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In 2021, I moved to Florence, Italy, with my husband, two young children, and our dog. Before arriving in Italy, I had never been to Europe aside from a daylong layover in Munich, and I had some misguided assumptions about the region’s public transit system. Before the big move, I proudly told my friends back home that we would not need a car in Florence, because the European way of life would provide us with every train, metro, or bus we could ever need. 

As I soon discovered, Europe is not a monolith, and the transit system of Munich was not the transit system of Florence. To complicate matters further, our house was on a hill just outside of the city limits, and the closest bus stop was a 15-minute walk up an impossibly steep incline. 

We tried to remain car-free for as long as possible by investing in an electric cargo bike with seats for the children. It was a tremendous help, but it still did not cover all of the logistical needs of a family living in a rural area. We eventually decided to lease a car.

Before then, I often complained about cars being the scourge of Florence. Quaint, arterial roads are treated like freeways, as cars hurtle through the narrow passages at stomach-churning speeds. There are so many cars in the city that Florence’s famed architecture is often hidden behind cars parked two rows deep, on the sidewalks and in the crosswalks. It did not feel good to be a part of the problem. 

Several months ago, we decided to move into the city. The Tuscan countryside overlooking Florence is breathtaking, but being in the city afforded us the opportunity to better live out our sustainability values. We once again ditched the car.

Becoming a car-free family (again) meant a shift in lifestyle, but our electric cargo bike made it possible. The bike has enough space to carry two kids and all of the things they bring to and from school and their after-school activities. And it has enough battery power to climb the hills that surround the city. We also bought a rain cover for the kids’ seats and extra lights and bells for safety, along with rainsuits, ponchos, and shoe covers to ensure that we could ride in almost any condition.

The benefits of becoming a car-free household are clear. I reap all of the rewards of regular exercise, but instead of setting time and money aside to go to the gym, it is just built into my day through biking. Additionally, while the initial investment in an electric cargo bike was expensive, we were able to break even in six months by removing costs associated with car payments, insurance and fuel. 

Going car-free would not have been possible without a few key factors. First, Florence has a robust system of rental bikes. Our electric cargo bike was expensive, but having access to rental bikes means that we did not need to buy a second one. When we need to go somewhere together as a family, one parent rides our cargo bike with the children while the other rides one of the rental bikes readily available in our neighborhood. And while the public transportation system in Florence is not perfect, it is robust enough to be a good option for travel to areas that are difficult to reach by bike. Finally, for trips to areas that are not serviced by bus or trains, we have the option to rent a car or ride with friends. 

Becoming a car-free family has also required extra logistical planning and attention. While Florence has many wonderful, dedicated bike trails, they are not universal, and traffic conditions in Florence are a nightmare. Speed limits in many locations are completely unenforced, and many residential streets are treated like race tracks. As in any other major city, cyclists must always remain vigilant and choose their routes with extra attention, especially when riding with children. Additionally, cargo bikes do not always have the capacity for large shopping trips to procure bulky items. 

While there are challenges and limitations, going car-free was the right choice for my family. The children are still young, and riding on the bike together allows us to develop strong connections with our community and environment. We have the freedom to pause and chat with friends we see on the street or stop to admire a beautiful garden. Best of all, my children are old enough to understand that the choices we make can help our planet and community, and they’re getting to live out those choices every day.

This article is part of Travel Month in our 2024 Sustainable Living Challenge, where we unpack accessible ways to see new places and get around your hometown with a lighter impact on the planet. Learn more and take the challenge here.  

Following $20 billion in grant disbursals last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to announce the winners of the $7 billion Solar For All competition any day. 

Solar for All is a competitive grant program that aims to deliver the savings and benefits of small-scale solar and energy storage systems to low-income households and households in disadvantaged communities. Administered by the EPA, the program is part of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund created under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

The majority of the organizations up for funding are focused on programs to expand community solar, with 33 of the 35 Solar For All applicants including community solar in their applications, according to an analysis from the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA). As the name implies, community solar programs allow residents to purchase energy from a shared solar installation, even if they can't put panels on their own roofs. 

Conservative estimates indicate community solar capacity in the U.S. would jump by more than 25 percent if these 33 applications are awarded, with most of that growth occurring in low- to moderate-income communities.

Community solar can boost local economies while providing clean energy

Along with clean energy, community solar can bring new economic development from jobs created to build solar energy facilities and from the ongoing maintenance needed to keep those facilities running, said Bruce Stewart, CEO of Perch Energy, a Massachusetts-based community solar servicer. “It also gives local community members an opportunity to subscribe,” he said.

Customers participating in these projects pay to access a portion of the electricity generated by the shared community solar array, usually in the form of a monthly subscription fee. The utility company compensates the community solar provider for the electricity supplied, and each subscriber earns a credit equivalent to their share of the generated energy's monetary value. These credits are commonly deducted from subscribers' monthly electric bills, ultimately lowering their overall electricity expenses.

Community solar subscriptions can provide savings to consumers ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent depending on local regulations, Stewart said.

Low-income Americans spend the most on electricity: Equalizing access to solar can help

Even as the cost of solar energy has declined, half of Americans face affordability, installation or other accessibility issues that keep them from installing rooftop solar panels. Most solar power users are wealthier than the average U.S. consumer. In 2022, the median income for a household with solar power was about $117,000 per year, compared to a U.S. median income of about $69,000 per year for all households and $86,000 per year for all owner-occupied households.

Lower-to-moderate income households also spend 8.6 percent of their income on energy costs, roughly three times more than households with higher income.

Community solar can help, but first the sector has to convince residents it's worth their time. Most outside of the sustainability community are not familiar with community solar, so advocates are challenged to raise awareness among potential customers about the availability and benefits of these programs.

It's easier in some states than others. In some jurisdictions, for example, solar discount credits appear on a separate bill, confusing and discomfiting customers. “That’s a big point of unease for folks," Stewart said, meaning state legislators — along with the EPA — have a major influence on how community solar scales up. 

States including Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Maine, Minnesota, Illinois, and Virginia recently enacted or are expanding regulations that support community solar programs, Stewart said. 

