When we started 10 years ago, Enron was on top of the heap and California’s utilities were going bankrupt. We wanted to increase the options for Blacks and others vulnerable to mistreatment as energy deregulation moved across the country. We partnered with community organizations like the American Association of Blacks in Energy (Atlanta chapter) and the Concerned Black Clergy of Metro Atlanta for everything from free light bulb swaps to energy town hall meetings to countless workshops on home energy efficiency. We worked with natural gas companies to provide services with lower rates, low-credit options and cash contributions to local organizations working on issues we cared about. We sold tons of energy saving products through our e-commerce store. We took pride in serving the needs of Black communities throughout the country.

I want to share a few lessons learned over the years. First, while we found tremendous value in our focus on the needs of Black people, the problems we wanted to solve really required a solution that worked for everyone. Second, a social enterprise is first and foremost an enterprise. It’s tricky to balance social, environmental and financial goals, but financials must be primary for the other goals to have a chance. Third, having said that, it’s so important to follow your heart where it leads you. Rewards of the heart far exceed all others.

I’m going to rest for a moment or two before dreaming up a new adventure. Those who want to stay in touch can find me on Facebook and Twitter, and in the ether. Toksa Ake! (Lakota: Until next time!)

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1. The EPA finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health, which would negate the need for climate change legislation and give the agency regulatory authority over every aspect of the economy
2. New techniques for extracting natural gas found to threaten fresh water supplies
3. The failure of U.S. oil companies to win bids on any Iraqi oil contracts, while  countries opposed to the U.S. invasion met Iraq on its own terms
4. The oil/economy merry-go-round that spun us from recession (due to high oil prices) to relief (lower oil prices due to slowing economy) back to recession (higher oil prices due to rising economy)
5. Coal ash stored at the nation’s electric power plants labeled hazardous waste after dams broke at two separate ponds and released toxic sludge into nearby waterways

Next year promises to be even more exciting. See my 2010 energy trends in this month’s Atlanta Tribune, on newsstands now. Happy New Year!

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LEDs are extremely energy efficient and come in a wide variety of colors and styles. LEDs use on average 80% less power than a normal incandescent bulb and last up to 4,000 hours. Most of the energy output goes to light instead of heat thus reducing the chance for fires in your home. The cost of LEDs are about 10% more than standard lighting, but you may be able to find great discounts at local retail stores. Please shop around to find the item that best fits your families’ budget.

In an average home, the cost of using incandescent Christmas lighting decorations will increase your electric bill about $16 - $25/month during the season. In order to save money this holiday season, please consider using LED lighting in Christmas ornaments and outside lighting. Also, set your Christmas lights on a timer that is made to withstand the weather. Normally, people install lights the week after Thanksgiving and take them down after New Year’s Day. Please consider your personal finances to manage the utility costs associated with Christmas.

Happy Holidays!

Wayne Young

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Cathy Hughes launched the event at 9:00 am with a rousing message on the importance of Black media. She took several well-deserved shots at BET and the Real Housewives of Atlanta, reminding us of our responsibility to demand and support positive images of Black people. To prove the reality of positive images, she started listing some of Atlanta’s legendary Black women — Janis Ware, Harriette Watkins, Mayor Shirley Frankin, Leona Barr-Davenport, Rashan Ali, Xernona Clayton, Beverly Daniel Tatum, Elizabeth Omilami, JaQuitta Williams, and on and on and on — and didn’t stop until the entire conference was on its feet in rousing shouts and applause. Cathy Hughes pointed to many of those women in the audience and explained there was no excuse for buying into 21st-century Tarzan myths [her words] with such towering examples of real Black women in plain sight.

Charlotte King and Sonja Ebron

Lunch was off the chain, even for a vegan like me. The hotel laid out the fine china and otherwise showed out for the event, not at all because its general manager, Erica Qualls, is the current ABL board president. I was among 50 or so ABL leaders and previous awardees who were asked to parade around the conference room prior to the presentation of awards. Awards were presented to women business owners in the categories of home-based business, creative style, success against the odds, non-traditional business, and outstanding achievements, capped by a recognition of this year’s Millenium Pacesetter, Wal-Mart’s southeast division president, Rosalind Brewer. The stories of all the award finalists were inspiring, and I was happy to see the diversity in the industries represented.

Layli Phillips and Sonja Ebron

There were concurrent workshops in the morning on many topics, including supplier diversity initiatives, executing a business plan, women in the C-suite, sales strategies, networking with social media, personal financial strategies and maintaining wellness. In the afternoon, conferees split up into more concurrent workshops on the stages of life, economic stimulus opportunities, succession planning, money management, business loans, and the green economy. I moderated this latter workshop — Going Green — where we discussed energy efficiency, green certifications, clean technologies, green jobs and more with Dr. Charles Walker (Green Divide), Charlotte King (Snowden & King Marketing), and Rosa Crowley (U.S. Department of Labor, retired).

