Paul Hawken

Environmentalist, Entrepreneur, and Author

There is widespread belief that climate initiatives are either top-down or bottom up, when they in fact exist everywhere and in all areas of human endeavor. A meaningful global climate treaty and carbon pricing are needed but unlikely at the moment. Aside from political leadership, a growing movement within society addresses climate change and works to stop it before it is too late. Climate change is no longer a prediction, but a fact of life. What we can do together as practitioners, designers, manufacturers, architects, developers, builders, and citizens is the theme of the 13th annual Greenbuild Conference.

At the opening plenary, Tom Steyer will present “Project Drawdown.” In partnership with the USGBC and Steyer, scientists, NGOs, universities, colleges, students, foundations, elected officials, and government agencies are working together to create a book (and website) that details what it would take to achieve year-to-year CO₂ reductions in the atmosphere within 30 years. Drawdown describes how we can reduce carbon in the atmosphere using solutions already in place—measuring the beneficial financial and ecological impact they deliver over this period. It is a mirror held up to the world, which reveals what we are doing about carbon and greenhouse gases today. The underlying precept of Drawdown is that if something is happening, it is possible.

Drawdown describes the full gamut of solutions, both practical and social, that either reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere or bio-sequester greenhouse gases. This calculation has never been done. Bill McKibben penned the “Terrifying New Math” article in July 2012. It described what would happen to our cities, homes, farms, economy, and security if we do not take action on climate change. However, no one has done the math on what we are doing.

The climate debate today is similar to a decade ago. The science is robust and unequivocal, and most who grasp it are frightened by the predictions. Due to corporate and political disinformation, polls show that fewer people are interested in climate science than ten years ago. Climate-deniers make themselves look like optimists and brand activists as pessimists. In between, many Americans are still confused, but this is changing rapidly in the face of people’s experiences of floods, droughts, and heat.

The full range and impact of climate strategies have not been clearly explained and explored. Dr. Leon Clark, one of the lead authors of the International Planet Protection Convention 5th Assessment on solutions, writes, “We have the technologies, but we really have no sense of what it would take to deploy them at scale.”

Drawdown will be published in 12 countries and will be accessible on the web. It will provide impeccably researched information, open source models, and calculations on impact and cost that can inform government policy on all levels. A great number of these solutions involve the built environment. Whether new or existing stock, every building has a lifecycle of components that need replacing over predictable time frames, from carpets to fenestration to mechanicals. Burgeoning innovation in green building delineates clear pathways for retrofitting the 1.6 trillion square feet of buildings in the world.

We welcome those who wish to participate on the project as science or technical advisors, copy editors, readers, foundations, and company funders. This is our earth, our climate, and our responsibility. Please join us at Drawdown.org and create the future.

LEED ON,

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Charles Allen is the director of the Office of Coastal and Environmental Affairs for the City of New Orleans. He formerly served as president of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association and as acting director of the Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement & Development. Here, he shares his thoughts about the role of sustainability in the city’s rebuilding process, the pace of the city’s recovery, and how New Orleans will fare when the next big storm hits.

Interview by Calvin Hennick

Q. What are some examples of sustainable practices implemented during the city’s post-Katrina recovery?
Our public works department has installed energy-efficient street lighting. We also helped to establish a program where residents and businesses can get loans to do energy-efficient retrofits in their homes and buildings. In the Mid-City area, there’s the Lafitte Greenway project, focused on providing pedestrian walkways and bike paths, but there’s also going to be rain gardens, bioswales—all those sorts of water retention features.

Q. With all there was to do to rebuild the city after Katrina, why focus on sustainability at all?
There’s been this realization that, as we come back, we’ve got to do it better, we’ve got to do it smarter—we have to learn from the lessons of Katrina and Rita. As we deal with heavy rain events, as we do more and build more things that recharge the soil, and not rely so heavily on the pumping system, things like that help us to manage Mother Nature better than we might have been able to do otherwise. The proliferation around the city of solar panels, and people trying to do various things to make their homes and buildings more energy efficient, that reduces their utility costs. People then have more resources to make investments in their quality of life. That speaks to resilience.

