Our Origins

A Return to Blue and Green Sensibilities

After a full career at IBM, where he worked tirelessly in support of his customers, Gary left, determined to be of help in the energy crisis he clearly saw coming. It was obvious to him that the place he could be of most value to the community was helping homeowners and small businesses understand and deal with energy related issues.

When Gary was young, he lived in Kansas. Open blue skies and open green spaces fostered a love of the land and a respect for its gifts. He learned about gardens, fruit trees and bees. Most importantly, he learned how to be a steward and caretaker of the land as opposed to a taker, or a user. His new life’s work would be taking people back to his blue and green Kansas sensibilities – with new technologies as his partners, and the elements as his board of directors. He would share his knowledge of sustainability, giving all who asked a ticket into their own future.

Butterfly Energy Works is now a business in its fifth year. Gary has gathered a knowledgeable and committed team to share in his dream. Folks in the city, the county, and states far away are knocking on his door asking for advice, direction, and solutions. Being able to give back to the environment that raised him and changing the world, one house at a time is the most fun he ever dreamed of having. Time to fly.

Inspired by Butterflies – a Natural Approach to Conservation and Innovation

We are often asked how Butterfly Energy Works was named. Our owner and founder, Gary Steps, came up with the name because he has admired, studied and photographed butterflies for many years. The way he tells it, a butterfly is one of nature’s great examples of efficient use of the sun’s energy. When a butterfly emerges from its chrysalis, it inflates its wings with blood to expand them and spreads them out in the sun to dry. Butterflies continue to benefit from the heat energy produced by the sun as they utilize this heat or material heated by the sun (like a rock) to keep their bodies and wings warm to enable their flight. So, our company is representative of the butterfly, spreading its wings to take advantage of solar energy (in many forms) to enable flight.

In addition, the scales of butterflies have been credited for inspiring the technology behind light emitting diodes (LEDs) and the structural coloration of butterflies have lead to the development of non-toxic paints and new display technologies because almost all of the color in a butterfly wing is not from pigments, but from fine micro structures. Also, there is an ancient Chinese parable about the power of a butterfly. In our contemporary world, it’s been given a cultured name – the “Butterfly Effect”. The parable states that the simple flutter of a butterfly’s wing will have an effect hundreds of miles away, and many days into the future.

Lastly, butterfly caterpillers are highly destructive of human food, and billions are poisoned every year to protect crops. However, after they go into their chrysalis and are transformed, they turn into butterflies, floating in the wind, basking in the sun, drinking flower nector, and eventually being recycled.

We are all caterpillers, and need to become butterflies.