The most severe harms and effects of our warming world—poor air quality, lack of clean water, heat waves, flooding, reduction in job hours, and more—will fall on America’s most vulnerable and underserved communities. Stats tell the story. A 2021 report from the EPA found that climate change has disproportionate impacts on these exact populations:
- Black Americans are 34 percent more likely to live in areas with the highest projected increases in childhood asthma as a result of warming temperatures.
- Black Americans are also 40 percent more likely to live in areas with the highest projected increases in extreme temperature related deaths.
- Hispanic Americans and Latinos work in weather-exposed industries that are vulnerable to extreme temperatures and 43 percent more likely to live in areas with the highest projected reductions in labor hours due to these extreme temperatures.
The public and private sector know they must transition away from fossil fuels to combat climate change—and a growing number of organizations want that transition to be just and inclusive. That means not only including low-income communities in infrastructure plans, but ensuring everything from sustainable land use practices to equitable employment across the green sector. The climate justice movement is determined to make sure every American is part of a green future. The government feels the urgency too: In 2021, the Biden administration announced the Justice40 Initiative, a promise that 40 percent of the overall benefits from federal investments in climate and clean energy will go to disadvantaged communities.
There’s an opportunity for innovative and community-minded start-ups to have a positive impact on climate change, include underserved communities in the green economy, and deliver equitable alternative energy solutions across America. But for these companies to scale, they need support and investment. Enter Unreasonable Impact. Since 2016, the partnership between the Unreasonable Group and Barclays has identified and supported innovative solutions to climate justice and mentored the entrepreneurs building companies focused on a just transition.
Unreasonable Impact supports over 330 companies globally that have raised $14 billion in funding, reduced over 111 million metric tons of GHG emissions, diverted 2 billion kgs of waste from landfills, and sold more than 101 million units of products with sustainable features. And the initiative is committed to diversity: 41 percent of Unreasonable Impact fellows identify as women and 31% of fellows in the Americas and Europe program identify as having an ethnically diverse or under-represented background.
Numbers are one thing, real world examples and success stories are another. Here’s how Solstice and Navajo Power, two Unreasonable Impact companies, are leading the charge on climate justice and doing their part to make the transition just.
Solstice is making solar more equitable and accessible
In 2014, Sandhya Murali, Steve Moilanen, and Steph Speirs founded Solstice with the lofty goals of making clean energy easy and affordable for everyone. And it all starts at the community level: Solstice works with community organizations to help find and identify customers often overlooked by big clean energy companies because of their location, income level, and purchasing power. Solstice brings solar to these customers, who sign up for access to a “solar garden” in their community, which provides residents access to solar who can’t afford—or jump through the zoning loopholes of installing—rooftop solar.
“We want this energy transition to be just and equitable,” Murali says. “Ensuring access and ensuring inclusion is very important. We know community is the key.”
Take, for example, New York City, where Solstice partnered with local organizations to deliver community solar to low-to-moderate-income residents in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) buildings. The program, which used both in-person and email outreach in NYCHA buildings to sign up residents, provided 66 households with affordable clean energy that resulted in an average annual electric bill savings of $118.
This community-focused work is essential to a just transition. “When we launched, not many people were really thinking about how to serve low-to-moderate-income households,” Murali says. “From the start, we've been thinking about how to make solar more affordable, customer friendly, and truly accessible to underserved or under-resourced communities. If the transition is not just we're going to continue to exacerbate differences in outcomes.”
Navajo Power is bringing renewable energy to tribal lands
Native American reservations possess an estimated $1.5 trillion in energy resources. These lands are rich in fossil fuels like coal, gas, and oil, and these extractive industries bring jobs, too. But the renewable energy revolution is coming so some Indigenous communities and entrepreneurs want to work on that transition now to ensure that their communities are not left behind.
Look no further than Brett Isaac, the co-founder and CEO of Navajo Power, a start-up that develops solar projects on tribal lands. Isaac grew up on the Navajo Nation Reservation in Arizona where the Peabody Coal Mine loomed large. He knows that the fossil fuel industry provides jobs and tax revenue, but he started Navajo Power to build those kinds of jobs and anchor institutions in the green sector.
.pdf%2520Page%25201%2520image%25201.png)
Isaac and the Navajo Power team work closely with tribal governments to develop clean energy projects that can provide good-paying jobs and begin the transition away from fossil fuels—all with the backing of the tribal community. “Putting up the solar panels is actually the easiest part. The hardest part is getting permission and community buy-in,” Isaac says. “We're curating an attitude that everyone needs to think community first.”
Since its launch in 2018, Navajo Power developed projects with six tribes across the Southwest and Pacific Northwest, bringing jobs and clean energy to these communities. Isaac said this wouldn’t have been possible without the support and mentorship of Unreasonable Impact.
“I’m a rez kid,” Isaac says. “I grew up on the Navajo Nation, and we don't have a lot of business examples; we don't have our versions of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. So learning how to be an effective executive or even see ourselves in those positions is very rare. Unreasonable Impact has helped bridge the gap to make me a better executive. How to think strategically about my business and create value, but without compromising where I came from.”
Isaac credited Unreasonable Impact and Barclays for helping Navajo Power grow to what it is today—and imagine a bigger and better future for the company and the communities Navajo serves. “The backing and confidence from the Unreasonable team really means something to us as we grow,” he says. “As a rez kid, owning your own company is something that you don’t even get to dream about. Because you don’t know that this world is open to you. And groups like Unreasonable and Barclays are helping companies like mine and people like me get in there, get their bearings, and build successful companies.”
.png){kind=logo}
