Green Philosophy: “The overriding philosophy is to look at each project from a holistic perspective, rather than as a whole lot of elements working independently.” Matt Ayers picked what might seem a uniquely inopportune time to get into green custom building. But since he launched Aedi Construction in 2005, the company has experienced steady growth, even through the worst of the recession. “We’ve grown 25 to 40 percent annually over the past three years,” Ayers reports. Green building has been one of the few bright spots in a bleak market, but Ayers and partners Marc and Norman Beaulieu deserve credit, too. They cut their teeth on green infill development, earning the country’s first LEED-H certification for a multi-unit building; all three hold the LEED AP credential; and they followed a flexible and realistic business plan.
“We subcontract everything,” Ayers explains. “It allows us to keep our overhead low and survive tough times.” What he and his partners bring to the table is not just expertise in managing trade contractors, but also the ability to guide clients—and often architects—through a new and often disorienting process. “Clients still ask, ‘Am I going to have a composting toilet in the middle of the living room?’” Ayers says. “That’s when we’re really in our wheelhouse; that’s how we distinguish ourselves from other companies.”
On every new project, Ayers explains, “We go after the low-hanging fruit first.” That includes proper solar orientation, optimal insulation, low-VOC finishes, energy-efficient mechanical systems, and reclaimed or recycled materials. But the process also addresses how much square footage the owner truly needs. “We’ve had really positive reactions from clients when we say, ‘You don’t have to spend this much,’” Ayers notes.
Ayers and his partners are serious about water conservation, so they steer clients away from “fire hose” showerheads. “But if they really want that, we’ll try to make it up elsewhere,” he says. That flexibility is contagious. “We always encourage people to go with renewable energy sources when it’s feasible, usually photovoltaics or solar hot water,” he says, but because of the variability of future energy costs, paybacks are “kind of a moving target.” Still, Ayers reports, an increasing number of clients are saying, “This is important to us. Let’s pony up and make a statement.” Aedi Construction, Waltham, Mass.
www.aediconstruction.com
Type of company: Custom builder/ remodeler
Years in business: 4
Employees: 3
2009 volume: $3.5 million
2009 starts: 2 new homes, 16 smaller projects
