Small Biz Profile: Ecohaus

When Matt Freeman-Gleason started ecohaus in 1991, he had a hunch “green” would go mainstream. So he set out to build a business that could compete against the nation’s large home-improvement stores.

“We always looked at our business and what we do as functioning in the larger non-green marketplace,” he says. “We’ve been competing against them from the beginning.”

S M A L L  B U S I N E S S  P R O F I L E Company name: ecohaus Headquarters: Seattle Founded: 1991 President: Timothy Taylor, President & CEO 2007 sales: Would not disclose Claim to fame: Northwest retailer of residential green building materials Learn more at: www.ecohaus.com

Freeman-Gleason and his wife started ecohaus, then known as EnviResource, on Bainbridge Island, a small community in the Puget Sound a half-an-hour ferry ride from Seattle. Three years later, the store outgrew its 800-square-foot space and moved into a 12,000-sqaure-foot showroom just south of downtown Seattle. The company never looked back. A devastating fire in August 2004 didn’t stop its growth; less than six months later, the showroom re-opened and the company topped prior sales levels.

Today, ecohaus has 80 employees and runs a national distribution company, Built-e. A national call center, online ordering and, since the 2006 purchase of Portland-based Environmental Building Supply, three retail locations in two states serve its growing client base.  Now, ecohaus is looking toward further expansion along the West Coast.

While Freeman-Gleason is coy about the company’s exact plans, he hints ecohaus has its sites on the Bay Area and additional locations in Oregon and Washington. The company is open to acquiring other retailers or opening new stores, he says.

Freeman-Gleason, who left his job as a homebuilder to start the company, says he believes ecohaus will continue to succeed as it grows because it remains committed to offering customers good prices on products they can trust, combined with “a competitive package in terms in of knowledge and a service base.”