Our Deep Environmental Roots
Our environmental ethic has deep roots. From the very beginning, The Synergy Company™ prioritized environmental responsibility alongside profitability. It all started more than 30 years ago when our company founder, Mitchell May, bootstrapped a solar array on the roof of the first offices in Castle Valley, Utah.
This was before distributed, small-scale solar systems were common fixtures around the United States. The system was more expensive on a cost per kilowatt-hour basis and less efficient than those installed today, but it worked well enough and established a precedent for the company that would reach out well into the future.
May emphasized, “The Synergy Company was founded on the belief that good faith, integrity, and environmental responsibility are eminently compatible with good business – we unequivocally believe that business can and should be a force for good.”
To that end, in 2000, The Synergy Company became a founding member of Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky program, which enables businesses to offset their electricity consumption with wind and solar generation. We also helped organize a citywide initiative here in Moab, Utah to promote participation in the program.
We succeeded in helping to convert numerous energy users to renewable sources, which resulted in Moab being designated as the first Green Power Community in America by the EPA in 2004. Never being satisfied with just “good enough,” we are unique as an “oversubscriber” to the program, which means we offset more than 100% of our electricity usage.
In 2020, The Synergy Company purchased enough renewable energy credits through the Blue Sky program to reduce our carbon footprint by 940,992 pounds of carbon dioxide. We did this by supporting 624,000 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy, which is the equivalent to what 945 solar panels would generate in a year.
Participating in the Blue Sky program is only part of our broader sustainability focus, which we aim to integrate into all aspects of our business. We continue to make progress in our quest to become carbon neutral or carbon negative and strive to become the leaders in our industry. This year, we’ll be taking the first step of a multi-year environmental analysis the results of which will inform our sustainability-specific investments for the next several years.
Although our journey to balance environmental responsibility with good business started decades ago by our passionate founder, we will continue striving to lessen our environmental footprint. We invite you to follow us on this journey and welcome any recommendations you may have.
