GETS Energy Services Launches!

In our work to create social businesses that address significant problems in the U.S. we both create businesses ourselves (such as Emerge Loans) and we also work with community partners to find the best business models for creating a scalable solution. At New Foundry Ventures we are fortunate to work with many great partners in creating and scaling social enterprises. One of those partners is Rising Sun Energy Center, a Bay Area nonprofit with whom we have been working with this past year to help create an energy efficiency social enterprise. Rising Sun is now ready to launch the fruits of our collective efforts as a new social business. Here is some information about this exciting project!!

Please join us in celebrating the launch of GETS Energy Services, the pilot model of our Energy Efficiency Enterprise! We are excited to be piloting an enterprise in the energy efficiency space as we see this business model as a viable and sustainable social enterprise that can be replicated across the country (learn more).

GETS Energy Services is a triple bottom-line social venture that provides subsidized energy upgrade services to moderate-income residents in Berkeley and Richmond, California, while also providing transitional employment to graduates of Rising Sun's GETS (Green Energy Training Services) workforce development program. The workforce development program is a part of RichmondBUILD, an organization that seeks to meet the particular job training and support needs of Richmond residents, 40 percent of whom live in public housing and 30-40 percent of whom have a history with the criminal justice system. RichmondBUILD's goal is to provide job skills to people between the ages of 17-35 who are facing barriers to employment.

Our Partnership
In partnership with Rising Sun Energy Center, a Berkeley-based nonprofit, New Foundry Ventures is building on the growing market demand for home retrofits and the$625 million the government has already invested in green job training. This venture uniquely addresses the need for transitional jobs, hands on experience, and a more supportive work environment for green jobs graduates in the energy efficiency space.

Rather thanduplicate efforts, our two organizations decided to collaborate in early 2010 when we realized we were both working on an energy efficiency social enterprise that could be replicated in multiple communities. This partnership combines our proven ability to create successful and sustainable social enterprises and Rising Sun's expertise as a leading green workforce development and energy retrofit services organization, with over 15 years of green jobs training experience. This pilot will help us refine our Energy Efficiency Enterprise model and develop a turnkey 'business plan in a box' that can easily be replicated in other communities. We will then work with

Rising Sun to begin scaling this model through partnerships with other organizations across the U.S.

GETS Energy Services enterprise sets out to achieve three goals: improve moderate-income homeowners’ quality of life by lowering utility bills and making their home more comfortable, healthy, durable, and energy efficient; provide qualified graduates of Rising Sun’s GETS (Green Energy Training Services) with their first experience working in the green sector; and finally to reduce CO2 emissions.

How You Can Get Involved

Want to help create jobs in the green sector, help moderate-income homeowners reduce their energy bills, and help reduce CO2 emissions from the atmosphere - then call us about how we can help you start your own energy efficiency enterprise!

To learn more about GETS Energy Services, and determine if you or your friends can potentially benefit from its services, please contact Rising Sun at 510-655-1501 extension 17 or visit the website.

Stay in touch with us during this exciting stage of our development by following us on Twitter @GETS_ES and @newfoundry, and on Facebook at GETS Energy Services and New Foundry.

Greening Our World, One Job At A Time

By Ashima Sukhdev, Summer Associate and Junior at University of Pennsylvania

The term “green collar economy” first made a lasting impact on me when I heard Van Jones speak at Penn during my freshman year. Van Jones, who has been known as the green jobs czar, is an environmental and human rights activist who served as the green jobs advisor in the Obama White House in 2009. He champions the idea that we can solve the two greatest challenges facing us today, the environment and unemployment, with one solution known as the green collar revolution. He’s not the lone voice that supports this idea either.

For those of you less familiar with all this terminology, the green collar economy refers to the creation of jobs that solve both socioeconomic inequality and environmental problems. Green jobs offer the opportunity to create thousands of low- to medium-skill jobs for the unemployed and under-skilled that help solve a number of environmental problems. For example, insulating old homes and buildings to conserve energy, installing renewable energy sources, waste management programs, urban gardening projects, etc. These are all local jobs that can't be exported, and that can provide real opportunities for the worst off groups (such as urban youth) to acquire skills, professional experience, and to become a part of the community again. Hearing Van Jones speak on this simple and powerful idea ignited a desire to figure out how this could work on a national, and international, scale – and whether it would indeed be successful. It was to my delight that I ended up working with a social enterprise heavily involved in the green economy just two summers later.

A Green Jobs Field Trip

A few weeks ago a group of us from New Foundry Ventures (previously known as Rubicon National Social Innovations), arrived in the City of Richmond for a field trip to see this green collar economy in action.

The US government has already invested approximately $625 million in green jobs training. One of the many programs that has benefited from this funding is that of RichmondBUILD, the site that we were visiting that day. The RichmondBUILD Pre-apprenticeship Construction Skills and Green Jobs Training Academy was developed to create employment and career opportunities in construction for Richmond residents aged 17-35 who face barriers to employment. RichmondBUILD has crafted its free training programs to meet the particular job training and support needs of Richmond residents, 40% of whom live in public housing and 30-40% of whom have a history with the criminal justice system.

The Green Energy Training Services (GETS) workforce development program is an optional energy efficiency training module that participants of RichmondBUILD can apply to participate in. Some of the participants of the GETS workforce program will go on to work for GETS Energy Services (the Energy Efficiency Enterprise that NFV and Rising Sun have launched), and some will go on to work for other energy efficiency retrofit companies. This is a perfect example of an industry helping to create “green jobs” in an urban community that needs them badly. The GETS program provides a particularly supportive training atmosphere for those who are perhaps seeking their first stable job to escape the traps of inner-city life or trying to get back into employment after long periods of economic stagnancy.

