By Jacob Ng, Solar Ambassador, RE-volv
Climate change often feels like an overwhelming challenge. Its causes are embedded in all of the societal functions we take for granted – electricity at the flip of a switch, a cheap hamburger from a fast food chain, the ability to travel across an ocean in a matter of hours. Its impacts are being felt around the globe and extend beyond human civilization to include threats to all organisms and ecosystems. And yet, despite recognizing that the roots and effects of climate change are multi-faceted, it can be easy to despair and forget that the solutions are equally varied. As with all major undertakings, the most important thing to do is start. Just because the national government has chosen to ignore climate change doesn’t mean that no progress can be made. Now the responsibility falls to the people, the businesses, the nonprofits, to come together and make change happen. That change can start as small as helping a nonprofit use solar panels to decrease their emissions.
Nonprofits often face special barriers to going solar; they can’t take advantage of the solar tax credits, they don’t have a big budget to pay for the capital cost, and their project sizes tend to be small, which deters traditional solar financiers. This problem came to be the focus of RE-volv, a nonprofit based in San Francisco. They saw a scattered community itching to do something about climate change, but not sure how they could make a difference by themselves. By connecting these individuals with each other and the nonprofits in their community, the solar seed fund was born. RE-volv crowdfunds donations to cover the costs of a solar installation for a nonprofit. Nonprofits pay nothing up front for the solar energy system, but over time they pay RE-volv back through a lease with interest. All of those lease payments are reinvested into solar projects for other places we care about—our schools, places of faith, nature centers—across the country, creating a revolving fund that grows with time.
As a way to spread their impact and provide young people a way to improve their community, RE-volv created the Solar Ambassador program, which trains groups of college students to run a project start to finish – finding a nonprofit partner, crowdfunding, and installing the solar system. After a year of hard work, our UW-Madison Solar Ambassador team is stoked to be in the midst of our first campaign. We’ve partnered with Project Home, a Madison nonprofit which performs home repairs and energy improvements to make homes healthier, safer and to ease the financial burden of high energy bills for disadvantaged residents. With the support of the community, our goal is to install an 8kW solar system on Project Home’s office, allowing them to cut their carbon footprint and saving them money on their electric bill - money which will help improve the programs for those they serve.
We still need your help! You can find more about the project at our website: https://re-volv.org/project/projecthome/. Right now is a great time to support, because all donations are being matched by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation! Even just sharing the link on social media would be great. Spread the word that solar power is strong and growing, fueled by passionate community members around the country! Just remember that, any action, no matter how small, is infinitely better than inaction, and that our voice as a group is infinitely more powerful than alone.