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Vancouver’s energy efficiency pulse
August 03, 2010
Pulse Energy is based on a simple idea: Using less energy makes bottom-line sense. But implementing simple ideas requires minds schooled in complexity
by Jeffrey Simpson, Globe and Mail
Vancouver, seductive and beautiful, remains too much a branch-plant kind of town. Compared with Seattle and Portland, to say nothing of northern California, it needs more innovation to push homegrown enterprises to do business outside the local market.
David Helliwell, 38, is trying to do just that. In five years, Mr. Helliwell and his silent partner, a man who made a lot of money developing and selling a large business, has built Pulse Energy into a company that employs 50 people, has enjoyed close to 100-per-cent quarter-over-quarter growth and, if all goes well, might be employing hundreds of people in the near future. From a company whose first contract in 2006 was with an aboriginal band of 100 people, Pulse now works throughout Western Canada and is branching out to other countries.