“We’re seeing states like New Jersey that moved from pilot programs where you had a separate bill to enabling all of the credits to [show up] right on the customer’s utility bill,” he explained. “Making it simple and easy for folks is great." 

More than 7.3 gigawatts worth of community solar is already up and running in the U.S., enough to power over 5.2 million homes. Since the Solar for All competition was announced, a growing number of U.S. states have moved to further promote these programs as a way to bring more renewable energy into their local electric grids. 

“We’re seeing that happen in states with existing community solar, but we’re also seeing lots of states that have been on the sidelines that are watching these programs, seeing the positive economic development that’s happening, seeing how it actually is helping shift to a broader set of renewables that will always have a mix in the electricity grid,” Stewart said.

The EPA will announce the grant awards in the Solar for All competition later this month. 

Low-income communities and communities of color across the United States faced health impacts from outsized air pollution for generations, and they're now among the first to feel the worst effects of climate change. On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $20 billion in grants aimed at righting these historic wrongs and ensuring communities actually benefit from growing sectors like clean energy. 

Awardees include coalitions of nonprofit organizations, state and local agencies, and lenders like green banks and community development financial institutions (CDFIs). The projects they proposed will collectively avoid up to 40 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, more than the annual emissions of Switzerland, Ireland and Denmark, while reducing air pollution and energy costs in their communities, according to the EPA. 

Climate and economic justice advocates praised the EPA for its historic progress in mobilizing public and private capital within historically disadvantaged parts of the country. So, what's next for the winners, and how can business leaders, philanthropists and everyday people get involved? 

Winners hit the ground running with EPA funds set to arrive in the coming months 

Thursday's was an early but happy morning for Trenton Allen, CEO and founder of the financial advisory firm Sustainable Capital Advisors, who worked with organizations to prepare their applications for EPA funding. "I had a big smile when I saw the official news," Allen told TriplePundit by phone on Thursday. "I got up at 5 o'clock when the administration said they were going to release it to make sure I could see it live and in color." 

A number of the organizations Allen's firm advised were ultimately selected — including the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority and the National Bankers Association, which advocates for minority deposit institutions (MDIs) that are majority-owned by people of color.

"Put into perspective that $20 billion have been allocated for the purpose of not just climate, but climate in our most underserved communities. That's huge," Allen said. "Whether organizations received money, didn't receive as much as they wanted to, or didn't get any at all, I think we all can collectively say that this amount of money — particularly for the benefit of communities across the country — is incredibly important, groundbreaking and transformational." 

The awards were distributed under two separate grant competitions, the $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund and the $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator. The former looks to establish "national clean financing institutions" that deploy capital for clean technologies and energy efficiency at scale, while the latter will support community lenders working on the ground in historically disadvantaged communities. 

"When you think about the United States' persistent wealth gap that harms many communities, and the societal and economic fabric of our nation as a whole, this investment will begin to enable many of those communities previously left out to help tackle climate change in their own backyards," said Lenwood V. Long Sr., CEO of the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs, which represents 76 Black-led financial institutions. 

The Alliance is a founding member of the Justice Climate Fund, a coalition of nearly 20 financial institutions led mostly by people of color and another of Allen's clients, which received nearly $1 billion through the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator.

In the coming weeks, groups like the Justice Climate Fund will work with the EPA to get contracts in place and ensure projects are aligned with the overarching objective of reducing emissions and air pollution. "We anticipate by June that money will be flowing to the Justice Climate Fund," Long said. 

The CDFIs, MDIs, credit unions, and green banks in the Fund will deploy the grants to support projects like energy-efficiency upgrades, programs to expand heat pumps and other clean technologies that cut energy use and costs for residents, and electric vehicle charging stations for businesses and public places, Long said.

The coalition is already working to prepare member financial institutions for what's ahead. Today in Washington, D.C., the Alliance hosted an in-person and virtual workshop for members with the National Bankers Association, the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders and Oweesta, which serves CDFIs led by Native American communities. 

"We are not waiting until money starts flowing," Long said. "We have begun the process, as we have done before, of preparing our members for this awesome, historic, momentous opportunity." 

"Now it's on us." 

Following the announcement, awarded organizations will also begin the hard work of reassessing their planned projects in light of the funding they received. "I don't know what everyone asked for, but I'm pretty confident that no one got all the money they requested in their initial application," Allen said. "What that means is now you have to make some determinations and some adjustments with regard to your strategy." 

Such work may necessitate tradeoffs, but it also creates opportunity for the winning organizations — and other stakeholders across the financial community — to work together to ensure funds are deployed to create the greatest impact possible. 

"Because everyone got less money than what they originally asked for, we need to make sure we aren't duplicating services or duplicating efforts so that we can be as efficient as we can," Allen said. Early signs indicate the awardees have a healthy appetite for collaboration with each other to supplement and complement their work. "I've gotten signals that it’s something the winners want to do," Long added. 

Beyond the awarded organizations, business leaders, financial professionals and the general public also have roles to play. "The administration created a program and has some clear goals and targets about what it's looking to achieve," Allen said. "I believe in their allocation of dollars, they've given themselves a chance to make that happen. Now it's on us to make sure it does happen." 

That even includes conservative critics who lambasted the EPA grants as a “slush fund” doling out unrestricted billions to organizations without proven track records. "It's sad that any time there's something targeted for low-income and disadvantaged communities, people make it political, and it shows the racist and classist fight in America around economic justice and equity," Long said. "To all the pundits who say this is a pork barrel bill, this is money to organizations that don't have internal controls, join us in helping to make this work rather than sit on the sidelines and criticize and hope for failure. You ought to pray for success, because this money is going to all communities." 

Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the EPA grant program has clear requirements: All projects must demonstrably reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and all awardees must report their progress publicly on an ongoing basis. "People need to understand that there's not a dime flowing to anyone who does not meet this litmus test of reducing carbon emissions," Long said. 

The Joe Biden administration and the EPA also aim to multiply the grants provided under the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund by attracting private capital — from businesses, financial institutions and philanthropists, as well as everyday people looking for climate-friendly investments and financial services. 

