Whole Foods, WhiteWave Foods, Gaiam among top 50 employers in Boulder

Each year, the Camera’s Alicia Wallace takes a look at the top 50 Boulder county employers. This year’s private sector leaders included three companies you’d think of as green types right away, and of course plenty that have some kind of environmental initiative or another.

Whole Foods comes in at No. 13 with 712 employees, WhiteWave Foods at No. 16 with 507 employees and Gaiam at No. 41 with 231 employees.

For reference, IBM is at the top with about 2,800 employees and public sector employers remain huge in Boulder, of course, with the University of Colorado far outsizing everybody else at nearly 7,000 employees, followed by the Boulder Valley School District and St. Vrain Valley School District at about 2,700 apiece.

Nokero, solar-powered light bulb, invented by Denver man

Nokero's Stephen Katsaros

Colorado native Stephen Katsaros wants his bulb to brighten up places without electricity. (Leah Millis, The Denver Post)

It almost sounds like a joke — a solar-powered light bulb — but it’s not, and the guy who invented the Nokero lives right here in Colorado. The Denver Post has a story about Stephen Katsaros’ invention and the way he intends to get it into the hands of people who need and want it.

As soon as he saw the first molds of the bulb coming out of the factory, Katsaros, 37, quit the legal firm where he worked as a patent agent and devoted himself full-time to Nokero.

His plan is to target countries such as India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan, where hundreds of millions rely on expensive, carbon-spewing gas lamps but income is high enough to afford a $15 lamp. Demand is higher in places such as Ethiopia, but the population is too poor to afford the lamp, Katsaros says.

“This is not a charity,” he says. “We are using capitalism as a method to improve people’s lives.”

The Nokero made a few waves in the tech blogosphere when it was unveiled a little over a month ago. A big part of the pitch is helping people quit burning kerosene for light, according to a post by SmartPlanet’s Andrew Nusca: Read more