45! That’s a big number for any company, let alone a woman-created, woman-owned and woman-led energy efficiency company. Just like all of the Marvel movies, CMC has a rich origin story. So, let’s take a short trip in the way-back machine to CMC’s early days.
CMC was founded in 1977 by Doris Iklé, a trained and highly recognized economist who believed the best way to address the energy crisis the country was experiencing at that time was by driving energy efficiency – cutting the enormous waste out of our country’s energy use. Doris was truly a pioneer – and one of the very few woman pioneers – of the energy efficiency sector which now accounts for more than nearly eight million jobs across the nation.
Doris was not a theoretical economist. She liked to apply the science of economics to solve real, practical problems. She knew in her heart that reducing energy waste was the cheapest, quickest and cleanest way to tackle the enormous energy and environmental challenges facing the country then and now. Doris devoted her life to this cause: convincing households, businesses, utilities and governments that it was in their economic interest to save energy.
CMC was started at Doris’s kitchen table and she continued to grow the company until 2010, when she named Eileen McGinnis President and CEO. Doris passed away in 2012 and ownership of the company was transferred to her two daughters, Judith Iklé and Mimi Iklé-Khalsa, who served as Chair of CMC’s Board of Directors until 2021. Eileen assumed the Board Chair role in 2021.
Since its creation on October 13, 1977, CMC has grown to more than 400 employees with offices in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Illinois. We have secured 100+ utility contracts and have helped more than 600,000 single-family and multifamily customers reduce their energy bills by as much as 25 percent. We annually complete more than 40,000 in-home energy assessments. For commercial and industrial customers, CMC has delivered more than 1,200 GWh of energy savings on behalf of state and utility programs.