"$20 billion is a lot of money, but it's not enough money," Allen said. "One of the things that these dollars have an opportunity to do is to help to animate, excite and allow communities to see how they can best participate. I am really hopeful about how these dollars can lead to a transformation that this country has not seen as it comes to climate, but also economic opportunity and economic development." 

Long agreed, saying that while much work is left to do, the way funds were allocated represents a monumental step forward. "This is the only program I've seen where you take $15 billion of the $27 billion and those funds are targeted for low-income and disadvantaged communities," he said. "I'm looking at institutions around America that are preparing for this moment. Here in my state, North Carolina, the community college system has a program around EV charging stations for students and entrepreneurs. They know what's coming."

The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act provides billions in public subsidies to corporate citizens for new clean technology investments. It also sets up so-called “green bank” financing programs focused on disadvantaged communities. Republicans in Congress have taken steps to dismantle it, but they may want to crack open a history book before they go any further. The green bank formula is rooted in public initiatives that transformed parts of the U.S. Southeast from deep poverty in the early 20th century to the economic powerhouse of today, much to the benefit of businesses and individuals alike.

The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and taxpayer support for businesses

Democratic members of Congress initially introduced the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act under the catchphrase “Build Back Better,” promoting it as President Joe Biden’s signature climate action legislation. No Republican members of Congress voted to support it, even after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin advocated to weaken its provisions.

The opposition included the Republican Congressional delegation from Tennessee. “Senate Democrats have forced through a socialist agenda that will make life more difficult and expensive for Tennesseans,” U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said when explaining her vote against the bill.

U.S. Rep. John Rose of Tennessee's sixth district chose to focus more narrowly on the cost of the legislation. “Amidst a spending-induced recession and record-breaking price increases for everything, Democrats doubled down on their disastrous policies by ramming through a bill that costs taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars on a party-line vote that will only make matters worse,” he said.

Rose’s opposition to taxpayer-funded programs is particularly ironic considering that he describes himself as an “eighth-generation farmer.” Farms in his Congressional district have received millions in public subsidies over the past 30 years. The Environmental Working Group compiled data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture which indicates “farms in 6th District of Tennessee (Rep. John Rose) totaled $135,717,000 from 1995 through 2021.”

Tennessee reaps the rewards of the Biden-Harris “Invest in America” initiative

Regardless of the partisan opposition, news reports indicate Republican-led states are receiving an outsized share of benefits under the Inflation Reduction Act, including states located in the Southeast.

“Whereas Southern states led by Republicans did not vote for climate spending, they are embracing clean energy dollars a lot more than their blue counterparts," Oil Price reporter Alex Kimani noted last year. States including Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and the Carolinas even earned the name the “battery belt" for their recent electric vehicle and EV battery investments, Kimani reported. 

To be clear, the Inflation Reduction Act is just a third of the Biden-Harris administration’s Invest in America Agenda. The other two pillars are the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act, both of which received a modicum of bipartisan support. In a recap issued last year, the U.S. Treasury Department reported that “real manufacturing construction spending has doubled” under the Invest in America agenda.

The U.S. Department of Energy also drilled down into the benefits of Invest in America for the manufacturing sector in Tennessee in particular, noting that the state has attracted $14 billion in investment in the EV battery supply chain alone. Among the supply chain manufacturing highlights, the Energy Department awarded $150 million to Novonix Anode and $141 million to Piedmont Lithium to set up shop in Tennessee.

The U.S. green bank started with the 1933 Tennessee Valley Authority Act

Tennessee’s agriculture industry is also gaining benefits from Invest in America. “Thanks to Inflation Reduction Act funding, more farmers and more acres are enrolled in voluntary conservation practices than at any single point in history,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Fiscal Year 2023 update reads. Even with this "unprecedented funding," the agency says it's "seeing more demand than we have funds to support."

That means “more farmers, rural businesses, utilities and electric cooperatives will also be able to reduce their energy costs, leaving more dollars in the hands of rural communities,” the USDA added in its update.

That reference to electric cooperatives is important. Rural communities in Tennessee and much of the surrounding region were mired in poverty until the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933 established a series of publicly-funded dams to reduce flooding and produce electricity “at reasonable rates” for farms and villages in the region. That was followed by the 1936 Rural Electrification Act, which provided federal funding to set up distribution networks elsewhere in the country.

When private utilities balked at investing in sparsely populated areas, local farmers formed cooperatives to apply for the funds. The Franklin D. Roosevelt administration encouraged them under the 1937 Electric Cooperative Corporation Act. To this day, 900 member-owned, not-for-profit rural electric cooperatives and related entities cover 56 percent of the U.S. landmass and serve around 42 million people.

Electric cooperatives also represent 92 percent of the counties classified as “persistent poverty” counties. These are exactly the counties that stand to benefit under the new green bank initiative led by a new round of $20 billion in competitively awarded federal grants to eight organizations through the Inflation Reduction Act, announced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on April 4.

Together, the funds comprise a “national clean financing network for clean energy and climate solutions across sectors,” the EPA's announcement reads. “By financing tens of thousands of projects, this national clean financing network will mobilize private capital to reduce climate and air pollution while also reducing energy costs, improving public health, and creating good-paying clean energy jobs in communities across the country, especially in low-income and disadvantaged communities."

The green bank in action

The EPA split the $20 billion between two programs. Of the total, $14 billion is earmarked for three organizations under the National Clean Investment Fund. These three organizations — Climate United Fund, Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities — have been created in partnership with United Way, Habitat for Humanity, and other experienced community groups. They are tasked with establishing new financial institutions that provide “accessible, affordable financing for clean technology projects nationwide.”

The remaining $6 billion goes to five organizations through a program called the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator. This group will create assistance hubs for community lenders, with the aim to get some projects off to a quick start while developing sustainable, long-term financing platforms for future projects. 

Four of the awardees — the Opportunity Finance Network, Inclusiv, Appalachian Community Capital and the Native CDFI Network — have years or even decades of experience in community finance and credit unions. The EPA describes the fifth organization, called Justice Climate Fund, as a “purpose-built nonprofit” supported by an existing member network and more than 1,200 community lenders with decades-long track records, as well as the experienced nonprofit asset manager ImpactAssets.

