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Namaste Solar

In: Business and Management

Submitted By locquangdinh52
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About Namaste Solar

Based in Colorado, Namasté Solar is an employee-owned cooperative that designs, installs, and maintains solar electric systems for homes, businesses, non-profits, and government entities. Since its inception in 2005, Namasté Solar has installed more solar electric systems in Colorado than any other company. Namasté Solar’s unique business model has garnered widespread recognition including a “Best for the World” designation from B Corporation (2012), a “Top Small Company Workplace” award from Winning Workplaces (2011), a “Best Place to Work” award from the Boulder Chamber of Commerce (2010) and Denver Business Journal (2009), a #56 ranking on the “Inc. 500” (2009), and a “Most Democratic Workplace” listing from Worldblu (2010-2012).
At Namasté Solar, we measure profit and success holistically – not just in terms of dollars and sense, but also in terms of employee fulfillment, customer satisfaction, involvement in our community, impact on the environment, and practicing what we preach. This paradigm felt like a perfect fit with B-Corporation’s multi-stakeholder principles. We are so excited to join the B-Corp community and to contribute to the overall B-Corp movement.

The Change We Seek™

Namasté Solar mission is to propagate the responsible use of solar energy, pioneer conscientious business practices, and create holistic wealth for ourselves and our community. We infuse this mission in everything we do. Examples of our conscientious business practices include:
As an employee-owned cooperative, Namasté Solar’s “co-owners” democratically own and manage our company on a one-vote-per-person basis. Each long-term employee can purchase one share of voting common stock after completing a 12-month “candidacy” period. Only employees can own common stock.
We practice 100% transparency with all company information, including salaries. All books and meetings are completely open to all co-owners. We review company financial statements and performance against annual goals in monthly, all company “Big Picture Meetings” (BPM’s).
Namasté Solar maintains a 4-to-1 ratio for highest-to-lowest total pay per employee, and each co-owner receives 6 weeks of paid time off per year. All co-owners democratically decide how to retain or distribute our profits. We do not pay individual sales commissions or have individually based performance bonus programs; instead, profits are divided equally among all co-owners based on time-based patronage to the cooperative for a given year.
Namasté Solar annually donates 20% of its after-tax earnings to non-profits, primarily via solar electric system grants. Since 2005, we have donated over $500k to charitable organizations in our community. Grant recipients have included Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, The Emergency Family Assistance Association, Environmental Center of the Rockies, and the Humane Society of Boulder Valley.
In early 2010, Namasté Solar was awarded LEED Gold certification from the U.S Green Building Council for the company’s main office located in Boulder. Building highlights include renovating an existing building using recycled/reclaimed building materials, charging stations for our fleet of plug-in electric vehicles, water efficiency, daylight responsive lighting, zero-waste recycling and composting, open work stations made from 90% recycled content (a non-cubicle culture), and two solar electric systems. Our Denver branch office is also LEED certified and solar powered.

What makes us a better company?

|B Impact Report |
|Certified since: |
|January 2011 |
|Summary: |Company Score |Median Score* |
|Governance |19 |10 |
|Workers |61 |22 |
|Community |22 |32 |
|Environment |44 |9 |
|Overall B Score |145 |80 |
|80 out of 200 is eligible for certification |
|*Of all businesses that have completed the B Impact Assessment |
|*Median scores will not add up to overall |

view full reports »
2013
2011

Company Highlights:

Workers: >50% of company is owned by employees; Workers paid >25% above minimum wage; Covers >80% of health insurance premiums for workers
Environment: >50% of facilities are LEED Certified; >15% renewable energy generated on-site; >75% of office supplies from recycled/sustainable materials
Community: >50% of employees participate in company organized community service; >5% of profits donated to charity; Offers employees time off to volunteer; >30% women/ethnic minority Board

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