Obama Praises Namaste Solar

When the President of the United States mentions your company in a positive way, that means a lot.

For Boulder, Colorado-based Namaste Solar, the praise Barack Obama gave the company during a recent speech on the one year anniversary of the U.S. economic stimulus bill was well deserved.

Namaste Solar designs, supplies, installs and services solar electric systems for homes and businesses throughout Colorado. The company has expertise in grid-tie and stand-alone systems.

Despite its conventional business offering, Namaste’s mission is somewhat different than traditional companies:  the staff works to "propagate the responsible use of solar energy, pioneer conscientious business practices, and create holistic wealth for the community."

That's a great mission, but what exactly does it mean?  What is holistic wealth for the community, and what does it look like?  Namaste defines holistic wealth as "wealth that benefits all stakeholders equitably – customers, employees, investors, communities, and the environment – as opposed to inequitably benefiting any stakeholder(s) at the expense of any other(s).

President Obama knew all about Namaste well before his recent speech. The CEO of Namaste Solar, Blake Jones, gave a rooftop tour of Namaste’s solar panel installation at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden before introducing the president as he signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Colorado Biz Magazine featured Namaste in 2009 and called it one of the state’s and nation’s top companies. “Namaste has grown quickly in five years and was awarded the No. 56 spot on the 2009 Inc. 500 fastest-growing private U.S. companies list,” the Magazine’s Karen Mitchell wrote.

Mitchell quotes Jones who was ecstatic about the rooftop tour with the president.

"The rooftop tour was an amazing experience,“ Jones told Mitchell. “This was the 15 minutes I’d always dreamed of. I was able to talk with the president and vice president about my favorite subject and explain how solar works and discuss global solar market trends.”

Jones is a self-described “energy patriot,” who is passionate in his belief that green industries will be some of the most important of the century. Blake Jones has over ten years of engineering and project management experience in the energy and telecom industries and has worked extensively throughout the U.S., Asia and the Middle East.

Starting in 1996, he worked for many years as a civil engineer and project manager at Halliburton/Brown & Root, an international oil services company. During this time, Blake spent 2 years working in Egypt where he honed his project management and engineering design skills. Shortly afterwards, he decided to leave the oil industry and dedicate his life to implementing renewable energy technologies throughout the world.

He then moved to Asia where he accepted a position as the Engineering and Service Manager at Lotus Energy, a Nepal-based renewable energy company. As one of the top officers in the company, Blake gained a sharp understanding of small business management and excelled at designing and installing renewable energy systems for harsh, remote environments.

Jones and Namaste have won several awards including the 2009 National Center for Employee Ownership Innovations Award and the 2009 Colorado CleanTech Initiative Sustainable Business of Honor – Gold Level award.

Image courtesy of Pete Souza via The White House's Photostream