McKinstry, the Seattle-based construction, consulting, and energy-efficiency firm, has added a third company to its $5 million McKinstry Innovation Center, which opened at the company’s Georgetown headquarters back in May. The center, which many in the Seattle alternative energy scene hope will become a vibrant cleantech incubator in the Pacific Northwest, plans to serve as an “accelerator” for clean and alternative energy startups and small companies that are already making a difference.
EcoFab, which seeks to help people conserve energy in the homes through weather retrofits, is the latest company to set up shop at the McKinstry cleantech incubator. The company, founded in 2006, forms partnerships with local municipalities, neighborhood programs, tribal communities, and utilities to provide home energy usage audits, retrofitting strategies, and sustainable development plans. The aim is to help residential customers save energy, reduce utility bills, and improve comfort and livability.
“EcoFab has developed an excellent business model of analysis, design and retrofit services that have a significant impact for the residential customer who is committed to creating an environmentally friendlier, energy efficient home,” said Elsa Croonquist, a McKinstry managing director, in a statement today.
EcoFab will be joining two other very different cleantech companies, General Biodiesel and Hydrovolts, in the 24,000-square-foot “neo-industrial offices” at the McKinstry campus in south Seattle. One advantage for tenants at the incubator is the open access to the McKinstry brain trust, which is part of what attracted EcoFab.
“With our new location at the center, EcoFab will collaborate with regional leaders in clean energy and green building to adopt the best tools and techniques in sustainable home energy solutions. These partnerships and practices will allow EcoFab to scale up delivery of efficient services and products to our customers,” EcoFab managing director Callie Ridolfi said in a statement.