The bar is set high: Will the private sector responds?

Last week, Associated Press reported that Republicans lawmakers in the House of Representatives have called the new funding program a “slush fund” and took steps to repeal the green bank along with “other parts of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda.”

They may have to deal with pushback from their own constituents. Rural electric cooperatives have already leveraged their community-centered business model to take a leadership role in the nation’s renewable energy transition through funding from both the USDA and the Energy Department. More likely than not, they will also play a decisive role in the success of the new green bank initiative.

As for private-sector investors, money talks, and it is talking about rural communities. A new analysis by the organization E2 indicates that the Inflation Reduction Act is already expected to stimulate $20 billion in private-sector investments related to large-scale clean technology investments in rural counties.

Too often, the owners of small and medium-sized businesses struggle to find the financial and professional support they need to build their place in the mainstream. Business owners from underrepresented backgrounds — including women, people of color and military veterans — tend to face even more of an uphill climb.

Among other challenges, women entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs of color, and veteran entrepreneurs are less likely to connect with the mentorship and business networks that could help their businesses grow.

Access to large, dependable vendors with consistent business needs is critical to allow these entrepreneurs and their businesses to succeed. Committed to make that happen is Crowley, a supply chain logistics company committed to purchasing more goods from diverse small businesses. 

Driving investments and opening new networks to diverse small businesses

Crowley partners with entrepreneurs through its small business program, which concentrates on forging connections between traditionally underserved entrepreneurs — such as veterans, women, people of color and those from marginalized communities  —with new buyers to help them expand their businesses. It also provides one-on-one services to small businesses owned by traditionally underserved entrepreneurs.



The company reported it has invested $630 million with small businesses across the nation from mid-2018 to mid-February 2024, including over $206 million for veteran-owned businesses, over $197 million for women-owned businesses, and nearly $190 million for businesses owned by traditionally disadvantaged and underrepresented groups. 

The Small Business Program is an example of the private sector’s broader goal of diversifying larger companies' supply chains and boosting emerging businesses.

Crowley’s assistance to underrepresented companies includes not just providing brokerage services, but also opening up a network of development support and recruiting to help build their resources, said Jessica Baczkowski, small business administrator for Crowley Solutions. 

“The more diverse suppliers we have in our network, the more dependable our supply chain becomes,” Baczkowski said. “We exceed our contractually obligated goals for small and diverse usage by almost 40 percent. We also know that a database must be maintained of these suppliers so we can do more.” 

The company named Baczkowski to be small business support administrator to increase its creation of these connections between Crowley and small businesses looking to grow. “This work also supports our overall corporate procurement goal of spending 27 percent on small businesses, which is a sustainability goal that the company has committed to seeking to support a more inclusive and diverse supplier pool,” she said.

Government contracts create new opportunities for some small business owners

Crowley utilizes several resources to connect with suppliers, including the National Veteran Small Business Coalition, the HUBZone Contractors National Council and the National Minority Supplier Development Council. 

It also utilizes SAM.gov and the U.S. Small Business Administration, and it maintains a strong relationship with the U.S. government-backed APEX Accelerators program to source specific suppliers within a region. APEX Accelerators, formerly known as the Procurement Technical Assistance Program (PTAP), was authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1985 to expand the number of businesses capable of participating in government contracts, Baczkowski said. 

In this mutually beneficial relationship, Crowley refers its suppliers to the appropriate APEX office for further education on growing their businesses with local, state and federal contracts. The company also provides guidance on certifying suppliers that did not know they could qualify as a small and/or diverse supplier.

Crowley’s efforts extend to its Defense Freight Transportation Services (DFTS) program under the largest freight transportation services contract for the U.S. federal government.

The DFTS program supports government customers from initial shipment requests to in-transit shipment management through final payment and delivery of freight of all kinds. The program provides the transportation of military, health and emergency  relief cargo across the U.S.. The company also has contracts to provide disaster relief under other contracts.

Particularly, Crowley facilitates contracts for small businesses with the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies. As the prime contractor, Crowley then brings in small business subcontractors to provide supporting logistics, transportation and tech services for federal agencies.

Crowley grew its DFTS network of suppliers by more than 500 percent between 2018 and 2023, more than three times the capacity needed to effectively service 300,000 movements annually across maritime shipping lanes. 

Its network now includes more than 1,800 subcontractors. And in October 2023, Crowley received the Champions Award for surpassing its DFTS contract goals for service-disabled veteran owned and veteran-owned small businesses by the National Veteran Small Business Coalition.

Helping small businesses in the shipping sector scale up can build supply chain resilience and combat climate change

The payoff is big for participants. Crowley has seen multiple transportation suppliers expand warehouses, hire additional employees and purchase more equipment just to support the DFTS contract. 

“As a large prime contract holder for the United States Transportation Command … it is our moral and ethical responsibility to mentor and guide underrepresented groups, especially those that are interested in government contracts of their own,” said David Touzinsky, general manager and director for DFTS services at Crowley. “And we can’t do it alone. It takes multiple suppliers to support any government contract, and we take our commitment to small and diverse suppliers seriously.”

One of those companies — Wright Xpress, a family-owned interstate freight carrier based in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania — has worked with Crowley in supporting the DFTS contract since 2019. Wright Xpress’ commitment started with one truck and quickly grew to 54 trucks with drivers, despite some downturns in the economy and rising fuel prices, Baczkowski said. 

“We began conservatively, and then started adding more trucks and capacity,” Charlie Wright, who runs the company with his wife Pam, told Crowley for a recent blog. “As Crowley grew confident in me, they gave us more and more work,” he continued. “We have a true partnership. I helped them, and they helped me.”

Besides helping these smaller businesses succeed, Crowley’s involvement contributes to its decarbonization efforts. “Supporting diverse suppliers increases the resilience of the supply chain and decreases the risk of business interruption, while opening more avenues for innovation and ideas,” Baczkowski said. “As a leader in our industry, we are poised to assist diverse suppliers by providing tools, training and resources for taking climate action. This includes providing support to our suppliers in understanding and measuring their carbon footprint, setting emissions reduction goals, and providing incentives and/or recognition for climate performance.”

