MISSION STATEMENT
As conversations of weather occurrences and suggested anomalies become
more frequent and mainstream in the scientific community, as well as at
the grass-roots-level, the need to embrace and index substantive
information into an authoritative conduit to encourage more research and
development~~~IS IMPERATIVE.
Pertinent themes as Global Warming, Climate Change, and Melting Ice Caps
has stimulated discussions, seeded forums, and spawned additional
research, all to foster consensus, and recommend courses-of-action.
The intent of CLIMATE; THE CONVERSATION, is to be The Bulletin Board,
The Platform, The Podium, and The Credible Source & Bibliography
for such astute, sincere, and scholarly considerations.
Sincerely;
Administrators:
Andrew M. Marconi
Lou Marconi
Energy & Environment
Home Solar Power Discounts Are Worker Perk in New Program
Expanding
the notion of corporate benefits beyond discounted health club
memberships and low insurance rates, a group of major companies is set
to offer employees access to cheaper solar systems for the home.
Under an arrangement announced Wednesday, employees of the companies — Cisco Systems, 3M, Kimberly-Clark and National Geographic
— will be able to buy or lease solar systems for their homes at rates
substantially lower than the national average, executives said. The
program, offered through Geostellar, an online marketer of solar
systems, will be available to more than 100,000 employees and will
include options for their friends and families in the United States and
parts of Canada.
Conceived at the World Wildlife Fund,
the program, called the Solar Community Initiative, aims to use the
bulk buying power of employees to allow for discounts on home systems.
The
program’s expansion is a reflection of the shrinking gulf between camps
that were once considered mutually exclusive: environmental advocacy
The
program’s expansion is a reflection of the shrinking gulf between camps
that were once considered mutually exclusive: environmental advocacy
organizations and mainstream corporate America.
“Our
objective was to make this as simple and cheap as possible,” said Keya
Chatterjee, senior director for renewable energy at the World Wildlife
Fund. After receiving discounts through a group program for employees
last year, officials at the environmental group approached a few of
their corporate partners, she said.
The
program is consistent with the group’s approach of working closely with
corporations, often quietly trying to nudge them toward change from the
inside, rather than pushing from the outside through more
confrontational tactics.
That
has sometimes earned them criticism from other groups of being too cozy
with the very businesses responsible for pollution, but some are
pursuing similar paths as climate advocates grapple with how best to
engage powerful, moneyed interests in achieving their goals.
Increasingly,
said Dan Reicher, executive director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for
Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University, groups are working
with businesses to influence not only energy policy but also the
markets, which dovetails with a growing corporate focus on clean
technologies.
“In the old days there wasn’t a big alliance to build around solar energy
because it was such an infinitesimal part of the energy picture and
prices were so high,” Mr. Reicher said. “Now that it’s becoming a more
mainstream, cost-competitive approach, it makes sense for environmental
organizations to build alliances with the business community to get this
technology to market.”
For
Geostellar, which built a virtual marketplace from satellite imagery
and big data, it offers a new route to attracting customers, which is
still one of the more stubbornly high costs of operating a solar
business.
Other
solar companies have established corporate partnerships to funnel new
customers to them. SolarCity, for instance, recently announced that it
was renewing a deal with Honda that provides its systems to the
automaker’s customers at a discount.
“It’s
over 100,000 people who are all prequalified because they have good
jobs,” said David Levine, chief of Geostellar. “They’re going to pass
the credit.”
For
the companies, the arrangement offers a way to attract and retain a
work force that is increasingly attuned to the environment and to the
steps employers take to preserve it. It is a natural extension of
current sustainability efforts, executives of the companies said,
whether cutting carbon emissions by installing solar panels at their
facilities, offering preferential parking and charging stations for electric vehicles, or introducing Meatless Mondays at the cafeteria.
“I get the emails: ‘Why aren’t we recycling this?’ or ‘Why don’t we have 45,000 more electric-vehicle charging stations?’ ” said Ali Ahmed, who manages energy and sustainability at Cisco. “So we had a really good feeling that our employees would engage and latch onto this kind of discount.”
That
interest is already evident, the companies said. Three Cisco executives
have already decided to install solar systems in their homes through
Geostellar, Mr. Levine said. At 3M,
employees lined up at a kiosk at lunchtime to learn more about the
program, said Gayle Schueller, vice president for global sustainability
at the company.
Pricing
and savings will vary, depending on factors like the pitch of a roof
and the levels of sunlight. But the average base cost of a system will
be $3 a watt of the system’s capacity — roughly 17 percent lower than
Geostellar’s regular price and almost 34 percent lower than the average
cost in the United States last year of $4.53, according to the federal
government.
The
program is available for leasing or buying solar systems. Homeowners
paying an average of $147 a month for electricity would instead pay an
average of $97 a month over 12 years if they financed the entire system,
after which the payments would go to zero, Mr. Levine said.
Geostellar,
which received an Energy Department grant aimed at lowering solar
costs, has an automated system that allows homeowners to type in their
address and see options and estimates of potential savings before
connecting with installers and lenders if they decide to proceed.
The company said it was in talks with Cleveland about a similar bulk-buying program.
The
discounted rate will be available to employees at the partner companies
indefinitely. It will also be accessible to qualified applicants
through Dec. 31.
Once we have assessed their impacts, and once we have recognized the negative affects
on the environment, on the land that we are farming, on our commercial and industrial endeavors, on the atmosphere that
we are breathing, it is critical to recognize that WE MUST REVERSE THESE
TRENDS. Then, given the time
and place to implement actions and practices to have a cause-and-effect
impact in a positive
way, will influence implementation, and at least retard further
deterioration of our environment and our climate. On a larger scale,
reversing the trends of deterioration should always be----the ultimate
objective.
Its impact on the economy, pollution, and the focus on Climate; The Conversation---makes this worthy of continued enthusiasm and consideration
Lou Marconi (SuiteLou0819)
Its impact on the economy, pollution, and the focus on Climate; The Conversation---makes this worthy of continued enthusiasm and consideration
Lou Marconi (SuiteLou0819)
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