Q. Has the city’s focus on sustainability increased during the recovery period, as compared to before the storm?
I think so. It’s like any other situation in life: You tend to learn better the hard way. You tend to really learn, and really become mindful of what you should have done, when something shocks you into a hard reality. We just have to be mindful that the ways and practices before Katrina, are not the ways and practices that we need to continue to follow going forward.

Q. Is the city prepared for another storm of Katrina’s magnitude?
I think we are. Since the storm, the Army Corps of Engineers—the federal government—has invested in a $14.5 billion storm risk-reduction system that surrounds the greater New Orleans metropolitan area. Nothing is foolproof, but we feel very confident in the system that is protecting us on a daily basis. We’ve had some tests. A couple of years ago, we had a major hurricane, Hurricane Isaac. And the system performed as designed, with no issues. We did not evacuate the city. There were points where the storm surge was just a little bit below Katrina, and if we had had the levee system that we had during Katrina for Hurricane Isaac, the city could have flooded.

Q. It’s been almost 10 years since Katrina. Is the city all the way back?
Not to the degree that a lot of us might like, but we’ve covered a lot of good ground. We’re still a city where, in terms of systems and so forth, we’re designed to support a larger population than we have right now, but you hear that all of these indicators are showing that there’s more and more people and activity coming back. The people are the critical thing. As we get more people back, as we get a more expanded tax base to help support municipal services, then that cost burden reduces over time. We’re maybe not there yet, but one thing is for certain: We’re stronger, we feel we’re better, and we feel that the trajectory is in a good, positive direction.

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By Eric Butterman

A sustainable rating system for multifamily dwellings is a win-win for residents and real estate investors alike.

 

The opportunities abound—if you know the score. That’s the thought behind the ENERGY STAR rating system 1 to 100 scale finally being applied to multifamily buildings as it’s been for so many other structures. Available through Portfolio Manager this September, owners can assess their building for this official rating. Previously, multifamily buildings were not able to show their green value in this way.

Team Effort

With the EPA’s ENERGY STAR recognized by 80 percent of the public as high-brand recognition, that label can change the conversation, says Chrissa Pagitsas, director of Green Initiative Multifamily for Fannie Mae. The problem was multifamily was left silent without a rating system. “It hurt multifamily’s ability to assess their property’s performance,” she says. “It wasn’t viable to do it before because the EPA didn’t have anyone to collect data to do the analysis.”

Fannie Mae agreed to fill that role. With over 39,000 properties in their arsenal across the U.S., they volunteered to gather data to change the multifamily landscape. The survey, which took place in 2012 and 2013, also resulted in garnering valuable statistics to further bolster that green could equal savings.

But there are certain qualifications. According to the Portfolio Manager website, this rating will only be available to properties with 20 units or more. To receive an accurate score and ENERGY STAR certification (given to buildings scoring 75 and above), more than half of the units on a property will need to be located in structures that have five or more separate living units per structure.

A Boon to Investment

Beyond its positive effect on improving the green status of buildings, Fannie Mae believes this will be a financial boon to affordable housing. “With an ENERGY STAR score affordable housing owners can prioritize where they invest capital,” Pagitsas says. “If you have 100 properties in a portfolio and limited capital to invest for improvement, how do you begin that assessment? This score gives owners a tool to assess where to best make those capital investments to reduce water and operating costs and increase net operating income.”

Roger Platt, senior vice president of Global Policy and Law for the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), also sees the advantage for real estate investment trusts. “They’re increasingly trying to position their particular companies as being committed to broader sustainability goals,” he says. “Investors are often asking what the sustainability aspects of these projects are. To be able to say this portfolio has an average ENERGY STAR score of ‘xyz’ is vital. They can tell their shareholders about their commitment and it goes with the whole premise of [Real Estate Investment Trust] REIT, the idea that it’s the most transparent form for real estate.”

