Introduction:
Pearl Certification is a Charlottesville, Virginia-based company. They have already certified more than 72000 homes. Pearl hopes that these certifications will help them raise the value of the homes. This is because home buyers have begun to understand the long-term value of having an energy-efficient home.
According to CEO Cynthia Adams, it is a way to motivate the audience to be a little more careful for the environment and reduce harmful emissions. The certification can add 5% or more to the sales cost of the homes.
Statement from CEO Cynthia Adams:
“In the course of many conversations about why residential energy efficiency wasn’t scaling, we came to an agreement that what was lacking in the space was a way to collect information on those high-performing features of the house and make that information transparent and relevant to other market actors, like real estate agents, appraisers, and homeowners,” Adams said.
“And so we created a certification system that’s based on energy modeling. It looks at the home in the same way that an appraiser might look at the home, but it captures more performance and granular data on the home’s high-performing features so that we can put that information in a report, put it into an appraisal, and then ensure that that information is communicated to the homeowner.”
Who are the investors for the company?
Clean Energy Ventures led the funding round with participation from Keller Enterprises, the Felton Group, and the Clean Energy Ventures Group. The company plans to add thousands of certifications for homes every month The investment comes with strong customer growth. Soon, they will announce partnerships and will use them to expand the team. They will also grow offerings and drive future growth, said Adams.
Adams and her friend Robin LeBaron began working on Pearl Certification in 2015 with about $250,000 in angel funds. They addressed the problem of upgrading home sustainability from a few angles. This includes trying to convince realtors and contractors that homes would sell at higher values with the certification. They also stirred up interest among the customers. They made the customers aware of the opportunity to increase the value of their homes. Moreover, in the process, they will also protect their environment according to Adams.
How the company helps the customers raise value:
Adams says that the company built software and foundational relationships with the National Association of Realtors. They invested in Pearl and Appraisal Institute and the Energy Star program in the US Department of Energy. This helps the company to raise more capital and recruit people.
Clean Energy Ventures MD David Miller says in a statement that improving home energy efficiency, energy generation, sustainability, and air quality is a multi-billion opportunity. The easy part is bringing down the emissions from the building sector. But the customers were concerned they would not receive the cost of high-quality energy-related improvements. That is where the Pearl Certification comes in.
“We think of the home as a living record,” Adams said. “If a contractor certifies my air conditioning replacement, we can update the certification.”
