the same time, Riead said.

"We were getting pushback from the builders to the suggestions we were making about building better homes. We built the home to demonstrate what we were preaching," she said.

The Replete Residence has passive and active solar heating, solar electricity, home networking computer technologies, non-toxic building materials, state-of-the-art appliances, low voltage circuitry, a fiber optic network, foam insulation and a fresh air heat recovery ventilation system. The home has a 5-stars plus energy rating (the highest designation available in the Energy Star program), which is publicized by its door-knocker. It makes abundant use of natural light.

"We built it to prove you could do these things. I give tours by appointment to show builders, architects and consumers that a house can be built like a normal house, without looking strange," Riead said. "People who come and take the tour often bring back their architect or their spouse and say, 'See, we can make it look like this.'"

The house is so energy-efficient that hot air doesn't rise, which keeps the upstairs cool. And if you open the front door, air doesn't rush in.
"I tell people I live inside a zip lock bag inside a Styrofoam cooler," she said.

Work With Builders
The Hathmore staff understands the need for builders to control their costs, so the homes they build are affordable. Much of their work with builders is educational. Many builders are self-taught or learn from other builders and not through building design programs, Riead said. By teaching builders about green technologies, they then pass the information to their clients.

For instance, in this area, insulation in a basement can be a problem because of the moisture. Riead said the company researched how to insulate the basement without trapping moisture, which could lead to mold problems. They discovered a good foundation insulation system.

"We had the company come out and do presentations for the builders. There are a lot of different options and builders don't have the time to do the research. They don't want to do something that will cause later problems, such as the mold issue," she said. "We partner with the builders."

On a typical day, a Hathmore energy consultant will check in with a builder client and conduct inspections as the work progresses. If insulation is installed, the consultant will make sure it is according to specifications. If holes have been cut in the wall for wiring and duct work, the consultant will check to see that they are sealed before they are covered with drywall. Sometimes, insulation may have to be reinstalled or additional work may be needed, Riead said.

Once the walls are up, the consultant can go in and measure air movement to see how often air has to be recooled or reheated. They check the lighting and appliances-both for efficiency and installation-as well as windows to see what kind were installed and how they were installed. The inspections are all preparation for determining the energy efficiency of the building to issue the rating.

Riead said the company tries to stay on top of the building progress so they don't slow the project down.

"But, we don't rubber stamp anything," Riead added.

Most builders—once they understand the green technologies—want to build that way, she said. And with many people requesting that type of construction, it reinforces for others the idea of building green. The tax credits that are available for building energy-efficient structures also help.

Unique Staff
The increase in demand for green construction is fueling Hathmore's growth. Riead now has seven full-time staff members, five of whom are energy raters and consultants. She wants to hire more, but finding people with the right skill set is challenging.

"Mostly we have to grow our own employees," she said.

Riead has placed notices about openings at the University of Missouri-Kansas City environmental science department. While employees don't have to be engineers, they do need strong math skills because of the calculations required in an energy audit. A strong interest in building science and some experience with construction are pluses.

"The main qualification I look for is the right aptitude and attitude," she said. "You have to see each structure as a challenge. We can teach you how to look at it."

Riead herself is self-taught and is now a certified energy rater. Her first experience conducting an energy audit was as a last-minute replacement for her husband, who usually did the energy audits while she handled the business side. He was ill and sent her to take the measurements to bring back for him to complete the audit.

"I was doing fine until I went to look at the furnace, and while I was looking at it, the homeowner said it was the water heater. I was so embarrassed. I went home and said, 'I need to learn this,'" she said.

Energy consultants have to look at each structure like a detective, Riead said. It's building science-knowing how buildings are put together and how equipment works. While you see some issues repeatedly, others may be unique to that home or building. A lot of crawling into attics, under houses and other out-of-the-way places is required.

"If you are not comfortable with crawl spaces and spiders, this probably is not for you," she said.

Another downside to working for Hathmore is that employees learn to see all the flaws in buildings, including their own.

"I tell my employees, 'After you're here for awhile, you are going to hate your home,'" Riead said.

Aside from finding qualified staff, Riead's challenge is to manage the company's growth. She is constantly bringing in new business and needs the staff to handle it. But she doesn't want to over-staff and not have enough work for them.

"The business is growing exponentially," she said. "We are helping the builders market to their clients to help them understand what makes their homes different."

Affordable Housing Challenge
To reach even those without a big budget for building, Hathmore participated in a pilot project with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan., in which three builders each built a house to see if affordable housing could be energy efficient. Two private companies and Habitat for Humanity participated. Hathmore staff helped with all three houses, consulting on the plans to improve energy efficiency. The builders monitored their costs when they spent more for something that was energy efficient, Riead said.

"We found out you can build affordable housing with an energy star rating for the same cost as one without," she said. "The Habitat home earned the 5-stars plusrating using volunteers for the same cost. In one house, the builder saved enough on wood to pay for insulation and saved enough on right-sized equipment to pay us."

The Unified Government now requires homes built with its funds to qualify as Energy Star homes.

"That's the kind of change we want to see across the country," Riead said.

In Jackson County, a Jacomo Journey Demonstration Home is in the planning stage. As part of the county's Green Build program, the home will serve as a prototype of a net zero energy house, which means it will generate as much energy as it consumes. It will be built adjacent to The Replete Residence with Hathmore providing green consulting and construction expertise. Hathmore is also going to test an environmental septic system that the county wants to use for other areas where sewers are not available, she said.

Do It Yourself
While building green from the start is ideal, making changes to an existing structure also helps. Hathmore sells a kit that provides step-by-step instructions for a home self-audit, including how to find the common places where energy dollars could be escaping, how to diagnose energy use or misuse, where energy dollars are being least effective and how to transfer the findings into solutions.

For those planning to build a home, the Green Building Decision Kit helps with the decision-making process for green residential or small commercial construction (either new or remodeling). It serves as a guide you through the design process, providing information on:

• How to minimize waste in the construction phase
• Ways to reduce energy consumption during construction and the lifecycle of the resulting structure
• Use of renewable products in the construction process and renewable energy systems to reduce energy bills and pollution
• Incorporating the characteristics/climate of the location into the design
• Creating a healthy indoor environment through mold/mildew resistant construction, water and air filtration technologies

People have been trained to think about the cost per square foot to build, but that's just the initial cost, Riead said. That doesn't take into account the cost of living there or of maintenance. That's where the education comes in.

Also helping the move toward green construction is the falling cost of green products. Riead said the difference in using green products is now less than 1 percent of the cost of using traditional products.

As the building green movement grows, more companies are starting up or expanding into the energy consulting business. But Riead sees that as a bonus. With more people in the field, local governments can upgrade building standards because there are companies to meet the demand, she said.

"I am excited to see more people come into the field. We can push for more demand," she said.

Sally Huggins is the managing editor of Kansas City Small Business Monthly magazine.