For nearly ten years I worked to provide effective field organizing tools for labor unions, advocacy organizations, and political campaigns. I spent the last three years at a campaign technology company that’s developed an array of essential face-to-face organizing tools, including geographic segmentation, reporting systems and demographic targeting. Arriving at Opower, I’m excited to continue driving technology’s role in fostering positive change.

What made you want to join Opower?

As I got to know the thermostat team here and grew to understand what Opower as a whole is doing to drive energy efficiency, I realized that this was the real deal. With a 16 month old child at home, climate change and energy policy are dearly important to me. I believe Opower will continue to create new and effective ways to encourage consumers to save energy. And of course, I was drawn to the people here. I feel incredibly lucky and fortunate to be part of such a talented and motivated team.

What has been your favorite thing about Opower so far?

The people. Every day I see a lot of hard work, integrity and talent.

What are some of your hobbies?

If I could hit pause and have a month to myself, I’d probably ride my bike down the Pacific coast into Mexico.

On Friday, Opower was named by CNBC News as one of five pioneering companies whose innovations are disrupting the energy industry’s status quo. Other winners included LightSail Energy (for its technology that stores heat energy via compressed air) and Picarro (whose diagnostic tools precisely measure greenhouse gas emissions).

What does “disruption” actually mean? In selecting companies for its “Disruptors 50 List” (which spanned ten industries, five companies in each), CNBC asked its panel of venture capitalists and market experts to consider factors like continuous innovation, technology solutions that meet business needs simply and cost-effectively, and the ability to scale quickly.

Opower fit the bill: we are constantly developing products that make it easy for utility customers to save energy and money, and our business and environmental impact is growing fast. We’re now working in seven countries, and with 8 of the 10 biggest utility companies in the US. Already we’ve helped customers around the world save $280 million on their energy bills, and we’re on track to help them save another $150 million this year.

Other companies ranking among CNBC’s Top-50 Disruptors include prominent start-ups like Airbnb, Kickstarter, and Twitter.

For more details, check out the full press release as well as the below video featuring CNBC’s Top 5 Energy Disruptors (with coverage of Opower kicking off at the 1:19 mark).

We’re proud to say, however, that in many ways it was just business as usual this morning at Opower headquarters. A lot of us did what we’re accustomed to doing: rolling into work on two wheels.

Opower Bike to Work Day - Group Photo!

All of our offices boast their share of dedicated cyclists. In fact, more of us are pedaling than ever, now that Washington DC and London have well-developed urban bike sharing systems. And even though the City of San Francisco still lacks a full-fledged bike share scheme, our folks there aren’t deterred: on a typical day, a formidable 20% of our ~100 San Francisco Oployees bike into the office!

Wall-to-wall bike storage at our Arlington Headquarters

Given that biking is 50 times more energy efficient than driving a car (in terms of raw energy burned per passenger mile) and infinitely less polluting, we wholeheartedly endorse it and aspire to make it easy and fun for our people. Our offices feature designated bike storage, a growing set of maintenance tools, and even organized group rides in the evenings.

Today, in the spirit of Bike to Work Day, the number of Opower bike riders soared. It didn’t hurt that it was a balmy morning in the DC area. Sources say that many Oployees were motivated by the promise of a free catered breakfast upon arriving by bike (see below). Meanwhile, our behavioral science experts are contending that participation was high mainly thanks to social pressure, since we were told yesterday that “the majority of our colleagues would also be riding into work.”

Breakfast is served to O-Cyclists upon arrival on Bike to Work Day

And of course biking at Opower isn’t only an outdoor or commuting activity: our bi-coastal fleet of blender bikes are always at the ready to whip up a refreshing fruit smoothie. Just add pedal power.

Oployees turning kinetic energy into deliciousness on the blender bikes this morning

Ahhh, how refreshing.

Our Office Manager Donald gulps down a yummy bike-blended smoothie to celebrate Bike to Work Day

National Grid RI President Tim Horan announces Opower's first statewide program partnership

Not only will every Rhode Island household receive personalized information about their home energy consumption; they will also have the opportunity to participate in fun challenges with family, friends and coworkers to compare their energy use.

This innovative approach to customer engagement is rooted in the behavioral science concept of social norms, or “peer effects” – the notion that people’s behavior is motivated by what their neighbors are saying and doing. We’ve seen this effect in action ranging from solar panel installation to showing up at the gym. For National Grid Rhode Island, the program is expected to save customers $10 million on their energy bills.

National Grid customer Dionne Nickerson showcases her first Home Energy Report

While every utility customer in Rhode Island will not receive a hard-copy Home Energy Report, they will all have access to a Customer Web Portal and ability to join the Rhode Island Energy Challenge. As part of the challenge, customers will be encouraged to take energy-reducing actions such as scheduling an EnergyWise home energy assessment, installing of LED bulbs, recycling their second refrigerator, and properly programming their thermostat. In addition, the program will ask municipalities, employers and organizations to host a Challenge and invite their constituents/employees to participate (e.g. through a custom Facebook app).

