Green Partners: LewLew, Inc. — Delivering Savings in New Ways

Welcome to our Green Partners series, highlighting our partners in the community that help make Montgomery County Green Bank a success.

We talked with Bob Harmon – VP of Busienss Development from LewLew, Inc., to learn about its latest successes and why they are proud to partner with the Montgomery County Green Bank.

Tell us about LewLew and your work there.

Bob Harmon [BH]: LewLew is an Energy Service Company that provides a broad array of energy efficiency solutions including LED lighting, Smart Controls, HVAC upgrades, Solar, Energy Storage, Demand Response, Benchmarking, and Energy Star certification for facilities as an Energy Star certified partner. LewLew is also a designated Ambassador to the Montgomery County Benchmarking program. In addition, we do have a subsidiary called Save Water that deals with water conservation such as leak detection and other water saving devssqssices. LewLew is one of very few firms that are registered and certified to install these upgrades in all five Maryland utility service territories, and the ONLY company that provides lifetime warranties on LED fixtures that we install. I also take the lead role with the Green Bank’s CLEER Program and other innovative financing programs that LewLew provides.

What are the key decisions your clients make when moving a project forward?

BH: The question never seems to be “if” but “when” they want to proceed with the efficiency improvement. Many clients find that the improvements are more urgent than originally thought because of (1) tenant demands, (2) ongoing investments made into the Empower Maryland program, (3) available operational capital improvement budget or (4) long term infrastructure upgrade plans. What remains is for the client to decide on a comprehensive assessment of the facility and then decide on the funding/financing program. Once these decisions are made, then it’s a matter of scoping the most efficient technologies and design features and getting the work scheduled for installation.

What’s something exciting you’re working on now?

BH: I am most excited to be working on LewLew’s 2020 growth program. As carefully planned by Lewis Buchanan, our founder and CEO. this is going to be a demarcation year in the firm’s expansion and development. We are increasing our staff capacity and marketing efforts to serve our clients across all energy spectrums. For example, I will be working with Jenn Williams our Chief Operating Officer to expand our regional and national client base. In addition, LewLew recently opened an office in Kingston, Jamaica. In 2020, LewLew will focus on expanding our footprint throughout the Caribbean region providing our comprehensive solutions built around an accountable process-driven approach, such as solar storage, lighting, smart controls, HVAC and water conservation.

Project Highlight: at Mount Rainer Nature/Recreation Center (video)

Project Highlight: At Mount Rainer Nature/Recreation Center

Why do you choose to partner with the Montgomery County Green Bank as an Authorized Contractor with the CLEER program?

BH: LewLew is very familiar with the functions of the green bank programs in others states such as New York and Michigan so we were very excited to be associated with the Montgomery County Green Bank from its inception. The age of LEDs is increasingly bringing new lighting opportunities. The biggest obstacle we always saw to implementation was always funding.
With the Montgomery County Green Bank as an option, we are pleased that we can bring more people to the table. LewLew remains convinced that the Green Bank is well-positioned to help customers with their highest unmet energy improvement needs. These are the medium -sized businesses with peak demand of 60kW and up; these firms are not eligible for Pepco’s on-bill 24 months no interest financing.

How is CLEER a resource for your clients?

BH: LewLew’s ongoing interest in supporting the Montgomery County Green Bank is to make all long-term financing options available to our prospective clients. The unstated and often primary reason for declines in our energy upgrade proposals is the property owners lack of knowledge the many funding opportunities now available in the energy space along with the huge incentives from the utilities across Maryland. LewLew recognized this issue and now discusses all available financing options, including the Green Bank’s CLEER program, in the first stage of our initial prospective client contact. We review CLEER as part of our effort and explain that its inclusion can expand their firm’s future borrowing capacity and enhance their financial credit rating.

January 2020