Siti Crook

Siti Crook
CEO, President

Compared to other business owners, I didn't have the experience or credentials to manage our family's construction business, E=MC². In the fifties, when I grew up, women wore hats and gloves when they went shopping. No one told me I would do anything but raise a family and take care of our home. When I went to work with Dennis in 1980, there were only a handful of women entrepreneurs and few if any worked in construction!

Since I became an entrepreneur through marriage, I had some catching up to do. I quickly found my strength managing the company, which left Dennis to do what he loved...build homes. Like most small -business owners I wore many hats...sales, marketing, purchasing, accounting.

In the late 1970's, the U.S. experienced its first energy crisis. Researchers went wild looking for ways to save energy. Dennis poured over tons of research on energy efficiency that he used to develop a unique building design we call Ecobuilt.

E=MC² was successful at building Ecobuilt Homes that were comfortable...and different in one big way. The owners enjoyed much lower utility costs than their neighbors did without sacrificing comfort. Leaders in Philadelphia's government and the Owens-Corning company praised our success at building "truly energy efficient homes".

By the time our Ecobuilt energy efficient home development was done in the early 1990's, the energy emergency had passed. Once again, homeowners were more excited about kitchen cabinets and carpeting than insulation and utility bills.

I knew that we had done something special but I also sensed we needed to do more. It was only a matter of time before energy supplies and costs would become a problem again.

Then it came to me. We worked so hard at building energy efficient homes we overlooked the importance of teaching people how energy efficient living could benefit their lives. Most people didn't seem to care they would save a fortune on future utility bills while feeling comfortable year round. The crisis was over, people's priorities shifted, and it was business as usual.

The fact that people's priorities had shifted did not deter us, we made a life-long commitment to build only energy efficiently.

We felt frustrated and ready for a change when we went to Iowa in 1991. That year, my mother-in-law Elaine lost everything in a fire that destroyed her home. She needed us...and this was our opportunity to regroup. We built Elaine a new home. It was energy efficient, of course. Mom tells people—"If the farmhouse hadn't burned down, I'd be a senior citizen living on a fixed budget always scrambling to find money to pay the utility companies."

The time we spent living in Iowa gave Dennis and I time to make new plans for our business. We both went back to school at Iowa State University. A year later, we moved to Swansea, Wales, so Dennis could study green building practices at the University of Wales.

We returned home to the US in 1996, ready to get back to business. In addition to helping Dennis with his research on MAQCRETE, an energy efficient composite structural building material, I knew I could use the Internet to teach people about the benefits of living in energy efficient homes.

I formed the Energy Efficient Homes Team with numerous websites that today are leading clearinghouses of information on energy efficiency and other environmental issues. Dennis and I remain ardent advocates speaking to groups whenever and wherever; people want to know about energy efficiency.

The Energy Efficient Homes Team provides a full range of energy efficient consulting and building services for customers nationwide.