Mike Zatz, chief, ENERGY STAR, Market Sectors Group, offers that we can’t say for sure what will happen with real estate investment trusts from the rating system, but notes studies on the effect to the office sector say we can anticipate the same might hold true.

However, it also benefits Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings (LEED EB). There has been a credit linked to the ENERGY STAR score but multifamily buildings couldn’t previously access it since there wasn’t a score for that category, says Pagitsas. Platt also sees a more focused and committed market for the LEED EB rating system after September. “If you are a company that has already done what is necessary to make your building an ENERGY STAR building, it will be much easier to make an additional investment when you’re talking about a LEED for existing buildings,” he says. “It can bring in the apartment building industry in a similar way to other industry.”

An Affirmation to Affordable

Shauna Sorrells, director of the Office of Public Housing Programs for HUD, believes the establishment of a score can push housing authorities to redevelop at a higher level. “It also encourages housing authorities to do their own internal assessment, identifying energy consumption hogs within their own portfolio, and prioritizing their limited resources to make improvements in that space,” she says. “Anything that increases the resonance of this conversation to our owners and gives them specific tools to help prioritize their resources to make these types of improvements we see as a strong benefit.”

Platt says the improvements also will likely be passed on in much-needed savings to tenants in affordable housing. “If this could create a reduction in someone’s energy bill of $1,000 a year, that’s a big difference,” he says. “The opportunities are there and now the data helps back it up.”

Moving Forward Together

The USGBC, a strong supporter of the initiative from early on, is excited to push its collaboration further now that the rating system is going online. “With our huge audience of 13,000 member companies and 30,000 individual members of our chapters, this is a benefit everyone needs to know about,” Platt says. “Our role will be to build on this score and encourage as many building owners as possible to go beyond energy and water performance and go into environmental details and lifecycle of buildings.”

The easiest message to spread is one that’s simplest. That, more than anything, is the beauty of this one. “The value is that you bring together the energy auditors, the energy efficiency and sustainability community with a common language that can speak to the finance people,” Platt says.

And, in the end, that value’s score just might be immeasurable.

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By Calvin Hennick

The Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans goes green with a little help from the local USGBC chapter.

 

 

Plaques outside the auditorium at Benjamin Franklin High School—a selective charter school adjacent to the University of New Orleans—proudly display past issues of Newsweek that declare the school one of the best in the country.

But inside the auditorium, the ceiling is water damaged, some of the lighting doesn’t work properly, and the wooden seats are beginning to show signs of wear.

“If you’re playing on a national stage—pardon the metaphor,” says school principal and chief executive Timothy Rusnak, gesturing to the platform at the front of the theatre, “I think you should have a facility that puts your best foot forward. You don’t go to a wedding in your underwear.”

Many schools in New Orleans were already in rough shape a decade ago, and with many needing to be rebuilt after sustaining damage during Hurricane Katrina, Rusnak has little hope that Franklin will get any sort of major capital from the city for repairs. Although, through a partnership with United States Green Building Council Louisiana chapter, the school is upgrading and greening large parts of its infrastructure—for free.

The partnership sprouted from the chapter’s Green Schools Challenge program, when mentors working with area schools began making offers of donations. “You get someone, and they see the shape our schools are in, and they say, ‘What can we do to help?’” says Shannon Stage, executive director for USGBC Louisiana.

“The light bulb sort of went off,” says Erin Ryerson, a designer with a local architecture firm, who helped organize the effort. Ryerson is also the GreenBuild 2014 Host Chapter Committee chairperson. “We’ve got schools with needs. We’ve got businesses that ask all the time, ‘Where can we put our products to show them off?’ It was putting A and B together.”

