Business Journal: Eco Academy plants seeds for home efficiency vocation

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"Steve Clark survived two rounds of layoffs at GlaxoSmithKline, but lost his job as a drug-discovery researcher in June 2008 when his department was reorganized.

Then the stock market tanked in September. And again in October. And in November.

By the time his wife found the advertisement for the Eco Academy on CraigsList, he had run out of severance money and health insurance, and no one was hiring...."

Source philadelphia.bizjournals.com,

Philadelphia Business Journal - June 1, 2009
http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2009/06/01/smallb1.html

Friday May 29, 2009

Program is the offshoot of GreenandSave.com

Philadelphia Business Journal - by Sonja Sherwood Staff Writer

Steve Clarke survived two round of layoffs at GlaxoSmithKline, but lost his job as a drug-discovery researcher in June 2008 when his department was reorganized.

Then the stock market tanked in September. And again in October. And in November.

By the time his wife found the advertisement for the Eco Academy on CraigsList, he had run out of severance money and health insurance, and no one was hiring.

"I have four kids, so it was a pretty frightening time," recalled Clark, 44, a Havertown resident. "It's been a very tough job market. I had three interviews in six months. It's very tough."

The advertisement was for a new training program that promises to give people with no environmental background new careers as self-employed home efficiency consultants - all for less than $1,000 and in under one month.

The academy is an offshoot of GreenandSave.com, a home remodeling resource created in 2006 by local green consultant Charlie Szoradi.

Szoradi built the site after he and his wife transformed their 1950's home in Wayne into a highly efficient green prototype. With what he learned from that experience, he created return-on-investment tables to share with other remodelers.

Some of them wanted him to personally audit their homes, and he soon found himself in demand. Too much demand.

"It felt like when gas turned to $4 a gallon the sun rose up over the horizon," Szoradi said. "All of a sudden from last summer through October it became obvious that this wasn't another green lift but a game changer."

Szoradi realized he could help the environment, job seekers, real estate and GreenandSave all at once.

"Every dollar saved [in energy efficiency] creates a $20 lift in the appreciation of a home," he old a recent class in April. "The byproduct of creating a new job and new career is higher home values."

Training consists of a two-day layperson's course and practice home checkups. Student-consultants collect data at clients' homes using a checklist provided by GreenanSave, then plug the data into a software program Szoradi created that provides a return-on-investment formula for each green upgrade.

The software then spits out a handy report of the homeowner. Thinking about buying Energy Star appliances? The report shows you how much faster you'll make your money back by switching to compact fluorescent lights instead.

Greenansave collects leads that it gives to consultants, taking a 5 percent finder's fee off the $395 cost of a home check up. The software is free. Most of the additional equipment a consultant might need is just a couple of hundred dollars. Consultants can borrow additional, high-end equipment from GreenandSave.

About 100 people have been through the courses since they began in January. The first three months of training sold out to an eclectic group of all ages, races and walks of life, attracting people from as far away as Ohio.

John Krulewski traveled from New York for a recent class in April. The 52-year-old former Wall Street trader listed mortgage derivatives for a majoy investment bank before he was laid off with thousands of others late last year. Now Krulewski is starting a solar panel business in New Jersey and he thinks Eco Academy can give him a leg up in the green field.

"This gives me some cash income now, plus I learn something new while I work on other businesses," he said.

Renee Todd, 32, came to the class with three classmates from Esperanza College. All are looking to fast-track into meaningful jobs.

Todd said the class exceeded her expectations. "With the economy the way it is and people needing to save money this is important for everyone to know," she said.

A young monther who was unhappy with her secretarial job saw this as a way to spend more time with her children. Szoradi gave her some ideas for generating leads and told her how GreenandSave could assist.

"This is a way you can control your schedule," he said.

"I'm really excited," she said. "I am"

Szoradi has begun launching classes in other cities on both coasts, and he hopes to have an online version by summer.

Meanwhile, things have turned out well for Clark, the former GlaxoSmithKline researcher who enrolled in Szoradi's inaugural course.

"I got my first paycheck I think three weeks after I got out of my class in February, and now I definitely know this is something that can sustain my family," he said. By early April he had done 15 home checkups and had more leads than he had time for.

And more good news. Szoradi recently hired him.

"I am 100 percent full time with the title 'chief scientist' with GreenandSave and having so much fun and making a difference," he wrote in an e-mail.

Up Close

what: Eco Academy, a new training program that certifies people to conduct home energy efficiency checkups.
Who: Charlie Szoradi, chief instructor of Eco Academy and founder of GreenandSave.com.
Where: Classes are held every several weeks in the Philadelphia area. Visit www.greenandsave.com for the schedule.
Cost: Tuition is $995 for the two-day course. There is also a $795 one-day course for professionals who already have some related skills, such as plumbers and home inspectors. Early-bird discounts are available.

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