National Grid and Opower have worked together over the past four years to turn a 50,000-customer home energy report pilot in Massachusetts into a core part of National Grid’s energy efficiency and engagement strategy, now reaching 1.6 million National Grid customers across three states. To learn more about the Rhode Island program launch, check out the full press release.

Today we’re unveiling our Opower Design Principles. They help us articulate what it means to build a product the Opower way. While our challenges are unique, we hope other companies and designers can learn from our approach and apply our principles, outlined below, to their own world-changing endeavors. We also invite you to check out further details at our Design Principles site, which we launched today.

Principle 1: Design for how people actually behave

Why? Our goal is to drive measurable energy savings, which requires behavior change. Opower’s business model is unique in that our bottom line is directly tied to the amount of behavior change we can drive. As behavioral experts, we understand well what motivates people to take action, most of which would directly contradict what users would tell you in an interview. As designers, we leverage proven behavior-changing techniques (e.g. social proof, commitments, loss language), and we balance user research results with behavioral science knowledge.

Principle 2: Assume people don’t care

Why? Energy just isn’t that interesting. So we need to accept the burden of relevance: “boring until proven otherwise.” Designing for energy is very different than designing for people’s finances or health – areas people have strong emotional ties to already. Energy is cheap, especially in the United States, and saving a few dollars each month isn’t compelling enough to make people care. To capture interest, we deliver data-driven insights that are relevant, useful, and personalized; we follow visual and hierarchical guidelines to aid comprehension.

Example: Always pair data with meaningful insight.

Data for data’s sake isn’t interesting – people need to be shown what it means, and why it is important. Highlighting which devices use the most energy in your home, and showing how to save in those areas is one of the ways we can make a graph meaningful.

Principle 3: Always lead to action

Why? We need to think beyond traditional product metrics and make it as easy as possible for people to take action outside of our products. Like other software companies, we care about open rates, click-throughs, and conversion rates, but only if they empower people to save energy and engage with their utility company. We ensure that users always have a clear next step to take, right now. Every recommendation we make is in practice bound to run up against roadblocks, which are different for everyone. We take the time to understand those roadblocks so we can proactively eliminate them.

Example: Anticipate and eliminate barriers.

It’s easy to forget even the simplest ways to save energy, like switching off lights or turning down the thermostat when leaving home. By understanding all of the steps required to follow through with an action, we can help people avoid common obstacles to saving. These door hangers remind people to adjust their thermostat when they’d often forget to.

Principle 4: Aim for a long-term relationship, not a one-night stand

Why? Behavior change takes time, and our products fit into an existing long-term utility relationship. Motivating people through judgment or shame could be quite effective in the short-term, but leads to unhappy users over time. We strike a balance between eliciting emotion and not burning bridges. We carefully consider a user’s experience over the life of our program to ensure people are presented with realistic goals, encouragement, and rewards for their progress.

Principle 5: Build for everyone…who receives a utility bill

Why? Our products reach all types of people through all types of mediums. Many product companies have the luxury of an easily-defined set of users to design for. But at Opower, we’re designing for every person, all over the world, who receives a utility bill.

One of our most impactful products is an energy report mailed to people’s homes. Designing for paper is something the advertising and direct marketing worlds have done for years, but is not as standard for software companies. In addition to adopting cutting-edge practices in mobile and web design, we’ve also become experts in designing for the paper channel. We’re constantly calculating which messages work best on each channel and how designs need to adapt for each one.

Example: Design for all types of energy users.

Our paper energy reports reach people regardless of computer or smartphone access.

Our Design Principles site includes additional examples of our design philosophy and how we apply these principles to our ongoing product innovations. We see our approach as being able to influence behavior-change design in many other areas, from fitness to food to finances, and we’re excited to be a part of the conversation.

And in the spirit of Principle #3…

Opower is partnering with Efficiency Nova Scotia – a nonprofit organization that helps homeowners and businesses use energy better – to bring our Home Energy Reports to 90,000 homes and apartments across the province. In addition to educating households how their energy consumption compares to their neighbors and varies over time, the reports will provide customized tips and links to Efficiency Nova Scotia programs to help reduce household electricity consumption.

The program is scheduled to run for three years, during which participants will receive their Home Energy Reports throughout each year. A customer web portal will also be available later this spring on Efficiency Nova Scotia’s website, featuring even more detailed energy use data, tips and tools.

As Opower’s international presence continues to expand – we now have partnerships in England, France, Australia, New Zealand and more to be announced soon – we are thrilled to be launching a program just across the border. We look forward to growing our impact across Canada and helping more utility customers save energy in the future.

Check out the full press release on the Efficiency Nova Scotia program here.

The message is clear: there are simple steps that people can take to reduce their home energy usage, and eWise can help make that happen. And the ads make the topic of energy consumption refreshingly fun and interesting for the public.