Instead of spreading the donations to schools across the city, Stage says, the local chapter decided to focus its efforts by partnering with one school each year, for a program they’re calling the USGBC Louisiana Green School Showcase. Franklin High, whose students won the most recent Green Schools Challenge, is the first “Showcase School,” and has received donations from more than a dozen vendors.

Allison Bowler, chief financial officer at the school, estimates that Franklin has received about $100,000 worth of donated equipment, materials, and labor—quite a windfall for a school that hasn’t received a coat of paint in 25 years. “It is wonderful,” she says.

“It’s heaven-sent, really,” says Rusnak. Because the school’s students are high achieving, many people assume that Franklin doesn’t need money, and they direct their donations elsewhere. In fact, Rusnak says, if the school wants to continue to “set the pace,” it needs resources. “We have a limited budget. Any kind of donation is very much appreciated.”

In addition to being charitable, Ryerson says, the vendors are getting something out of the arrangement, too. For many of them schools are major customers, and it helps them sell to other schools if they can show that their products are working for Franklin.

One of the first donations was a water fountain from the manufacturer Elkay. The company has now donated three fountains, which also have a spout to fill up water bottles. In the first three months of use, Bowler says, students filled up their reusable bottles 10,000 times. “So that was 10,000 [plastic] water bottles that didn’t go into landfills.”

The school is also receiving new ceiling tiles and wall panels that create a better acoustic environment in classrooms, low-VOC paint, low-volume sinks and toilets, and windows that can be tinted on demand, among other items.

In addition to saving the school money on its energy bills, Bowler says, the new fixtures will also boost Franklin’s educational mission. “You don’t only learn in the classroom,” she says. “We’re also teaching the next generation about how to be socially responsible. The sooner they see it as a young adult, the longer they’ll carry it with them.”

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20 kW automatic standby generator

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The KOHLER 20 kW automatic standby generator ensures homeowners are prepared for power outages, which have become more frequent in recent years and cost U.S. consumers up to $150 billion each year in spoiled food and medicines, flooded basements, frozen pipes, and hotel stays.  Designed to protect today’s sophisticated electronics, a KOHLER generator runs on liquid propane or natural gas and automatically restores power within 10 seconds after detecting a utility power outage. It offers quiet operation, a non-corrosive enclosure, remote monitoring capabilities through a laptop or mobile device, and a five-year warranty.

Kohler Co.
www.kohlergenerators.com.

Phuzion™ LED high bay

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The Phuzion™ LED high bay, available in 12,000 to 48,000 lumens, provides unprecedented light levels at temperatures up to 65°C. Driver housing can be mounted remotely up to 50 feet away for greater thermal protection, extending the life of the electronics. Marrying the latest in LED technology with legendary Holophane prismatic glass, vertical lighting is improved while horizontal lighting remains strong and uniform. Embedded controls sense occupancy and daylight to provide significant energy savings. Ideal for heavy industrial, light manufacturing, warehousing, and other large indoor spaces.

Holophane®
www.acuitybrands.com

Integrity Windows and Doors

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Integrity Windows and Doors brings its energy efficiency commitment to the next level with a tripane glazing option for Wood-Ultrex casements, awnings, polygons and special shape windows. These windows combine Integrity’s exclusive Ultrex material with three panes of glass and argon gas to create the ultimate in performance, beauty and strength. Wood-Ultrex windows using tripane glass offer all of Integrity’s current design and hardware options. And like all Integrity products, Wood-Ultrex casements and awnings with the tripane glass option are delivered to the dealer in an industry-leading 10 days.

Integrity Windows and Doors
www.integritywindows.com

Silicone Air Barrier System

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The Dow Corning® Silicone Air Barrier System protects building envelopes from air and moisture with the only water-based 100 percent silicone air barrier on the market. Backed by a system warranty and engineered to resist extreme conditions, this suite of compatible, high-performance silicone technologies provides long-term UV resistance and superior breathability. The components work together to help better protect the entire building envelope, contributing to energy efficiency in both new and remedial construction.