While at the RichmondBUILD site, we were able to sit-in on one of the energy efficiency training classes (most of which was far beyond my comprehension!), a large class of about 30 students from a variety of backgrounds. We also walked around the “mock house” which has been built in their warehouse where the green jobs trainees are able to gain experience and practice their newfound skills. Our tour of the site was conducted by Ramon, a graduate of the Green Energy Training Services Program. Ramon was clearly a wonderful mentor for the current students, and a perfect example of someone from the Richmond community who had clearly benefited from the training program. Having come from a rough background himself, he explained to us the impact such a training program and stable employment can have on an urban youth who needs guidance and a path to avoid getting involved in drugs, violence, and crime. What struck me most was Ramon’s awareness of the larger environmental movement he was a part of. He spoke of the importance of energy efficiency, and how exciting it was to know that he was involved in the process of reducing CO2 emissions in the residential sector. The visit re-instilled the sense of excitement I’d felt for the green jobs movement when I’d heard Van Jones speak, and I returned to my desk at the office reminded of the importance of the work I was doing.

Last Thursday representatives from RNSI attended the West Coast Green 2009 Conference. West Coast Green is a conference focused on environmental innovation in the building industry. Along with the usual tradeshow floor offerings, the conference hosted an overabundance of classes and seminars focused on education of eco-friendly construction practices. The conference was chock-full of interesting organizations vying for face time and growth in the green building sector. These organizations ran the gamut from traditional construction companies reforming their practices to disruptive technology producers aiming to save the world. Some of my personal favorites were Ideabuilders, North Cal Wood Products,and Driptech.

The ability to network with and learn from these organizations is what drew RNSI to this conference. Environmental protection is currently the vehicle of two of our enterprises (Mattress Recycling and Energy Efficiency Retrofit). While at the show we were able to connect with other organizations in the green space and develop our network. We are excited that at least one of these connections will blossom into a customer for our recycling program. But not only did we meet potential business partners, we also learned of exciting new trends in the industry. It is impressive the speed with which companies are adopting green practices. It took a while for the snowball to get going but it is truly picking up speed.

The West Coast Green experience was valuable for Rubicon National Social Innovations. The success is obviously manifested in the partnership we came away with, but other wins occurred as well. The conference was a valuable opportunity to make contacts with the visionaries who are changing the building industry. Additionally, it laid the seeds for future innovations and projects. Disruptive innovations could provide us with excellent opportunities to fulfill our mission, to employ the hardest to employ populations. West Coast Green was also an excellent chance to update ourselves with the technological advances that are changing construction. Our presence at the conference heightened the importance of being in the bay area, a great hub for environmental and social enterprise work. The connections and collaborations here are great for incubating ideas that we can then scale nationally.

A Summer Intern’s Thoughts on Working for Rubicon National

Before I became an intern at Rubicon National Social Innovations, I had little idea of what social enterprise entailed. I received a summer fellowship from U Penn with funding provided by the Levy Social Impact Fund at the Wharton School. I was intrigued with the internship position because it focused on a feasibility study on the viability of a weatherization and energy efficiency retrofit social enterprise and I had similar previous coursework related to sustainable energy.

My knowledge of social enterprise was limited to the notion that social enterprise somehow uses business skills to try to solve injustices or economic inequities throughout the world. With the little experience I had from doing community service in my spare time, I honestly could not distinguish one non-profit from another in terms of their strategies and approaches to having social impact. After a phenomenal and memorable 2-month experience with RNSI, I am proud to say that I can now make that distinction (or at least I think I can).

One thing that I have questioned over the years while participating in numerous service activities is how effective those service organizations are. Although their direct services were beneficial to those they were helping, it never seemed like lasting change in people’s lives was being made. By no means are these organizations unnecessary or obsolete; it just seemed to me that their work was “patchwork,” -- only temporarily providing relief.

That’s partly why I have continually been impressed by the work that Rubicon National is doing. The approach to battling a vicious cycle of intergenerational poverty is deeply rooted in creating sustainable, long-lasting employment opportunities powerful enough to lift people up and out of their predicament. The social enterprise models that are developed are truly innovative, creating social enterprises relying on market forces (for financial stability) and operating on a national scale to maximize social impact. They clearly break away from the patchwork model of traditional charities and make a lasting social impact in the communities that need the most help.
What’s more is that their recognition that social change and environmental responsibility do not have to be mutually exclusive, a tenet to which I firmly adhere. During my time here at Rubicon National, we have been diligently developing an energy efficiency retrofit service as a social enterprise that would create green collar jobs and pathways out of poverty in cities around the United States. Because of the federal mandate for economic recovery and climate change mitigation, Rubicon National realizes that retrofitting homes with energy efficiency measures creates excellent opportunities for the hardest to employ, offering training services and career advancement possibilities in a growing industry.

By leveraging tremendous volunteer support, Rubicon National has made significant progress on the enterprise that would not otherwise have been achieved. It is incredible how much buy-in to the project Rubicon National has received from corporate, civic and professional groups, accelerating the development process exponentially. Not only have the volunteers shown their interest in energy efficiency retrofits, but also that they genuinely believe in the potential it has for making a lasting social impact.

As my internship comes to a close, I am proud to say that I contributed meaningfully to Rubicon National’s energy efficiency retrofit enterprise. As biased as this may seem, I believe that Rubicon National Social Innovations is one-of-a-kind, having unmatchable experience in the field of social enterprise and a proven track record of success. They may just be getting their footing as social enterprise modelers, but they truly are the “laboratory for scaling social enterprise” and deserve much recognition for their work.