With the launch of our partnership with EnergyAustralia last fall, Opower brought its customer engagement platform to more than 1.5 million homes in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. Customers have access to eWise through a web portal that provides insights and information about how they are using energy. They also receive personalized tips on how to reduce energy consumption and save on their energy bills.

The Australian airwaves are only the beginning of the international buzz around Opower products. With 85 utility partners in on three continents and more international partnerships to be announced this year, our global presence is growing every day.

We look forward to seeing energy efficiency humor spread to languages and cultures across the world.

Now in its fourth year, the BNEF awards program annually brings together a panel of energy industry experts to recognize companies that excel on the following criteria: innovation, demonstrated momentum, and potential global scale. This year’s winners represent a broad range of sectors including bioenergy, energy efficiency, digital energy, solar, and water. We’re proud to be among them.

As the global leader in customer engagement solutions for the utility industry, Opower’s impact is expanding rapidly as we continue to grow our utility partnerships – we now work with 85 utilities and reach 16 million households across the world. To date, we’ve helped home energy users save over 2 terawatt-hours of energy, enough to power a city of 500,000 people for a year and reduce people’s energy bills by $280 million.

“This award is a recognition of the ground-breaking work our talented and creative team does on a daily basis and the passion we all share for helping people around the world save energy,” said Opower CEO and Founder Dan Yates.

Check out the full press release from the event here.

All businesses have a conventional bottom line to measure their fiscal performance (financial profit or loss). Opower values its second bottom line – our environmental and societal impact – just as highly. Although non-monetary outcomes can sometimes be harder for a business to quantify, we’re unique in that we have a verified scientific methodology to measure our results.  And those results – which center on the massive energy savings achieved in collaboration with our 80+ fantastic utility partners – are what inspire us every day.

The way we achieve these results ultimately comes down to one crucial ingredient: our people. We are committed to finding and keeping the most talented, passionate teammates and empowering them to make a real difference in the world. Everyone on the Opower team – from engineering to regulatory affairs to systems operations – contributes to our growing positive impact on the environment.  

And the best part is, we have fun while doing it. In fact, Opower headquarters was voted one of the top places to work in the Washington DC area in 2013. Check out the below video to take a quick tour of our offices and hear a range of Oployees share why they are so passionate about working here:

Our company is getting bigger and better every day, as we continue to expand globally and deploy innovative solutions to help people save energy. If you want be part of a team that truly makes a difference and are ready to give us even more reason to celebrate on Earth Day 2014, come join us! Here are just a few of the positions we’re hiring for:

• Senior Software Engineer (San Francisco and DC)
• UI/Front-End Architect (San Francisco or DC)
• Product Manager (San Francisco and DC)
• UX Designer (San Francisco or DC)
• Sales Executives (US, Europe, Latin America, Asia)

For more planet-friendly opportunities, head to the Opower Careers page. Happy Earth Day!
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Energy savings and impact calculations are conservatively based on annual savings of 1.5 terawatt-hours per year, 325 full-time employees, an average residential retail electricity price of $0.118/kWh, and outputs from the US EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator. Additional conversions based on Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Facebook user research from Arbitron, and Nissan Leaf coverage by Time Magazine. All impact figures are mutually exclusive rather than additive.

Mother Earthly thanks to Ashley Sudney, Katie DeWitt, and Tyler Curtis.

These are the questions that Nandini Basuthakur, Opower’s Senior VP & Managing Director in Europe, posed earlier this week to her audience at the 9^th annual Cleantech Forum Europe in Bilbao, Spain. And unsurprisingly, not many hands were raised in response to her inquiry about people’s engagement with their energy use. The point she drove home: even in a room full of people who care about the future of our planet, we aren’t paying very close attention to the energy consumption that drives climate change.

Nandini addresses the 9th annual Cleantech Forum Europe (via @gregneichin)

Nandini then introduced the Opower solution – partnering with utilities to help their customers save energy. We use behavioral science and data analytics to make energy consumption and advice more personalized and relevant for customers. Our approach to  utility customer engagement recently won us recognition as the 2012 Global Cleantech 100 Company of the Year.

This year’s forum agenda featured investors, entrepreneurs, innovators, technologists, and corporate leaders from across Europe – a continent where Opower continues to build partnerships with several utility companies (including UK-based First Utility) to empower their customers to save energy.

An insider’s look at the 9th Annual Cleantech Forum in Bilbao (via @SMRTALEC on Vine)

Our energy efficiency efforts in Europe are more timely than ever in light of the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive, which requires countries to reach a 20% reduction in energy use by 2020. Earlier this month, we invited behavioral science and energy industry experts to join us for a webinar to discuss how behavioral energy programs such as Opower’s can be leveraged in Europe to align the interests of citizens, policymakers and businesses. You can check out a recorded version of the webinar here.