The day ended with a fabulous fashion show and wardrobing seminar produced by Saks Fifth Avenue. Everyone looked exhausted and rejuvenated at the same time. The energy of the entire conference was wonderful, and a good time was had by all. I can’t wait to do it again next year!

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Lisa Borders

Lisa is a major advocate for the Atlanta Beltline, an alternative transportation program that will add 22 miles of light-rail transit and 1,200 acres of green space around the city while boosting the local economy. Mayor Shirley Franklin committed the city to reduce its carbon footprint to 7% below 1990 levels by 2012 and to be carbon neutral by 2030, and Lisa will follow through on that commitment. She is also a strong promoter of the Atlanta Sustainable Building Ordinance, which would reduce energy and water use in all city facilities.

Even the Borders campaign office is green. Staff are collecting food and paper waste in compost bins to fertilize gardens around town. There are recycle bins for glass, aluminum and plastic waste, and employees are encouraged to carpool or use MARTA. Just as Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden has inspired all Americans to rethink our food choices, Lisa Borders’ green office practices will challenge all Atlantans to treat our environment better. This is the leadership Atlanta needs and deserves.

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Van’s brilliant idea was to marry the interests of labor, the environment and social justice. Taking on any one of those groups was a fight the oil and gas industry didn’t want, but a fight against all three was a sure loser. Alternet has the full story, but the short and skinny is that Van had to go. Here’s a breakdown of the takedown:

So let’s understand the stakes here and take heart. We are very close to changing the way we use energy in this country, and some folks can’t see themselves on the other side. That’s why they’re also targeting the Apollo Alliance, led by another “scary big ole black man,” former National Wildlife Federation chairman Jerome Ringo.

The Glenn Becks of the world didn’t wake up the other day and decide to equate green jobs with slavery reparations. They’re being fed this junk in an effort to divorce labor from the environment. You know you’re winning when an opponent resorts to these kinds of tactics. I think they made a big mistake in targeting Van, for two reasons. One, they’ve alerted us all to their weakness and fear and confirmed that we are on the right track. And two, Van is much more dangerous out here with the rest of us.

Our response is simple, and it’s one that honors the genius of Van Jones: We must push as hard as we can for the most progressive climate change legislation we can envision, one that includes green jobs with justice.

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The conference will encourage participation in the “green” economy and showcase people of color engaged in sports, such as mountain climbing, skiing, sailing and scuba diving. It also will highlight the efforts of Americans of diverse ethnic and cultural heritage to protect the environment and the scenic treasures in the nation’s public parks, forests and wildlife refuges.

Audrey and Frank Peterman, conference organizers and long-time outdoor enthusiasts, have been promoting America’s natural beauty to communities of color for the past 14 years. When the Petermans took a cross-country trip in 1995 and discovered the Badlands, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks, they saw very few other Black people in the parks. Inspired to alter that picture, they launched a campaign to publicize the parks to Americans of color.

“The National Park System has a $3 billion budget,” said Audrey Peterman, during a television interview on August 16th about the First Family’s visit to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon. People of color are underrepresented as visitors and employees at parks, but Peterman said she expected the President’s trip to spark interest. She noted that many parks are bigger than major cities and require workers for all the amenities they provide.

Peterman noted that the changing demographics of our country demand participation from all ethnic groups if the parks and the environment are going to thrive. “Some African Americans, Latinos and Asians have not seen themselves reflected in outdoor sports and in the environmental movement, but that has got to change,” she said.

The Petermans have met and worked with a wide range of outdoor recreation proponents of color and notables in government and business who want to see more diversity in the environmental movement. Many of them will be available at the conference to inspire young people, provide little-known information about the public lands system, and offer advice about career and business opportunities, contracts, education, and recreation.

The conference will feature people of color actively engaged in fields where they are underrepresented. For example, Hermes Castro is a 30-year-old Latino outdoor enthusiast who lost his legs when a drunk driver hit his bicycle in 2006. Yet Hermes has continued to be an avid sportsman in San Diego and just returned from an expedition to Antarctica, where he became the first wheelchair visitor ever.

And there’s Jerry Bransford, a 62-year-old guide at Kentucky’s Mammoth Caves, whose great-great-grandfather began exploring and guiding in those same caves as a 15-year-old slave. Savannah Williams, a 25-year-old marine scientist in Nashville, was the first person in her African-American family to learn how to swim when she joined a teen aquatic club and became a certified scuba diver.

Sonja Ebron, a PhD electrical engineer and CEO of blackEnergy, will take the stage with a specific goal in mind — to explain why people of color need to pay more attention to energy efficiency. “Black people spend a lot more for utility resources than every other group. We tend to rent instead of own. When you rent, you are not likely to install attic insulation or replace the refrigerator for an energy efficient one, nor is your landlord likely to do that. There’s also a difference in the information flow. Material, like energy efficient tips, is not targeted to black media. The third point is behavioral. We’re not using the information we do have, in many instances,” she said.