Dow Corning®
www.buildabetterbarrier.com

Coltlite and Kameleon

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The Bilco Company has partnered with industry pioneer Colt to bring dual purpose natural and smoke ventilation products to North America. These products provide innovative and attractive solutions for design professionals and building owners. Full scale, operational models of the Coltlite, a natural louvered ventilator for the façade of a building and the Kameleon natural casement façade ventilator will be on display at the Greenbuild Expo, Booth 2564.

Bilco Company and Colt
www.bilco-colt.com

RB 500 Roller Shades

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Offering the industry’s most comprehensive program, Hunter Douglas Contract’s RB 500 Roller Shades provide the complete package: Beauty, strength, and versatility. Designed to ensure easy installation, safe operation and a long product life, the RB 500 Roller Shade system helps manage light, heat, and energy at the window. Available with our industry-leading range of over 200 high-performance shading fabrics.

Hunter Douglas
www.hunterdouglas.com

Rubberway Sidewalk and Pervious Pavement

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Rubberway is a flexible, porous, LEED eligible, unitary paving system made from recycled tires. This sustainable alternative to concrete and asphalt provides valuable stormwater management, has a high solar reflectance, and can aid in reducing the heat island effect. Rubberway systems also encourage deep rooting of trees, reducing trip hazards from cracked sidewalks while making urban trees viable in more places. Rubberway is resilient enough to provide a low slip, spike resistant, comfortable and safe surface, yet firm enough to be suitable for more high impact use and even light vehicular traffic.

Rubberway, Inc.
www.rubberway.com

WaterFence

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WaterFence is the answer to the major challenges that have so far made rainwater storage in substantial quantities daunting and rare. It is a convenient and smart rainwater storage and management system that is also an aesthetic fence around a home or commercial building. Rainwater runoff from the roof is directed into 6ft high, 7ft long tank sections. WaterFence can store tens of thousands of gallons, provide for a significant portion of water needs, will have smart controls for autonomous operation, and will also serve as a recirculating water source for roof wetting systems to protect from impending fires.

Waterfence
www.waterfence.com

dB product line

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United Plastics Corporation provides an innovative product line for sound control solutions. The technologies developed by United Plastics Corporation that address sound control issues are based on over 25 years of automotive acoustic control experience. They are high performance, low cost, and environmentally responsible. We divert in excess of 20 million pounds of offal from the automotive industry by repurposing it into our products. The dB product line is manufactured from 100 percent recycled material and itself is 100 percent recyclable.

United Plastics Corporation
www.unitedplasticscorp.com

Insulation Solutions

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Johns Manville’s focus on performance inspires its research, design, and manufacturing teams to consistently deliver quality products that promote more comfortable, healthier, energy-efficient environments. The company offers a complete line of innovative insulation solutions, including fiber glass batts and rolls, mineral wool, spray polyurethane foam, blow-in, and polyiso sheathing. With Johns Manville, you can deliver thermal comfort and acoustical performance through a single insulation provider.

Johns Manville
www.jm.com

Digital Microgrid

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Elecyr makes energy independence practical and painless. Elecyr’s Digital Microgrid dramatically increases the collected solar power available for a home, business, or clustered development. It’s a modular, highly scaleable, plug-and-play system that cuts installation cost and system design by two-thirds, and continues operating even when the grid goes down. Elecyr provides personal energy independence and power security in a turbulent world where future energy availability and pricing is highly uncertain.

Elecyr Corporation
www.hybridpropulsion.com

LINX® drinking water systems

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Like RO quality water but hate the water waste? LINX® drinking water systems represent a giant leap forward in POU Water treatment, employing the latest technology—electrochemical de-ionization. Using only a small amount of electricity, LINX systems create high quality water for drinking and other uses. The computer-controlled system optimizes performance notifying the user that water quality is being met, when service is needed, and issues audible alarms. Most importantly LINX systems do all this while saving as much as 10,000 gallons of water per year compared to RO. Ideal for home and commercial drinking water systems. Greenbuild Booth #2522.

