Green solutions company Integris opens global HQ in Second Ward

                                                                Content from Houston Business Journal by Ford Gunter

Companies looking for ways to go green and cut costs now need look no further than Houston’s Second Ward.

Integris Energy Partners Inc., which offers commercial and industrial solutions for reducing carbon emissions and electricity consumption, opened its new global headquarters on July 1 in a 14,000-square-foot warehouse on Roberts Street, near the intersection of Navigation and York. The facility is located between downtown and the Houston Ship Channel.

“Since (June 24) we have 32 Houston-based projects that we’re bidding on,” says Sidhartha Sen, co-founder and managing partner of Integris. “That’s huge. It shows that Houston is ready to become a leader in the industry.”

The story of Integris goes back to New Delhi, India, and Hamburg, Germany, where Sen and a few partners ran a small eco-friendly consulting shop that was acquired by San Francisco-based Nexant Inc.

“We were unsatisfied so we rolled ourselves back out and took a lot of the people with us,” Sen says. “We had to figure out where to lay our hat.”

Sen and another Integris co-founder are from the Houston area.
“Houston made a lot of sense,” he says. “If there’s going to be a rebirth in energy management, Houston’s the place to do it.”

In May, Sen and company essentially acquired a “cool roof” installer, Integris Roofing Solutions, borrowed the name and expanded the operation.

There are eight people in the Houston office now, with plans for about 50 more over the next two years. The rest of Integris’ 115 employees are in Germany and India.
“In Texas there’s some unique circumstances,” Sen says. “The major polluters are all rallying around our firm like there’s no tomorrow.”

In the industry along the ship channel, the highest cost in manufacturing plastics — outside of the price of producing the oil for raw materials — is electricity.

“We pretty much guarantee 30 percent or more in utility savings,” Sen says.

Integris has a number of projects in progress with eight to 10 Fortune 500 companies, including an energy audit for a water pipe manufacturer. The firm also works with pharmaceutical companies, a razor blade and battery manufacturer, two major churches, two municipalities and several hotels. Several more contracts are expected to close this month.

Sen says Integris is basically operating without direct competition right now. Its former parent company, Nexant, works only with utility companies. Other competitors include Johnson Controls Inc., Honeywell International Inc. and Domani Sustainability Consulting LLC, but Sen says they can’t compete on price.

“If we bid on a 1 million-square-foot campus for $80,000, they’d do it for $300,000 to $500,000,” he says.

Integris is just now tying up an $80,000 LEED-certified roof replacement for Air Products and Chemicals Inc. in Pasadena.

Preston Akers of Group Contractors, which handled the conversion, hired Integris to replace the roof.
The installation for the 10,000-square-foot building ran about $80,000 and took about 10 days.
“It really wasn’t expensive, especially when you weigh the utility cost you’re going to save,” Akers says. “This was our first experience with Integris and I certainly hope that it won’t be our last.”

The Greening of Houston, 1-2-3

It’s no accident that Integris Energy Partners set up shop in the redevelopment zone east of downtown — a former manufacturing hot bed that has been dormant for quite some time.
The 14,000-square-foot warehouse is just off Navigation, in a U.S. Small Business Association-qualified HUBZone, designated as an area under economic duress. The goal, according to Integris, was to show how urban redevelopment and going green can happen at the same time.
“The key to energy efficiency and clean energy use begins with reinvesting in your infrastructure,” Sidhartha Sen, founding and managing partner, said in a statement. “This location will soon be an anchor for a new industry — solar power producers, clean energy consultants and environmental analysts — and we are here first, putting our flag in the sand and inviting the world to come.”