PASSION PLAYER

IGS Energy was founded on challenging the status quo to make the world a better place.

Marvin White—who led utility giant Columbia Gas as chairman and CEO—was a champion and pioneer of Ohio’s energy choice program, helping open the door to something like a competitive market for utility services. But when he retired, he didn’t settle into a beach house and relax. Instead, he founded IGS Energy with his son, Scott, and daughter, Cathy. It was 1989, and the industry was dominated by big utility companies, as it is today. But the independent IGS set out to make its mark as a natural gas supplier with ethos.

At every point of disruption in the story of modern utility services in the United States, IGS embraced evolution—especially through deregulation and the rise of renewables. It’s paid off, as IGS—which Scott White leads as president and CEO—has become the fourth largest energy retailer in the country.

Now, as the effects of climate change become more dire, energy companies have a responsibility to lead the way to a sustainable energy future, White says.

In his own words, White shares why innovation and compassion are the business pillars that drive him and power IGS in everything the company does.

You just developed a new purpose statement, and you’re all in on creating a sustainable future.

This is a family enterprise that’s been around for 30 years, and we’re trying to set that north star by creating a purpose that guides us in how we make changes and decisions on our business. I’m really excited about this purpose, because it gives us a very long-term focus.

The truth is, we’re heavily dependent on fossil fuels today. And that isn’t going to change overnight. We are in the fossil fuel business, because we are a natural gas retailer. We don’t apologize for that, because people use our natural gas to heat their homes and cook their food and run their businesses.

But we’re also mindful that as there’s more awareness around the impact of climate change, we need to come up with alternative ways to serve our energy customers that are reliable, affordable and, over time, reduce our carbon footprint.

What energy alternatives is IGS investing in?

The most predominant would be solar, which the company got into in 2014. There are different ways of commercializing solar. We do solar on residential rooftops. So people who want to self-serve their electricity and reduce what they take from the grid can do that. And we think rooftop is maybe the best form of solar because you’re not taking up the land. It’s a tangible experience for a consumer to see the panels on the roof, and then see the impact on their electric bill that they would have paid to the grid. We aren’t yet commercializing any batteries, but when you add a battery component at home, then you’re getting the benefit of being more self-reliant and independent from the grid. And we like that. I like it personally.

Our core business that we started over 30 years ago was about moving away from the utility being the only option when you purchase your natural gas. So from the very beginning, we’ve always had this “change the status quo” type of mentality, and it’s my entire approach to business. It started with natural gas and not having the regulated price as the only option but being able to offer an alternative to the regulated price. The deregulated markets have been a huge success, resulting in a competitive marketplace that gives you the ability to negotiate your own price and have a better understanding, awareness and control of what you’re paying for your natural gas. We’re taking that same concept and applying it to this idea that you don’t have to buy all your power from the electric utility, you can generate your own power on the roof and have control over that. That goes for our residential as well as our commercial customers. We’re finding more opportunities for commercial customers to get solar power at a price that’s competitive to what they would get from the grid.

Another alternative we’re investing in is how we source CNG, compressed natural gas, for heavier trucks and buses and trash vehicles, that takes the place of diesel. (IGS has a network of 15 CNG stations across Ohio and surrounding states.) We’re starting to source that gas from the local landfill—so it’s not the natural gas that comes from oil and gas wells; it’s from landfills where you can create a usable form of natural gas. Credits are available for pairing the landfill gas with CNG, and that helps incentivize more trucks to go to CNG, reducing the carbon emissions by 25%.