Pionetics® Corporation
www.linxwater.com

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Calvin Hennick has written feature stories for a number of national magazines and newspapers including the Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Press, Men’s Health, Running Magazine, and Eating Well among others. He is a creative writing instructor at the University of Massachusetts.

Alison Gregor has been a journalist at newspapers and magazines for 20 years. After obtaining a master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism in 2003, Gregor began her freelance career focusing on coverage of real estate and business in New York City. She has written for the Columbia Journalism Review, Glamour, The Real Deal, New Jersey and Company, NYinc, Haute Living, and other publications.

Judith Nemes is a journalist specializing in green issues and urban/corporate sustainability. Her news stories and features have appeared in publications including the Chicago Tribune, USA Today’s Green Living Magazine, Michigan Avenue Magazine, and GreenBiz.com. She’s also an adjunct professor in the journalism department at Columbia College Chicago, where she designed a class on reporting on green issues and urban sustainability. She received an M.A. in journalism and public affairs at American University in Washington, D.C., and a B.A. at Vassar College. Follow on Twitter @JudithNemes and Google+: JudithNemes.

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Her main pursuit at the moment is bringing light, literally and figuratively, to poor households in rural areas across India in the form of solar energy. Clean energy in India is not exactly an issue that is sweeping the global green community at present, so to say that Shah’s pursuit—bringing solar power to poor households in underserved areas of the country—is a progressive endeavor would be an understatement.

The U.S., home for this pioneering Indian American, is certainly a trailblazing country but solar-powered homes haven’t precisely caught on like wildfire, and most definitely not in low-income neighborhoods. Shah, however, sees solar energy as a potentially life-transforming form of power in India’s poverty-stricken communities, and is working through Frontier Markets and the Frontier Innovations Foundation to facilitate that change. Currently, it’s her life’s work, and while some may see a solar-powered rural India as a lofty notion, Shah views it as a practical pursuit.

For the poorest of the poor in India, those in bottom-of-the-pyramids (BOP) markets, solar energy is not just about cost savings and certainly not only about the environment. It’s about a basic necessity: electrical power. It’s an essential utility that, while so ubiquitous in the U.S. as to be considered an absolute necessity, if not a virtual right, is sorely limited and wholly unreliable in rural India. Shah knows; she’s spent the better part of the last six years on the ground level in rural India. “Having spent an enormous amount of time in blackouts, and actually seeing kerosene fires and seeing the damage that lack of electricity has on rural households, I believe if we’re going to be really addressing a challenge, it needs to be the energy challenge,” says Shah.

Frontier Markets has been moving full-steam ahead toward achieving this ambitious endeavor of supplying Indian residences in BOP markets with solar energy, which would address not only cost and environmental concerns but, more importantly, it would provide low-income Indian residents with the electrical power that continues to elude them. Solar energy is the most practical route, she believes.

“If you look at the alternatives for rural India, there really aren’t that many,” Shah notes. “The [electrical] grid’s not coming to rural India anytime soon. People are using kerosene as their alternative, which is disastrous. And in terms of affordability they can’t keep affording to pay for battery-based solutions, which really only covers lighting, not power. And so it kind of keeps them in this level of a vicious cycle of unproductively.”

She goes on to point out that solar as a concept has existed in India for over 25 years, and she and her team questioned why, with the country’s ample amount of sunlight, solar energy has not made “the last mile.” The grids aren’t there, but the sun is. It was a moment of clarity; they realized, Shah says, “There’s a clear need, there’s a clear demand, there’s a clear solution.”

