Energy influencers: Celebrating the game changers who’ve advanced energy efficiency

Throughout its history, E Source has worked toward advancing the efficient use of energy for utilities and their customers. Along the way, we’ve partnered with various industry associations with a similar vision of promoting and improving energy efficiency, including a longtime industry advocate: AESP.

Founded in 1990, AESP works to help its network of industry practitioners improve the delivery and implementation of energy-efficiency, demand-side management, distributed energy resource, and demand-response programs. Earlier this year, AESP celebrated its 30th anniversary and asked its members to help identify 30 Game Changers in the Last 30 Years—an open call for the technologies, policies, people, and institutions that have had the greatest influence on the evolution of the energy-efficiency industry.

AESP released the final list in its most recent edition of AESP Magazine. There’s no denying the incredible impact the technologies, policies, and institutions have had on the industry—from electric vehicles, smart thermostats, and time-of-use rates to ENERGY STAR and decarbonization efforts. But it was the list of 7 people included among the 30 game changers we found most notable. Four had a direct connection to E Source.

Amory Lovins

The 1973 oil crisis turned the world upside down, and in the midst of this chaotic energy landscape stepped Amory Lovins with a seminal paper in Foreign Affairs, an American foreign policy and global affairs magazine. His argument for the future of energy had a profound effect on President Jimmy Carter and helped to steer the US’s energy policy at the time.

The founder and chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Amory started E Source in 1986 to help utilities along the path of electric end-use efficiency. Amory quickly realized that utilities had to understand the customer side of these programs to achieve the savings set out by his original vision. We owe our company’s existence to Amory, and we’re not surprised at all to hear that he was selected as a game changer in the energy-efficiency space. His influence on the industry will be felt for years to come.

Bill LeBlanc

An industry veteran, Bill LeBlanc currently serves as the Chief Instigation Agent at E Source (a title he coined himself) and helps create customer-focused products and services. A founder and founding president of AESP in 1990, Bill has also held positions at the Electric Power Research Institute and, in his early days, stints at Apple and Disney.

Bill has played a pivotal role in E Source’s evolution over the years, and he does it in fun and innovative ways. In the early 2000s, he started the E Source Power Walking video series in which he chatted with people on the street about energy-efficiency topics, usually with mixed, albeit humorous, results. Today, Bill helps E Source utility clients design programs and initiatives addressing beneficial electrification, electric vehicles, and decarbonization. There’s no denying the role he’s played in advancing the efficient use of energy over the years.

E Source Chief Instigation Agent Bill LeBlanc took to the streets to interview everyday people about energy-related topics in the E Source Power Walking video series.

Ralph Cavanagh

Ralph Cavanagh is a champion of the notion that environmental solutions should contribute to the bottom line of polluting businesses—something that traditional regulations have prevented. Ralph’s unparalleled success in persuading regulators of the merits of this once-unorthodox view has helped to prove that utility regulatory reform is viable and that it can yield substantial environmental gains.

Ralph has played a vital role in the success of the Natural Resources Defense Council since 1979 and has used public policy to bring about positive, widespread changes in regulations and practices ever since. He was an early member of the E Source board of directors and contributed heavily to its start-up phase, that lasted about a decade. Over the past seven years, Ralph has served as a member of the E Source advisory board. He also served for 10 years as a member of the US secretary of energy’s advisory board.

Ralph Cavanagh (middle) speaks during an executive roundtable at the 2015 E Source Forum, hosted by Jim Rogers (left). Also pictured is Joe Jankosky, global director of utilities and IoT at Intel (right).

Jim Rogers

Every so often, an executive rises up to challenge the status quo and innovate on a level that can only be achieved with a certain mindset and determination. Jim Rogers, former chairman and CEO of Duke Energy, was that kind of executive. He was the first major utility CEO to truly push energy efficiency, and he committed to decarbonizing Duke Energy by 2050 at a time when it wasn’t even on the radar of other major utilities.

Jim was the inaugural member of the E Source Advisory Board. He was a true innovator, he was passionate about moving utilities toward a cleaner, more-energy-efficient future, and he embodied customer-centric thinking.

Continuing the mission of advancing energy efficiency

E Source celebrated its own 30th anniversary back in 2017, and as part of that celebration, we recognized the outsized role these four individuals played in making us who we are today: a force in the industry that’s helping utilities stay ahead of the curve.

Now, as E Source looks to the next 30 years, we’re seeing the potential for new technologies and methodologies to contribute to the energy-efficient future laid out by these visionaries. Things like predictive data science, machine learning, advanced metering infrastructure, and electrification of the transportation fleet will continue to build on the movement, and we’ll continue to play as large a part as we can in guiding our utility partners toward a brighter energy and water resource future.

About the author

WAYNE GREENBERG CEO Wayne is a senior executive with over 35 years of experience in business management. He has been CEO of E Source since 2014 and was on the company’s board for seven years before that. Wayne has worked with E Source for 17 of the last 22 years—in the 1990s, he put E Source on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies. In 2019, he led E Source’s acquisition by Align Capital Partners and continues to helm the company.