Shannon Sarkees, Crowley’s director of sustainability, agrees. “Engaging suppliers to take climate action is a critical component of supply chain decarbonization,” she said.

With so many mutual benefits, Touzinksy urges other companies to diversify their supply chains, too. “Do it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain,” he said. “In a time when we are seeing a crunch in specific areas of the supply chain, we need everyone involved. Plus, you get to be a part of small and diverse companies’ growth. It is so rewarding.” 

This article series is sponsored by Crowley and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

Image courtesy of Crowley

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here.

Across the nation, strip malls, schools, factories, and other big, nonresidential buildings bask in the sun — a powerful, and too often wasted, source of electricity that could serve the neighborhoods that surround them.

Installing solar panels on these vast rooftops could provide one-fifth of the power that disadvantaged communities need, bringing renewable energy to people who can least afford it, according to a study by Stanford University. Although such power-sharing arrangements do exist, the research found that marginalized neighborhoods generate almost 40 percent less electricity than wealthy ones. “We were astonished to see there is still such a large difference,” said Moritz Wussow, a data and climate scientist and the study’s lead author.

This imbalance, often called the solar equity gap, is even more prevalent in the number of home installations. Placing solar arrays atop large commercial buildings could bring renewable energy to renters, while also helping homeowners who can’t afford the technology’s high upfront cost. Previous research by Wussow’s collaborators found that affluent households are more likely to benefit from tax credits and rebates designed to make solar more affordable. With Solar for All, a federal program funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, poised to give states $7 billion to create fairer access to clean energy, the study shows that harnessing commercial rooftops could be an effective way to reach two-thirds of the nation’s disadvantaged communities and begin to close that gap.

“The renewable energy transition is one of the big pillars of where the government is seeking to spend money,” said Wussow. “Our research is supposed to contribute to narrowing the equity gap, and to provide an idea of how this can be accomplished.” 

Using DeepSolar, Stanford’s AI-powered database of satellite imagery, the study tallied the number of photovoltaic panels on large rooftops, at least 1,000 square feet in size, across the U.S. To help its research more readily inform policy, it examined the prevalence of these arrays in census tracts defined as disadvantaged by the federal Justice40 environmental justice initiative. These areas, which must be low income and have a second environmental burden, such as pollution, make up roughly a third of census tracts. The researchers then calculated the cost of generating solar on nonresidential buildings in those areas and found that even in states like Alaska, where the sun all but vanishes for two months each year, the costs per kilowatt would still be cheaper than the local utility rate. If businesses generate their own energy and share it, the results show residents of the surrounding neighborhoods can cash in savings and meet at least 20 percent of their annual power needs.

Despite prevailing equity gaps, community solar projects have been around for over a decade. “I like to think of it as a model, a billing mechanism, where people, regardless of whether they own or rent, can participate in the solar energy transition,” said Matthew Popkin, a U.S. programs manager at RMI, a non-profit dedicated to sustainability research. Most community solar systems rely on subscriptions, where homes connected to a local solar array pay for a share of the energy. Such programs are helping neighborhoods in cities from Denver to Washington, D.C., save money and ditch fossil fuels. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach, there is no model that will nail it for every single community, or a whole city,” Popkin said. “More creativity is probably going to help expand this further.” 

Boston, a city short on open space but with plenty of rooftops, can expect to see community solar on commercial buildings expanding soon. The Boston Community Solar Cooperative, which launched this March, will begin its mission to bring clean energy to disadvantaged households with an 81-kilowatt solar array on top of a grocery store in Dorchester, one of the city’s lowest income neighborhoods. Gregory King, president of the cooperative, said the project is only possible because of solar tax credits provided by the Inflation Reduction Act. “The idea behind the model is really to create community empowerment,” he says. “And we have to create more and more, particularly rooftop solar, in an urban environment like Boston.”

Recent changes in how utilities buy back solar energy from homes, a process called net metering, has tipped residential installations into a decline. But with Solar for All funding about to pour into states as soon as July, experts like Popkin say these new resources could shape the next wave of community solar. “The biggest unknown we have right now is what some of those exact funding structures are going to look like,” he said, but inclusive planning will be key. As communities across the U.S. race to seize clean energy benefits, incentivizing businesses to go solar and share the bounty could give everyone a brighter future.

Homepage image: Los Muertos Crew/Pexels

This article originally appeared in Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org.

More options for concentrated products are hitting the market as a new generation of home and hygiene brands aim to win over consumers. From toothpaste tablets to shampoo bars and detergent sheets, these products save a whole lot of space and packaging, as well as fuel savings for distributors and crucial reductions in carbon emissions.

Concentrated products reduce packaging

Canary Clean Products is one of the upstart brands vying for a piece of the market with a lineup focused solely on concentrated hygiene products. “I wanted to build a brand that was highly concentrated, so we lower our environmental footprint throughout the whole process [and] the whole lifecycle of the product,” founder Luke Wilson told TriplePundit.

“A lot of products are shipped with a lot of water weight, which makes them heavier and more costly to ship,” Wilson explained. That extra weight and bulk means traditional products require more trucks — and more fuel — to get them from the point of manufacture to the point of sale. And that means higher emissions. Instead of adding unnecessary water and charging consumers for it, brands like Canary are in a position to win over environmentally-conscious shoppers by being a part of the solution.

Canary makes bar soap, hand soap refills, toothpaste tablets, and concentrated mouthwash and face masks. The year-old company is also looking to expand into shampoos and conditioners, shaving cream, and laundry products — all of which can benefit from less packaging and a lower shipping weight made possible by concentrated products.

Canary’s products are packaged as minimally as possible in glass bottles, cardboard and paper pouches. The cardboard and paper packaging are both recyclable and compostable. And unlike many products that carry misleading compostability claims, the packaging doesn’t have to be sent to a commercial facility — it can be composted at home so long as it is shredded first, Wilson explained.

