How these products can help you live an eco-friendly life
Ecobee CEO Stuart Lombard joined Yahoo Finance Live to break down the latest products that can help you live an eco-friendly life.
Video transcript
SEANA SMITH: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance. We want to bring in our next guest, Stuart Lombard. He's the CEO of Ecobee. And it's a smart thermostat and security system. And Stuart, it's great to have you here on Yahoo Finance. We have you on this week because it's Earth Day here in just two days. And I know there has been this renewed emphasis on clean energy and, of course, modernizing the power grid. To start us off here, just tell us how Ecobee plays a part in all of this.
STUART LOMBARD: Sure. So we started the company with this really simple idea, which was how could we use technology to help people conserve energy, save money, reduce their environmental impact? And heating and cooling is 40% to 70% of your home's energy. So actually, better managing your heating and cooling is the best thing you could do. Where we've come to now is renewable energy has become the cheapest energy on the grid. And so you're looking at an environment where we can consume cleaner, cheaper power.
And by creating products like ours that are connected to the grid that understand what's happening on the grid, that understand the price of electricity and the carbon content of electricity, we can help consumers consume energy that is both cleaner and greener and have a significant impact on sustainability for the planet.
ADAM SHAPIRO: So how does your thermostat do that? Do you actually share that data with me? Or are you just aggregating it and then it has some kind of program to adjust?
STUART LOMBARD: Great question. Yeah, it's all automated, right? So our goal is to make it as simple as possible. When you think about what's our role in our customers' lives, it's not to give you more things to do. It's really about, how do we make your life simpler and better? And I think when we talk to consumers, consumers would like to be more environmentally friendly. And so, like your smartphone is connected to the internet, our thermostats are connected to the internet. And we have access to data like power pricing. We know what the weather is like. And we know how your home performs. And we can use all that data to manage your comfort here on your behalf, but also to help you save money and be more sustainable, without you actually having to do anything.
SEANA SMITH: Stuart, in the past year during the pandemic, we've seen more and more people allocating more of their budget towards home renovations, or maybe they're even buying a new home. I'm curious what impact this has had on your business. Have you seen an uptick in sales as a result?
STUART LOMBARD: Absolutely. And so I think probably many of your guests have talked about it. People are invested in their homes. We're spending more time at home. Being comfortable at home is more important. And so, we're certainly seeing things like home renovations, new home builds, moving as trigger points for buying this kind of technology. And again, the great news for consumers is that not only do you save more money, but you're more comfortable as well.
ADAM SHAPIRO: What do you say to consumers who might be a little bit weary or leery of these smart devices, whether it be a thermostat or even a TV? Because they have microphones, and they might even have a camera. They're collecting data. Who has the responsibility to protect my privacy when I bring a device like yours into my home?
STUART LOMBARD: Certainly we believe we do. So when we think about our role, we see ourselves as guests in our customers' homes. And our goal is really to be a welcome guest in your home. And so we're very thoughtful about privacy and security and making sure that we manage your data with the same care that we would-- that we take care of our own data, right? And so we believe ultimately it's your data, it's not our data. And you can decide what to do with it. But our real goal is-- or our real responsibility is to make sure that we take good care of it.
SEANA SMITH: Stuart Lombard, CEO of Ecobee, thanks so much for taking the time to join us today.
