Solar Power World’s 2020 Greenest Contractor inspires sustainable lifestyles in local communities

The Greenest Contractor award celebrates the greenest contractors making their companies and communities as environmentally friendly as possible.

It’s not enough to just install solar panels to be considered a green-minded company in 2020. Office operations, transport, equipment, materials, installation itself — everything can contribute to carbon production. ReVision Energy (No. 88 on the 2020 Top Solar Contractors list) of South Portland, Maine, has made it a point to keep all five of its branches across Northern New England solar-powered and overall green.

ReVision, a certified B Corp, has installed solar at all of its offices, and paired those arrays with batteries, electric vehicle chargers, LED lighting and heat pumps. Many of its employee-owners have solar installed on their homes as well, incentivized to do so with product and installation discounts and an interest-free loan program implemented by the company. ReVision started a program to encourage employees to bike, walk and carpool to work and installed a solar-powered shower for those who opt for the first two options.

As for vehicles, ReVision’s installers drive trucks that run on biofuel, the sales team uses Toyota Priuses for customer visits and the marketing team has all-electric Chevy Bolts that are charged at their offices. ReVision plants native flowers to cultivate pollinator habitats on large ground-mount projects, and most offices host community gardens. The company supports local restaurants that source local food and use compostable cutlery and teaches customers and the community about the value of composting.

Materials used at jobsites and at the offices are recycled or in some cases upcycled. The ReVision marketing team showed children how to make birdhouses out of cardboard and wire; and solar panel pallets are donated to local artisans for home projects.

“After 250 years of fossil fuel wealth accumulation in the trillions of dollars, the renewable energy industry finds itself fighting an unrelenting campaign of disinformation and policy attacks as the dominant status quo uses its colossal financial and political resources to try and stop the clean energy transition,” said Phil Coupe, co-founder of ReVision Energy. “This is why it is such an honor, and so important, for ReVision Energy to be recognized by Solar Power World as one of the Greenest Contractors in our industry. Solar Power World’s accolades and support provide our company with the type of professional validation that we need to fight back against shadowy anti-renewable energy groups like the New England Ratepayers Association and their scurrilous attempts to dismantle solar net metering — the single most important financial incentive driving solar investments during the past 20 years. Thank you, Solar Power World, for helping all of us fight the good fight in the renewable energy industry.”