While the brand hasn't calculated exactly how much plastic its customers have kept out of landfills by choosing concentrates so far, Wilson estimates that each four-month supply of toothpaste tablets eliminates between two and four toothpaste tubes, which are generally not recyclable. Meanwhile, the brand's concentrated hand soap refills replace up to 12 plastic pump bottles, also avoiding a considerable amount of waste. “We need to recap our results for 2023, which we're wrapping up,” he said. “But it is something that we plan on reporting out, [as far as] how much we've saved versus the traditional products.”

Concentrated formulas mean products last longer, saving money and emissions

Concentrated formulas don’t just save on packaging. They also cut down on how often consumers have to purchase products, often saving money in the process. For example, a single shampoo bar can deliver the same amount of washes as up to three bottles of shampoo. Since the bars are available at comparable (or even lower) price points, customers can enjoy substantial savings.

Canary also claims its bar soap lasts three to four times longer than most on the market, Wilson said. At 4.5 ounces, part of this is due to its size. But it’s also because of how the soap is milled and its particular ingredients.

Small specialty brands are in a unique position to bring change

Naturally, the planet would be better off if major brands immediately switched to concentrates as well. Instead of waiting for new, smaller brands to win the hearts and minds of consumers, these larger companies could make a big difference in packaging and emissions — and fast. However, consumers are also becoming increasingly disenfranchised with traditional brands, thanks to the perfect storm of greedflation-inspired price hikes and ever-shrinking contents. As a result, consumers are less likely to trust itty-bitty packages of concentrated products from the same companies that have already been subjecting them to shrinkflation. 

Companies like Canary have another advantage: Their business models tend to be more in line with a public that is increasingly concerned with ingredients. The brand's lineup is cruelty-free, meaning it is not tested on animals, and its mouth care products are formulated without sodium laureth sulfate, a surfactant that can cause irritation for some people. 

Like most emerging specialty brands, Canary is available for direct-to-consumer shipping. This may not be ideal as far as carbon footprints are concerned, but the mere availability of such products is a step in the right direction.

Fortunately, Canary products are also available in select refill shops — which are gaining popularity as more and more people aim to take responsibility for the amount of waste they produce. Such stores allow Canary to sell products in bulk, which eliminates even more packaging. Together, concentrates and refill shops represent a shift in thinking that could change how we shop for hygiene and home care products.

Finding a sustainable, affordable, and consistent energy supply can be a roadblock to decarbonization as the world moves from burning fossil fuels to using renewable energy. In some cases, we've turned to batteries to store energy for the days when renewables like solar and wind aren't generating enough power to meet demand. Lithium-ion batteries, like those used for electric vehicles and storing backup solar power, are the clean energy storage of choice because they are lightweight and fast-charging. But lithium-ion technology also has a growing list of sustainability and safety concerns. 

In 2020, Yi Cui, a Stanford professor of materials science and nanotechnology, took a cue from NASA and made an energy storage breakthrough. NASA has used sustainable batteries for the solar arrays that power the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope for decades. The organization’s batteries are powerful and durable, even in the rugged environment of outer space. But they utilize platinum, making them too costly for most clean energy applications on Earth. 

Cui discovered a way to recreate NASA’s battery technology using a far more affordable metal: nickel. That same year, he founded the clean energy company EnerVenue to commercialize his innovation. 

“Because this was a cost reduction play on an existing technology, we have been able to move fast. We have found a way to reduce costs drastically through material substitution and redesign, and that makes it easier to manufacture,” said Jorg Heinemann, CEO of EnerVenue. “It has characteristics similar to lithium-ion. But unlike lithium-ion, our batteries effectively last forever.” 

Demand for these batteries is growing, and the company recently announced a new 1 million-square-foot production factory in Kentucky. 

EnerVenue’s batteries are nickel-hydrogen based. A chemical reaction inside the battery generates hydrogen to charge them. As the battery discharges, the hydrogen oxidizes and turns back into water.

The batteries look like long scuba tanks — about 6 feet long and 6 inches wide. That makes using them while one the move nearly impossible, but they are perfectly suited for use in power plants, businesses and homes, Heinemann said. “We can meet any energy storage need as long as it is not mobile,” he said. 

Though EnerVenue’s batteries utilize a pressurized tank, they reach peak pressure at approximately 5 percent of what a typical hydrogen fuel cell would reach. If pressure continues to build, the hydrogen is forced to recombine into water, which can be released from the battery as steam. 

Unlike lithium-ion batteries, nickel-hydrogen batteries do not carry the risk of overheating and do not require a temperature-controlled storage site with hired staff for constant monitoring. They can be stored together in large quantities for their entire lifespan.

“Storing energy in the form of hydrogen is highly efficient and very durable and works almost as well in the hottest places and coldest places in the world as it does at room temperature,” Heinemann said. 

Plus, nickel-hydrogen batteries have a lifespan of 30 years, equal to solar arrays and wind turbines. “Other batteries tend to wear out for the same reason a paper clip wears out when you bend it: There is a flexing mechanism,” Heinemann said. “Think of your cell phone. It can get warmer and thicker when it is charging. That is because the material in the battery is flexing. When you do that enough, it starts to not hold its charge well enough anymore and degradation accelerates. That doesn’t happen with our battery.” 

Regardless of the relatively long lifespan, the company designed the batteries to be “cradle-to-cradle,” Heinemann said. EnerVenue employs a circular manufacturing model where the batteries’ parts can be removed and re-used without the risks that lithium-ion recycling carries. 

“Batteries have always been things that wear out or we throw away,”  Heinemann said. “We have to replace them or baby them. Those constraints don’t exist for us. Energy storage can last forever and be incredibly cost-effective as a result.”

EnerVenue is scaling up quickly after the success of its pilot programs. “We have proven that systems work in the field, and we have half a billion dollars of firm orders from customers,” Heinemann said. “We are really excited. Our order book is in excess of what I imagined it would be at this stage.” 

The company is also exploring new and innovative applications for clean energy storage. “Because our battery is fire safe and does not require maintenance, we want to launch a new category of energy storage that allows us to build our batteries into unused storage areas, like in the ceilings of parking garages or crawl spaces of buildings,” Heinemann said. “Where there is dead space, our batteries could go there.”

