My friend Nathaniel Smith, Founder and Chief Equity Officer of Partnership for Southern Equity, is a leader whom I deeply respect and admire. He has observed that we need a “values revolution” to get back on a right path, and I agree with him.
Systems produce outcomes according to the values on which they’re founded. So, if you want to transform the outcomes or change the system, you’ve got to go deep to its roots and transform the values that define it. This same thought has been expressed many different ways over the ages. If you grew up in Sunday School like me, you might have learned it as “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Groundswell is working to transform our energy systems so that the value it generates – clean power, jobs, public health, and wealth – is aligned with the values of the communities it serves. All the places we work and the people we serve have a vision for their clean energy future, and we’re here to help them build it.
As I shared back in December, we took time together last year to “write the vision and make it plain” in our new Strategic Plan, which we’re sharing here with you. If you take 15 minutes or so to flip through it (or a bit longer to read it word for word), you’ll see who we are and what we’re getting up to – and most importantly, the values that underpin all our work.
As we press into 2021 and the good work ahead, we’ll have more news to share. We will celebrate Black Green History Month in February, which will include the debut of a new website that presents a powerful vision of what our clean energy futures can look like.
And on that same forward-looking theme, we’ll be revitalizing our monthly Energy Futures Webinars, which will (among other topics) follow the clean energy and equity policies rolling out of the Biden-Harris Administration and help connect them to what you want to build for your community. I’m particularly excited to explore what it will mean to commit 40% of the benefits of the Administration’s investments in clean energy to serve disadvantaged communities. It sounds a little wonky, but it could be a game-changer for people and places who’ve been left out of the clean energy economy up until now – red, blue, and purple.
I hope you’ll take a little time to scroll through our Strategic Plan. And if you’re game, let us know what you think. You can find us on Twitter (@grndswell), Instagram (@grndswell), LinkedIn, and Facebook, or you can drop us an email directly at communications@groundswell.org.
With gratitude for the good (and the hard) work ahead this year,
Michelle Moore
CEO, Groundswell
Twitter: @wabi_sabi
