How to Fight Climate Change with Renewable Energy: A Response to the IPCC Report

Maybe you caught the headlines last March or maybe the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was barely a blip in your newsfeed.

For me, the IPCC report was a chilling reminder that our “everyday” situation is both harmful and precarious.

The IPCC is the global group of scientists that track what we know about climate change and advises governments and international bodies on what actions and policies are necessary to secure the planet's future.

The March 2023 IPCC meeting released a devastating report of its findings::

Continuing growth in carbon emissions has already caused global warming of 1.1 degrees (centigrade) over pre-industrial temperatures.
Global warming has triggered widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere. Human-caused climate change is affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region around the world.
Government and industry response has been slow and not effective at meeting the original goal of keeping warming below a threshold of 1.5°C.
Therefore: current efforts and patterns make it likely that warming will exceed 1.5°C during the 21st century and make it harder to limit warming below 2°C

Bottom line: After years of escalating warnings, the need to take action against climate change is dire.

The good news? (Because, yes, there is some good news here!)

The scientists in the IPCC report, offer hope alongside their catastrophic conclusions: “There are multiple, feasible and effective options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to human-caused climate change, and they are available now.”

Deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would lead to a discernible slowdown in global warming within around two decades, and also to discernible changes in atmospheric composition within a few years.

The IPCC report has certainly challenged me to review my priorities and to dig deeper into how my actions and decisions – personally and in business - can respond to the IPCC call to action.

In honor of the IPCC report, we are sharing some of the feasible and effective options to combat global warming while also highlighting a few of our clients that are doing important work to fight climate change.

I’ll kick things off with one of the most impactful tools we as a global community have to reduce and eventually eliminate carbon emissions – eliminate the use of fossil fuels by transitioning to clean energy.

One Key Step to Fight Climate Change: Switch to Renewable Energy

Energy, in one form or another, is now a basic requirement for human life. We use energy to cook, heat and cool our homes, work, and communicate (among many other things).

Eliminating the use of carbon fuels, starts with switching to renewable energy sources as quickly as possible. Thankfully, we have options, and one of these forms of renewable energy is solar energy.

Here are some facts on solar energy from the IPCC:

Solar energy is the most abundant of all energy resources.
Solar energy conversion consists of a large family of different technologies capable of meeting a variety of energy service needs — including heat, cooling, natural lighting, electricity, and fuels.
Solar technologies offer opportunities for positive social impacts, and their environmental burden is small.
Over the last 30 years, solar technologies have seen very substantial cost reductions.

Solar energy is available, can meet our needs, has a very small environmental impact, AND it’s becoming increasingly affordable.

Now is a great time to explore adding solar power to your home or business; especially since the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, increases the solar energy tax credit (for residential owners) to a 30% credit effective until at least 2032. Businesses and nonprofits can also benefit from federal solar incentives.

Allow Me to Introduce You to Cal Solar

At CFO on Speed Dial, we’ve worked closely with a dynamic and growing locally-owned and nationally recognized solar installation company in Nevada County, California – California Solar Electric Coop (aka Cal Solar).

Global Warming in California

California and the Sierras have been hit particularly hard by climate change, with devastating results like fires, drought, snow, and mudslides.

The Sierra Nevada mountains in California — where Cal Solar is located — are an important ecological and hydrological region that provide a habitat for a wide range of plant and animal species and supply water to millions of people. However, climate change is severely affecting the Sierra Nevada in a number of ways.

One major impact is the reduction in snow, (In recent years of course, but not this year!) which is critical for water supply. As temperatures warm, more precipitation falls as rain instead of snow, and the snow that does accumulate melts earlier in the spring. This has in recent past years resulted in reduced water availability.

Climate change is also leading to changes in the distribution and abundance of plant and animal species. Additionally, it’s contributing to more frequent and severe wildfires. Warmer temperatures and drier conditions can create a more fire-prone landscape, which can have negative impacts on both natural ecosystems and human communities. Every fall, literally hundreds of families have been forced to flee encroaching fires and many have lost homes, businesses and lives to the fires that sweep the mountainsides.

How Cal Solar is helping to fight climate change.

Cal Solar is working to help homes and businesses in Nevada County convert to solar energy and therefore reduce the impacts of global warming.

Over the past 23 years, Cal Solar has installed over 1100 residential, commercial and off-grid systems in California's Gold Country since 2000

Solar panels put out 20 times less than the carbon output of coal-powered electricity sources, so the benefit on the environment is significant.

Another benefit of solar energy is that it is distributed energy - meaning it is not reliant on the centralized energy production of large power companies. In times of crisis or when the energy grid is impacted, homes and businesses with solar power and/or electric storage capacity can keep operating – even when the grid shuts down.

One of my favorite Cal Solar stories happened at the start of the 2018 fire season, when they were onsite at a local fire station completing the station’s connection to solar power on the day the utility cut power at the grid to alleviate the risk of fires. The newly installed solar panels meant the station was open and able to receive calls and deploy resources during a fast moving wildfire event — even when the electric grid was down.

Our work with Cal Solar

The CFO on Speed Dial team supported Cal Solar in its efforts to grow and scale its business. We also helped increase their profitability as a part of their transition to becoming a worker co-op.

I first began working with Cal Solar in 2018. At that time, they were a growing company installing approximately 50 solar projects each year. But when the owner wanted to transfer ownership of the business to the workers, the business was only marginally profitable, and their financial reporting was not clear or consistent.

Transitioning to worker-ownership is essentially the same as selling your business; so to make it worthwhile for the new owners, the business has to be profitable. The new owners (i.e. the workers) have to finance the purchase of the business and that means having books, financial reporting and forecasting that is ready for investment partners to review.

The first two years of working with Cal Solar, our focus was on getting the business ready to sell to the workers. We improved the accounting, increased profitability, built cash reserves, and paid down debt. (Whew!)

Cal Solar was supported through the transition to worker ownership by Project Equity - a non profit that helps business owners sell their company to their workers. In late 2019 Project Equity helped arrange financing for the conversion with Shared Capital Cooperative, a national CDFI loan fund that connects co-ops and capital to build economic democracy.

Now, Cal Solar still has many of the same leaders they did as a privately owned company. The former owner still serves on the leadership team, and works alongside other managers. Only now, the employees own the business and have a greater share in the impact it is making.

Cal Solar Inc is now an employee-owned company that promotes solar technology and its dual benefits: environmental and financial.

Cal Solar is also part of a Amicus - a national cooperative of independent solar companies across the U.S. If you are interested in finding a solar provider in your community, I highly recommend checking the Amicus website as a great source of highly reputable companies.

That’s what I did! Since my California client couldn’t come install solar on my Brooklyn home/ office I reached out to Amicus member Brooklyn Solar in 2020 and had solar power installed on my roof. 10/10 – highly recommend!

How things have changed:

Cal Solar is still growing. They now employ 78 people and are recognized as a trusted partner in the community and nationally.

Cal Solar has recently had a change in its management team; and is facing a major upheaval in the residential solar market due to changes in how the state of California now structures its incentives.

At CFO on Speed Dial we’re excited to partner with Cal Solar on forecasting and pricing as they adjust to the new realities of their market; and to hone their financial reporting for the new board members.

Learn More About Cal Solar, Solar Energy, and How to Fight Climate Change

If you want to dive deeper into the work Cal Solar is doing, the benefits of using renewable energy, and how you can work to fight climate change, here are some resources to check out:

And if you want support in making your impactful business more profitable, book a call with our team today.

Christine RicoNovember 30, 2023