Homepage image: NASA/Unsplash

When you crack open a beer on a Friday night, the bottle is the last thing on your mind. But once drained of its last sip, it has a bumpy road ahead. We’ve made glass for millennia, yet our approach to its reuse is less sophisticated.

Americans send the vast majority of their glass to landfills — about 7.6 million tons every year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). With glass recycling rates of only around 31 percent, we lag far behind European countries that reuse an average of 74 percent. Unfortunately, glass breaks down extremely slowly in landfills.

However, while some see the glass pile as half empty, Diageo sees it as half full. As one of the world’s largest producers of spirits and beer, it's stepped up to tackle glass recycling in the U.S. Most recently, the company partnered with Don’t Trash Glass, a bottle collection program aiming to increase recycling in bars, restaurants and local businesses.

Glass recycling 101

Despite our propensity to trash it, glass is infinitely recyclable without losing quality, according to the Glass Packaging Institute, which is a part of Don't Trash Glass. Originally made from sand, soda ash and limestone, glass can be melted down at extremely high temperatures and formed into products like jars and bottles. In this production process, recycled glass can be substituted for up to 95 percent of the raw materials. Creating six tons of recycled glass saves a ton of carbon dioxide emissions. 

“Glass has a very important role in our supply chain emissions,” said Jayant Kairam, vice president of society at Diageo North America. “In order for us to cut those emissions down, which represent 90 percent of our overall emissions, we need to really transform and invest in circularity … When we think about glass and packaging, it's really from a carbon reduction perspective.” 

Glass recycling faces several roadblocks, though. “We have low recycling rates anyway, it's not just glass,” said Rose King, co-founder of GlassKing Recovery and Recycling, one of the companies involved with Don’t Trash Glass. 

Only about 32 percent of the waste generated in the U.S. is recycled, according to the most recent data from the EPA. 

“There's lots of reasons [for that],” King said. “One of them is a lack of education and the lack of awareness of what, why and how. Don't Trash Glass was designed specifically to explain what, why and how.”

Other factors hinder glass recycling rates, too. For example, numerous American communities have eliminated glass from their curbside recycling programs, citing high shipping and processing fees. Further, in single-stream recycling programs, glass can break and contaminate other recyclables, pose a hazard to workers, and damage machines at recycling facilities. 

Diageo’s recycling partnership

But when life gives you lemons, make lemon vodka. 

In 2023, Diageo joined the Don’t Trash Glass program, which expanded to the Chicago area from Arizona in 2021. It began as a partnership between the Glass Packaging Institute and GlassKing Recovery and Recycling, and it collected 2.2 million pounds of glass from over 50 businesses in Illinois last year. 

To get glass into the recycling stream instead of landfills, the program first assesses a business’ recycling needs and provides both indoor and outdoor recycling containers. Then, it collects and transports the glass to be recycled into products like bottles, jars and even fiberglass. 

“Don’t Trash Glass is a very exciting opportunity for us to really invest in tackling and building momentum on achieving some of our sustainable packaging objectives at Diageo,” Kairam said. “We also have a very ambitious sustainability agenda, which includes some bold commitments to increasing the sustainability of our packaging. And when we take a step back and think about our packaging, we always immediately go to glass. It is very much associated with our products. It's a wonderful material — infinitely reusable and chemical-free.”

Illinois was of particular interest to Diageo because its primary bottling and packaging facility is just outside of Chicago, Kairam said. In addition, a number of its glass suppliers are close by, and Chicago is a major commercial hub. The city is filled with bars, restaurants and chains generating lots of used glass.

“Chicago made a lot of sense in that first year,” Kairam said. “We had some very promising results, enough to build on and commit to expanding to another strategic location — which is northern Kentucky, Louisville, where we have our Bulleit [Frontier Whiskey] operations.”

Don’t Trash Glass is slated to start in the Bluegrass State this spring. Home to multiple Diageo facilities, Kentucky could use a little boost — its glass recycling rate is only 15 percent, according to a report by Eunomia Research and Consulting and the packaging company Ball Corporation. 

“We're very committed to Kentucky,” Karaim said. “I want to see this program thrive and grow, and hopefully, bring more partners along to it because the rates are low.”

GlassKing shares that goal. “We have a passionate vision that if you're sipping bourbon in Kentucky on a Monday, and you fly to Arizona on a Wednesday and have a cold beer in the middle of the summer, it's [all] part of the Don't Trash the Glass program,” King said. 

Other steps toward sustainability

This partnership is part of a larger vision for Diageo to reinvent its packaging by 2030. For instance, the company’s targets include sustainably sourcing all paper and board packaging materials and reducing overall packaging weight by 10 percent. Additional goals include using 60 percent recycled content in its packaging and making all packaging and plastics widely recyclable. 

But that’s not all. “We're investing in hydrogen-powered furnaces to decarbonize the production of glass, particularly in Scotland,” Karaim said. 

The company is also experimenting with alternative bottles — including a new Baileys Irish Cream line with aluminum bottles, which emits 44 percent less carbon than the glass bottles used today, Karaim said. 

The company has made some notable progress so far. It’s transitioning into more lightweight bottles for certain types of scotch and reducing cardboard packaging by 600 tons. It also introduced compostable and biodegradable carrier rings instead of plastic ones for some beer brands. 

Don’t Trash Glass isn’t Diageo’s first recycling rodeo. It also implemented glass and plastic recycling programs in Brazil and Ghana. And in Brazil, it set up a bottle return program for one of their cachaça brands, Ypióca, where glass from a 500-mile radius is brought to its facility for sanitation and reuse.

“It's pretty amazing to hear such a global company trying to do all these different things to make their impact,” King said. “This Don't Trash Glass relationship between Diageo and Glass King is really just the beginning of what we have to do as a collaboration in different areas.”

That’s good news for all the empty beer bottles out there, so raise your glass to a more sustainable future. 

Most financial professionals likely assume a strong return is all everyday investors are looking for as they save for their retirement. But even in a tough economy, a growing segment of global investors are equally concerned about aligning their money with their personal values, according to new research. 

