Page 16 - Green Builder Jan-Feb 2021

SUSTAINABILITY SUPERHERO 2021

Gene Myers:

Fearless Leader

Gene Myers and Thrive Home Builders keep
having fun raising the bar on high-performance
housing by ‘just doing the right thing.’

BY ALAN NADITZ
SK GENE MYERS ABOUT WHAT MAKES him a sustainability
superhero, and you’ll notice right away that he doesn’t brag
about his accomplishments. He doesn’t need to.
Myers, as CEO of Thrive Home Builders in Denver, has
A guided his staff to multiple awards in just about every major
sustainability arena over the past 20 years: U.S. Department of Energy,
EPA, Energy Star, U.S. Green Building Council LEED, National Housing
Quality and Green Builder Magazine, to name a few.
There are, he says, two reasons for this success. One is his employees,
whom he has the utmost respect and appreciation for. (“They really are
the thing that’s propelled our business over the years.”) The other is his
customers, who continue to challenge Thrive in unusual ways, forcing
the company to become ever more innovative.
Thrive Home Builders, which specializes in high performance single-
family subdivision homes, sees all types of customers. There are Baby
“The key is to not be Boomers who don’t want to buy another house but end up doing so after
seeing a Thrive product. Millennials who are buying because their parents
afraid to try things. Don’t are “kicking them out of the house.” Gen Xers who simply want to feel
like they’re doing the right thing with green home ownership.
be afraid to innovate.” HVAC. Environmentally clean all-electric. Net zero. Modern architecture.
And the requests? Clean-energy encouraging solar. Air-freshening
Unique design. Easy decision making. Affordability. On the surface, not
a big challenge for any builder. But making them all work can be hard,
depending on what a buyer wants, or thinks they want.
“I’m a civil engineer by training,” Myers says. “So, I think I’ve always
brought a problem-solving approach to everything. If a problem looks
really big or challenging, you just break it down into its parts and start by
Sustainability examining the little ones, and start solving the little problems. The key is
to not be afraid to try things. Don’t be afraid to innovate.”
That goal carries over to business dealings. In his 30-plus year career
Awards 2021 in housing construction, Myers has learned that manufacturers can be
great partners. He is more progressive than most when it comes to tying

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