The conference is being held at the Atlanta Airport Hilton September 23-26, and will feature about 50 speakers from around the country including professionals in the academic, government, business, recreation and nonprofit sectors. The conference is timed to immediately precede the national release of Ken Burns’ documentary, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” which will air on PBS stations on September 27, the day following the close of the conference. The Petermans have collaborated with Ken Burns. In fact, Mr. Burns’ co-producer, Dayton Duncan, credits Audrey Peterman with introducing him to one of the subjects profiled in the documentary, The Jones Family of Biscayne National Park.

To register and to learn more about the conference, visit BreakingtheColorBarrier.com.

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In Kenya, national telecommunications company Safaricom  recently released a solar-powered mobile phone that costs no more than $40.  This is especially beneficial in the country because electricity is so scarce. The country is under strict power rationing and their main source of energy is hydro-power. The demand is high for power and it is expensive for citizens to go to a third-party vendor to charge their cellphones.  It is also difficult to find these vendors in rural areas of Kenya. “Initially, one had to use one’s phone and then the phone would go off and then you could not sell one’s vegetables and do your transactions,”  said a Kenyan phone user. “But now with the new solar phone one can talk talk talk and deal with your business. It is much easier now.”

The phone does appear to be the first of its kind to be available commercially in Africa. Who knows when it’s coming to the US.

Some in the mobile phone industry have suggested accessory solar-powered phone chargers are the best avenue to address the phone charging issue in developing regions of the world. Such chargers have been available for a while but have been limited in their reach by a lack of uniformity. The solar-powered cellphone was created by ZTE Corporation from China. A similar phone was also released in June by Samsung in India.

Can you just imagine the impact a phone like that would have in the US? Studies have shown appliances on standby (such as TVs, computers, DVD players, cellphone chargers, game systems like XBOX and Wii) can account for 10% of a home’s total energy consumption. The International Energy Agency even estimated that standby power consumption accounts for 1% of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. Some may say that the power use is negligible, but over time and multiplied by the millions of cellphone users, it could have a major impact.  A solar powered phone for the “green” energy-conscious community would go over BIG across the globe.

– Wayne X. Young

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There are 3 active storms currently being monitored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). Tropical Depression Ana is currently over the Dominican Republic and will possibly make its way to the Gulf of Mexico by Thursday. Tropical Storm Bill is out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and might hit the Mid-Atlantic region (VA, DC, NJ, MD) coastal states in another week or so. Tropical Storm Claudette is scheduled to hit Panama City Monday morning and cross into Alabama and Tennessee.

Already we have seen a 10 cent increase in gasoline prices since last week. Gas prices have jumped 10% or more since the last month. Last year, pipelines and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico were severely damaged due to hurricane force winds. Distribution of gasoline was affected. The Southeast faced a gas drought of major proportions because we get our gas from the companies who owned the platforms in the Gulf. Weeks went by with little or no fuel in major cities. And the gasoline that was available nearly reached $6/gallon. Lines were around the block!

Are we prepared to accept another “wave” of gas gouging based on greed and desperation? Have we, the consumer, maintained our vehicles to utilize as little gas as possible? Is your tire pressure up to standards? Are we making less non-essential trips? Have we taken the excess weight out of our vehicles? Be prepared people, because it will get worse before it gets better.

– Wayne X. Young

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American history is replete with such examples, from genocide of the original inhabitants and enslavement of African people to the coups, assassinations and general warmongering of the last 60 years. We are so blinded by our past that we can’t adequately gauge our future.  That’s what so dangerous about our continuing misadventure in Iraq.

On what deranged planet does ending the Iraq war mean the permanent presence of 50,000 foreign troops with control of the airspace?  Exactly how is a multinational bidding war for Iraqi oil rights better for Iraq than the state ownership they used to enjoy? We expected nothing about Iraq to make sense under George Bush, but Barack Obama knows better. We know — and the Iraqis know — this ain’t right.

It’s also untenable as a peace proposition because there can be no peace without justice.  How can we expect “insurgents” or “terrorists” or whatever we want to call them to stop fighting while Western oil companies drain their national wealth under a puppet government protected by a larger and better equipped foreign military force than their own? They don’t believe our hype; they’ve been through this before, in the four decades leading up to the 1958 revolution against British occupation. Far from ending, our war on Iraq is not even beginning to wind down.

True, global oil production is peaking and the global economy is collapsing in response. Yes, we need the oil some kinda bad and don’t know how to secure it while we wean ourselves off it. The world’s biggest oil junkie needs its fix, and Iraq is the unwilling dealer. But I was taught that when you don’t know what to do, do the right thing. We need to get out of Iraq — now — because it’s the right thing to do. For one, no junkie gets off his drug by robbing his dealer. That only delays the healing. For two, the Golden Rule isn’t just good ethics; it’s moral law that means you bring in what you send out. We are destroying our future as a nation by our actions in Iraq.

Our president would do well to remember, as he likes to quote from Martin Luther King, that “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.”

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