The global insights consultancy GlobeScan and the climate policy think tank InfluenceMap surveyed 5,000 retail investors — in other words, regular people who participate in 401(k) retirement plans and pension schemes or who dabble in purchasing individual stocks — to understand more about their preferences. Surveyed investors represent 10 countries and territories around the world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan.

More than 8 in 10 of these investors (89 percent) either "strongly" or "somewhat" support investment funds putting money behind companies in the clean energy space, and 87 percent support funds actively encouraging the companies in their portfolios to act on climate change, according to the research. Further, over a third of surveyed investors strongly support funds excluding "companies that contribute significantly to climate change," and another 43 percent somewhat support it.

Many of these investors are also looking for the funds they do business with to provide information about how their investments impact nature and wildlife, economic inequality, and climate change, with more than 85 percent either strongly or somewhat supporting these disclosures. 

"The financial system is all obviously predicated upon fiduciary responsibility and maximizing profits, but I don't think the industry is very good at engaging their passive investors," Chris Coulter, CEO of GlobeScan, told TriplePundit. "In this world of transparency and ability to reach people, we probably underestimate the innate, baseline sense of importance of sustainability issues for investment decisions among retail investors." 

How can funds align with investor preferences?

Findings like these dovetail with recent research from TriplePundit, in which more than half of surveyed U.S. consumers agreed it is “important” or “very important” for financial service companies to act responsibly when it comes to society and the environment. Over 30 percent said they switched their retirement fund provider in 2023 for sustainability reasons, according to the study conducted in partnership with 3BL, the research technology company Glow and panel partner Cint. 

But even as sustainability becomes a more influential purchase driver for everyday investors, fund managers have been slow to respond. 

“GlobeScan’s research shows the extent of retail investors’ demand for ambitious climate action by their fund and pension managers," Daan Van Acker, program manager at InfluenceMap, said in a statement. "This stands in stark contrast to InfluenceMap’s findings that the world’s 45 largest asset managers are investing almost three times more assets in fossil fuel companies than green ones, while the proportion of managers with ambitious investee company stewardship has almost halved since 2021."

Given the ongoing disconnect, research like this is a powerful tool for financial professionals interested in aligning their firms' activities more closely with consumer preference. 

"If I was in a fund and saw these metrics, I'd be intrigued, because you're looking at 80 to 90 percent of people saying this stuff is important," Coulter said. "There's depth and foundational elements that even if you eroded a little bit, you still have significant majorities that are into this, so there's an opportunity here."

Still, growing political backlash against the use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles in investment decisions poses real risk for funds, particularly in the U.S. Among the recent examples, Texas’s Permanent School Fund pulled $8.5 billion out of BlackRock last week, arguing the asset manager's focus on ESG hurts investors and runs counter to its fiduciary duties.

BlackRock stopped using the term ESG to describe its interactions with portfolio companies, citing increased weaponization of the term, CEO Larry Fink said last year. But the so-called "anti-ESG" backlash still cost the company an estimated $4 billion in assets in 2023.

Amidst this environment, fund managers would be wise to pay attention to the global interest in sustainability among investors, and perhaps test new offerings and policies in markets outside the U.S. first, Coulter advised.

"The context of the ESG politicization and the weaponization of these issues makes it much more challenging," he said. "It's only for the brave, probably, in the U.S. In most other markets, it's much less of an issue. Testing in other markets outside the U.S., where there's a bit of a stronger sense of interest and importance and also less risk around the anti-ESG backlash, would be a sensible thing to do." 

Taking note of these global trends — with an eye toward a continued strong interest in the U.S., where more than 70 percent of investors say it's important for their investments to consider climate change, nature and economic inequality — can help fund managers maintain perspective in a difficult time. 

"There's a lot of noise out there, a lot of politicization, but the underpinning reality once this fever breaks is that there's opportunity here to build something," Coulter said. "Listening, understanding, getting close to people, hearing their own words, language and needs, and then finding ways to develop value propositions on the back of that, is really important." 

Messaging matters for funds, investors and the public

Even in the U.S., financial companies have an opportunity to connect with investors around issues that are less subject to political partisanship, with investments in nature, conservation and biodiversity being a clear example. Where the gravity of the climate crisis can easily overwhelm people to the point they tune out, the proactive, solutions-oriented tone of conversations around nature lend themselves to greater engagement among investors and the public, Coulter said. 

"Winning on climate change means we avoid the apocalypse and we all don't die. That is sort of the extreme expression of success on climate change and net zero, so it's inherently negative or inherently focused on avoiding tragedy," he explained. "Winning or being resilient on nature is infinitely positive in consumers', retail investors' and other stakeholders' minds. You can always imagine a much more positive future for nature, and that means it's got more energy and more possibility than just the climate conversation and decarbonization."

Leaning into these areas with universal appeal can help fund managers to meet consumer preferences while providing much-needed funding to preserve natural resources, which also helps to fight climate change and promote economic equality. 

Still, there is only so much that mainstream sustainable investing can do to drive progress. "With the trillions of dollars of assets under management that meet certain ESG criteria, it's extraordinary numbers, and yet we don't see any dramatic change in the impact that companies have on the environment or on people on the ground," Coulter said. "There are two potential reasons for that. One is that it's in the system now: There's a lag in the system, while this amazing hockey stick impact curve is taking shape, and things will start to change dramatically because capital has been allocated in certain ways. Or two, the bar has not been high enough to differentiate what good looks like versus what average or status quo looks like." 

In particular, most sustainable funds apply negative screens to exclude entire sectors, such as oil and gas, or exclude companies with especially poor social and environmental records. But fewer have built funds around companies that have an especially positive impact on people and the environment, leaving investors with little information about how this approach would really perform. "Someone has to prove that the social impact approach actually delivers much more returns, and that's still to be done," Coulter said.

Research like this indicates the approach could be well received. "There's an underlying value set that people have: People love nature, they're worried about climate, and they care about inequality. And these are generally long-term investments, so it's not about next quarter. It does change the future discounting risk for people that in the next 30 years, this makes sense. It's very rational and it also fits with my values."

Graphics courtesy of GlobeScan and InfluenceMap 

Homepage image: Markus Spiske/Unsplash