However, Shah found that a solution was just part of the issue. She had to convince solar-wary residents that solar energy really is a viable option for them. It was just one more challenge that Shah was determined to overcome. As she explains, “While the need is there, people either don’t have access to the solution; they don’t know about it; they’re very uneducated about it; or they’ve had very bad experiences with it.” Bad experiences, indeed. When the Indian government first tried bringing solar in from Iran, it was faced with poor-quality products and no technical assistance. The experience left citizens with little more than distrust of solar.

 

“I know that you’re spending 50 cents a month on kerosene today. If I can get you to spend 25 cents a month on solar, you will immediately see your return on investment … So you quickly see the value of what you’re putting your money in.”– Ajaita Shah

 

Wariness is one obstacle; money is another. So, as Shah notes, for these residents who have little, if any, funds to spare, the proof is in the pudding. Her pitch: “I know that you’re spending 50 cents a month on kerosene today. If I can get you to spend 25 cents a month on solar, you will immediately see your return on investment or at least I’ll show you your ROI within, at the latest, three to six months. So you quickly see the value of what you’re putting your money in.”

 

As for lack of access, the answer is building retail points, which Shah has been doing, supported by the Foundation. But it’s not just a business move. “We spend a lot of time building up the fact that incorporating special service is our biggest motto, and not necessarily pushing a product but really caring about the needs of the customer.” The benefit is twofold, as the very same residents Shah is trying to sell on solar are also being wooed with the potential for income. Frontier Markets is converting them into retail points, thereby allowing them the opportunity to earn money on the solar revolution.

These retail points take two different forms: new entrepreneurs and existing business owners. Those residents who are new to retail open shops branded by Frontier Markets. These new businessmen and women are trained about clean energy and the products offered, which range from cost-effective solar lanterns and torches to home-lighting systems to street lights. Business owners with their own retail destinations stock Frontier Markets products and are instructed in the selling of solar products as well.

The best-selling items at Frontier Markets entrepreneurs’ shops and local retail stores are solar lanterns and torches, which harkens back to the impetus for Frontier Markets: safe residential lighting.
And then there is the limited but growing number of service centers designated to provide customer service and execute repairs. Customer service is one of Frontier Markets’ biggest mottos, Shah says. “We’re not necessarily pushing a product, but really caring about the needs of the customer—so we really do a lot of brand-building and a lot of it is to build trust with the rural customer.”

On all fronts, progress is being made. “People are understanding the concept; they’re understanding why they can trust us, they’re starting to think it through in their own innovative ways as to why they need power and what they are actually going to use it for.”

Frontier Markets’ partnering is proving fruitful in its goal of spreading solar energy solutions in rural India. The Government of India is being very supportive of Frontier Markets’ efforts, and in general, solar energy has become a massive initiative for the country; it’s a new part of the government agenda. “They know that electrical grid systems will not be reaching their constituents anytime soon and there are a lot of other challenges so there’s a lot of support,” Shah says. “It’s also an industry that’s booming in India. You have hundreds and thousands of manufacturers now, focusing on the solar as part of the government’s agenda. So suddenly, economies of scale is in your favor when it comes to the price point of technology.”

There’s government advocacy, but Frontier Markets’ endeavors also benefit from the global push for alternative energy. The organization has found assistance from, to name a few, the World Bank, the Clinton Initiative, and the Asian Development Bank, all of which are investing in making reliable energy available in developing countries.
Shah has achieved so much. She has been recognized around the world for her efforts. Frontier Markets, since 2009 inception, has sold 10,000 solar solutions to date and made clean-energy retailers of 125 rural residents. And she’s not done yet.

“Our fundamental desire is to really start addressing some of the base challenges that rural households face through distribution,” Shah adds. “We really want to become one of the largest solar distributors and actually have retail points at every village level in India, but we want to be able to replicate this model in other countries because I believe that if you don’t have sustainable points of service, you’re not going to ever be able to address the rural household’s needs on a regular basis.”

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