PAUL FLETCHER looks, to all intents and purposes, like an easy-going hippy. And while he is, there is a steely businesslike side to him that is not immediately apparent.

His first forays into business taught him that it is not enough to want to make the world a better place – one has to survive or preferably thrive in it too.

‘I was walking on a beach in St Malo in 1996 when I had a vision of the future. I decided that what I was doing was going to be huge and that I could make money out of it and the way to do it was through the Internet,’ he said.

Part of E-Si’s success lies in Mr Fletcher’s crystal-ball gazing that told him consumers would become more green in future and want their homes to be energy efficient and ecologically sound.

But it is mostly because he realised he had to train himself to be successful.

‘I looked 10 years ahead and visualised the kind of business it should be. I read lots of books, did lots of courses and educated myself to be an entrepreneur and a businessman.’

His original business started in 1991, selling low-energy light bulbs to Friends of the Earth members.

In 1993, Energy Services Ltd was formed and he ran it from his loft.

Prior to that he had worked for Tektronix for four years after leaving school, in retail for 10 and in computer engineering for five.

A couple of years after Energy Services began, he moved to premises in Mill Street and began a venture with two other businesses called The Greenhouse Energy Ecology and Free Trade Centre.

One pulled out and the other went bankrupt a few years later, leaving Mr Fletcher to crack on by himself.

‘In the beginning we were just a consultancy outfit and sales. We used to sub-contract everything.

‘The Greenhouse Centre was meant to be a drop-in centre with a library where you could make a coffee and surf the Internet. But that wasn’t going to work. We had two regular customers who were very committed, but they didn’t buy much.’

The business carried on until 2000 when one of the men involved left.

‘The business was lurching and I decided it needed to change to take account of what was to come.

‘Also, I needed money and didn’t have any, which was a great incentive to me.

‘It all had to go, it was complete tosh. I wasn’t going to be able to buy a house that way.’

Back to the fateful stroll along the French beach.

In 1996-7 it was too early to take real advantage of the Internet’s possibilities so he advertised in specialist UK journals and had a lot of interest which led to nothing.

‘People’s life-support systems can’t be fixed from afar.’

It was then that E-Si was born.

‘I had to come up with a business plan that combined local service with the power of the Internet. I am setting up the first stages of that plan now by getting the product right across the Channel Islands.

‘Once the Guernsey-Jersey business is profitable and giving customers what they want, the next level of the plan is to branch out and duplicate the concept in the UK.’

Instead of just advising people about how to make their homes greener, he wanted to get involved at the design stage and see the project through.

Taking a few years out, he read Differentiate or Die and other books, but he particularly subscribes to ideas by marketing and motivational gurus such as Tom Peters.

He already had qualifications in supervisory management and management studies, but went on to take courses in directorship, due diligence and corporate governance.

‘It came out of me wanting to make money and underpinning my intrinsic belief that we should all be living in a better world.’

Politics have played a huge part in Mr Fletcher’s life since his teens.

At 16 he was attending meetings on nuclear energy and educating himself about energy politics.

He and his mother were involved in the Nuclear Neighbours? Non campaign and collected signatures protesting about Cap de la Hague.

‘All my family were in politics. My grandmother and grandfather were in the States, my father [Dave] was in the States, my wife was in the States and my father-in-law was in a union.

‘Sometimes I felt like Romeo and Juliet. I had an extreme left-wing father-in-law and an extreme right-wing father.’

The idea of being a political representative occurred to him but he never pursued it.

‘My mental constitution wasn’t right at the time. I would have got very angry and frustrated.’

Instead he became involved groups like the Right to Vote movement.

‘It brought down the conseillers and brought democracy to the island. It’s strange to think that was part of a global democracy movement, empowering people.’

He now has no political ideals, admitting he has had to change to go forward and that growing a business was in conflict with traditional hippy ideals.

‘At first I tended to be a quite left-wing socialist, radical anarchist. Now maybe I’m leaning towards right-wing radical anarchist,’ he said, tongue wedged firmly in his cheek.

Mr Fletcher said he wants to make money and get people interested in a more eco-friendly life in equal measure.

‘The best way to look at it is I wanted to maximise my profit potential.

‘My ambition is to make a lot of money because, once I have, I can do more than I would if I had no money.

‘I could then find time to develop new products and new ways of doing things and also have a good time.’

He admits running the business has made a difference.

‘I’ve changed a lot – it’s like life changes you. You go through an event and you may not feel satisfied. You initiate change and as you do that, you change.

‘As Buddha said, the only thing that is constant is change. It’s a saying that you find a lot in business these days.’

But perhaps the business world has learned a little too.

Spiritual gurus’ sayings are used by top business people. Respecting people and the planet has to be part of a top corporation’s plans as well as a small businessman’s.

‘There’s a lot of them who ignore it at their peril.’