Although Gene Summerville is Environmentally Conscious Today, the project manager for Redwood City, California, U.S.-based Trilliant — a provider of intelligent network solutions and software to utilities for advanced metering, demand response and the Smart Grid — admits he wasn't always so. Raised in the small farm community of Mitchell, Nebraska, U.S., Summerville spent his childhood hoeing beans, painting farmhouses and tinkering with the automobiles at his dad's service station.

“I enjoyed fixing the electrical systems of the cars at my dad's shop,” he recalled. “So, my high school advisor suggested I study to be an electrical engineer. To be honest, I didn't have aspirations of doing great things.”

Summerville earned his electrical engineering degree from the University of Nebraska and secured a job in the electronics division of General Motors in Kokomo, Indiana, U.S. From there, he held a series of positions at companies across the United States, such as Commonwealth Electric Construction Co. and Etak, where he helped manage projects installing navigation systems in ambulances, fire trucks and delivery vehicles.

“I also worked for a firm that built ventilation systems for nuclear power plant control rooms,” he said. “I spent several years in wireless companies and traveled all over the world, including China, South America and South Africa.”

Like many young professionals, Summerville found himself living comfortably in a Menlo Park, California, townhouse, working long hours and striving to increase his bank account.

“During that time, I became active in one of my church's missions,” he said. “We traveled to Costa Rica each summer to help build schools and churches. While there, we lived with villagers in modest homes, some with dirt floors. Compared to American standards, they had nothing, but these were some of the happiest people I had ever met. I saw how they relied on friends and family instead of material items for happiness. So, I decided to change my life.”

When he returned to Menlo Park, Summerville put his house up for sale and sold most of his personal belongings. His intention was to find a Latin American family with a room for rent and live with them.

“I didn't realize a Latin family with a spare room is an oxymoron,” he laughed.

A week before he was to move out of his home, Summerville received a call from a church member who told him she had a Latin American friend looking for a roommate.

“I moved in with Cristina in late winter, and we had our first date on July 4,” he said. “By October, we decided to get married. We arranged to be married at a church in Cristina's home country of Colombia, South America, only to find out we couldn't be married there due to a technicality. We went ahead and took our honeymoon and were married when we returned to California. So, we did everything backwards.”

Today, Summerville works as a project manager for Trilliant, helping advance smart grid technology, which he says he finds “fascinating.” Recently, the engineer became involved with a volunteer-based program called Green@Home.

“Sponsored by a nonprofit agency called Acterra, Green@Home offers Bay Area homeowners a free home energy audit,” he explained. “We supply residents with items such as CFLs, low-flow shower heads, low-flow faucet aerators and a retractable clothes line. Then, we educate them about how small changes they make around their house can lower their utility bills as well as their carbon footprint.”

Green@Home volunteers also use a Kill-a-Watt electricity usage monitor to help homeowners count consumption by the kilowatt-hour. Summerville was so impressed by the device that he purchased one for use around his home and office.

“I took it to Trilliant one day, and from there we started thinking about how we could save energy at work,” he said. “We have a lot of monitors in the building and found that by changing the intensity of the monitors, we could reduce their power consumption by 50% without affecting their appearance. That was pretty eye opening.”

In addition, Summerville used the meter and the knowledge he gained through Green@Home to recommend ways to conserve energy for his friends and family. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling with his wife, tending to his vegetable garden, making his home as energy efficient as possible and, of course, volunteering his time to help others. One thing he does not plan to do any time soon, however, is retire.

“A lot of people talk about retiring, and I never understood that,” he said. “I grew up in a community where a guy would sit his young son on his knee and teach him to drive a tractor. Then, the son would grow up, get married and teach his son to drive a tractor. All the men stayed on the farm and worked until they weren't physically able to do so anymore. If someone couldn't work, you felt sorry for them. I believe it's good to stay active in life after you leave the full-time workforce.”