About Renovus
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
If you want to start using renewable energy in your home or business, Renovus can help. We are a design/build company specializing in Solar Electric, Solar Thermal, Wind Energy, and Microhydro (small hydroelectric) systems.
Our 100% solar powered building is located in Ithaca, New York. Renovus is locally owned and operated and is committed to designing and installing only the highest quality renewable energy systems. We have seven full-time employees who do nothing but design and install renewable energy systems year round. We are passionate, we are the best at what we do, and we are proud of it.
Contacting Us (back to top)
Via the Web or by E-mail
The best way to get in touch with us is through a Client Information Form. You will find links to these forms on each of our web pages describing the types of systems that we install. We use these not-so-personal forms to collect basic information so that a much more personal follow-up goes as smoothly as possible.
Your inquiry will be answered promptly by one of our staff. He or she will guide you through the process of having a renewable energy system designed, installed and commissioned. If you absolutely hate the whole idea of online forms, you can send e-mail to us with your questions. Of course, we are also available by phone anytime (see below).
Questions regarding customer payments, accounts payable, and other business matters should be e-mailed to Natalie Martin, our Finance Manager.
By Phone
We are available to take your call between 9:00 am and 6:00 pm, Monday through Friday. We have two phone lines but, at times, both may be busy. If this happens, please leave us a message and we will get back to you as quickly as possible.
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phone: 607.277.1777
fax: 607.277.1277
If you cannot reach us immediately, it is possible that our entire staff may be in the field doing Site Evaluations or engaged in actual installations. We involve our office staff directly in installations at their request - it gives them invaluable insight into what is involved in the process from start to finish.
In Person
Visitors are always welcome. Someone will usually be in the office during regular business hours (9am to 6pm) to talk with you, provide information or give a building tour. However, if you want to be absolutely certain, please call us or send e-mail ahead of time.
Our offices are located at 102 Cherry St. in Ithaca, New York. Cherry St. runs alongside the Cayuga Lake inlet in the southwest industrial park neighborhood of Ithaca. Cherry St. is accessible at the west end of Cecile A. Malone Dr. which is the first street north of Wegmans Supermarket off of Meadow St. (Rt. 13). Cherry St. can also be reached from W. State St. (Rt. 79) by turning on Brindley St. (running between Trombley Tire and Ithaca Grain & Pet), across the one-lane bridge to become Taber St. (sharp right), which turns into Cherry St. (sharp left). Our building is on the inlet (west) side of Cherry St. Its shiny silver siding, solar electric modules and solar thermal collectors covering the south-sloping roof make it a distinctive landmark.
Our People (back to top)
These links to personal web pages are provided for those curious to see what sort of individuals have come to work and grow along with this company. Our respective roles in the company are not cast in stone - our job descriptions continue to evolve.
Statement of Principles (back to top)
We intend that our company be an exemplary business with projects and policies which move us toward environmental and social regeneration. Achieving sustainability is only a first step toward regenerating a natural world which, in our ignorance, has been largely destroyed. Our essential and intimate connection with the Earth has been ignored, if not forgotten. This must change.
The people who work here endeavor to live their lives according to their deepest principles without making too many compromises to the dysfunctional social systems in which we find ourselves. With this awareness, we recognize that we are all connected - to each other and to everything - all is one. We recognize that change is difficult but necessary. Positive change trickles up - not down. It must start with ourselves, then our families, then our communities, and then the world.
While our company is currently organized as an S-corporation, profit it is not our primary aim. Financial success is, rather, simply what we expect to happen when we do the right thing and put our very best effort forward. As our company evolves, we expect that it will be reorganized either as an employee-owned cooperative corporation or a B-corporation.
We wish to be an example of a sustainable business in the fullest sense of that term. This means paying our employees a Living Wage. This also means that we think before we act. We think about the Earth which sustains us and how best to care for it and all its life, not just ourselves. When we act, we understand what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. termed the fierce urgency of now.
The main motivation for our work is our objective judgment as well as our intuitive sense that our world is not doing well, that humans are responsible for the present social and environmental problems, and, above all, that we are each personally responsible for doing something about it:
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. ~ Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Company Profile (back to top)
Since 2003, Renovus Energy has designed and installed literally hundreds of renewable energy projects throughout New York. Solar electric (PV) accounts for about two-thirds of our work and most of those projects are for residential customers. Residential solar thermal systems comprise another 25% of our projects, with small wind and microhydro systems making up the balance.
We are a small company which has never employed more than 10 full-time individuals. Small means manageable and flexible and dynamic. Fast growth is not a company paradigm. While we expect to grow as the market for renewable energy expands, we will do so thoughtfully and organically. Small is beautiful - and we're likely to keep it that way.
Our system designers are really smart. We have unusually strong capabilities in complex off-grid and hybrid system design. Our installation crews are smart and experienced. We rarely subcontract any aspect of a project - preferring instead the quality control which comes from keeping projects in-house.
Renovus is a well recognized name in Ithaca and throughout our region. We have been doing our work - which is exclusively renewable energy - for much longer than most apparently similar companies have been in existence. We are definitely not a large company with new "renewable energy division" - we've always been doing renewables - it is not merely a new "profit center" for us. We do our work based on our principles and we do not compromise Quality for profit - rather, we simply expect to make a modest profit on the strength of our collective experience and skill. Businesses - especially small ones - which lose money do not survive.
We strongly believe that our experience and accumulated know-how makes a huge difference in the reliability of our systems and, most importantly, in the confidence of our clients. We've been around for a while, we're here now, and we'll be here for the foreseeable future.
Our company has installed small commercial PV systems up to 22kW in size and we now have several larger projects - some much larger - in our design queue. That said, we wish to emphasize that acquiring ever larger projects (and profit margins) is not our goal. Again, we are a community-oriented business interested in bringing the tremendous advantages of renewable energy to our region. This means that Renovus will continue to focus our energies and talents on serving local individuals, businesses and institutions.
Our mission will not change. It's that simple.
Employment (back to top)
We receive many inquiries from people seeking employment or training in the field of renewable energy. We are seeing more and more renewable energy training programs and academic courses being offered - some of which are local or in our region. We intend to publish a listing on our website in the near future; meanwhile, there's always Google.
Renovus offers unpaid, experience-based internships - please call us or send e-mail for more information if you are interested.
You are also welcome to send us your résumé if you are looking for full-time employment. We will always consider highly qualified, unique, passionate, patient, self-aware, self-motivated, quality individuals to add to our group - timing is everything.