Berkeley, CA,: GETS Energy Services is a triple bottom-line social venture that provides subsidized energy upgrade services to moderate-income residents in Berkeley and Richmond, CA. New Foundry Ventures, is advising and assisting Rising Sun Energy Center in launching GETS Energy Services as a pilot business model that the will then be scaled to other communities. This partnership combines Rising Sun’s weatherization expertise, as a leading green workforce development and energy retrofit services organization, and New Foundry’s extensive background in building sustainable and scalable social enterprises.
New Foundry Ventures, a social enterprise business incubator, is looking to build on the growing market demand for home retrofits and the $625 million the government has already invested in green job training. The goals of the GETS Energy Services enterprise are to lower moderate-income homeowner utility bills and make homes more comfortable, healthy, durable, and energy efficient, while providing transitional employment for graduates of Rising Sun’s GETS (Green Energy Training Services) workforce development program. The GETS workforce program is an optional energy efficiency training module that participants of RichmondBUILD can apply to participate in. GETS Energy Services will provide talented and qualified graduates from the GETS training program with their first experience working in the green sector.
Through a partnership forged between Rising Sun Energy Center, the City of Berkeley, City of Richmond, and PG&E, GETS Energy Services is able to provide Berkeley and Richmond residents with exclusive incentives of up to $7,000 on energy efficiency improvements. The cities of Berkeley and Richmond are able to provide funding to this partnership thanks to the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant that they were awarded as part of their broader climate change strategies to reduce their CO2 impact. The cities decided to make some of these funds publicly available to residents to encourage energy efficiency improvements in the residential sector.
“This is a great opportunity for the community. We’re expecting to create 15 new jobs within the first year, and reduce a homeowner’s energy consumption by 20-40 percent, which reduces a homeowner’s utility bills at the same time,” said New Foundry Venture’s Project Manager Jade Rex. “Furthermore we’re also helping reduce CO2 emissions. The residential sector accounts for 21 percent of total U.S. CO2 emissions, which is more than twice the emissions produced by passenger cars. Reducing emissions from the housing sector can have a real and measured impact on the environment.”
Applications are now being accepted. To apply and find out more about income qualifications, homeowners can contact GETS Energy Services at 510-655-1501 ext:17 or visit http://www.risingsunenergy.org/content/getsenergyservices.html.