After almost 13 years headquartered in Chico, GRID Alternatives (GRID) North Valley regional affiliate office shifted all operations to the new Sacramento location this year. As a way to commemorate the move and celebrate the tremendous growth in impact they have had serving communities from San Joaquin County west to the Oregon border and east to the Nevada border, they recently hosted an Open House on August 8th to bring the Sacramento area community together and toast to the work ahead.
The morning of the Open House was a beautifully sunny California day, a perfect visual representation of the solar energy that our North Valley regional office has brought to over to 2,105 families and 25 affordable housing or nonprofit spaces in the region since 2011. In attendance were many community-based partners, new and old funders alike, and even some past clients. Attendees enjoyed delicious tacos from a local food truck, California Street Taco, between visits to tables set up by Outreach and Workforce Development teams, with fun activities like “Pin the Panel on the Roof."
GRID North Valley staff also led guests through a walking tour of the facility, which was decorated with fresh flowers from Outreach Co-Manager Summer LeBard’s home garden, adding colorful pops to the festive GRID signage. Highlights from the tour included a “gallery wall” of the 25 multifamily and commercial projects that the North Valley team has completed, the newly built and air-conditioned training classroom, the Technical Academy lab space where the hands-on Installation Basics Training (IBT) program is held, an exclusive peek at the warehouse where construction staff train, and the office’s Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity (EID) resource library in the staff lounge.
As guests gathered and mingled in the hub of the new office, GRID North Valley’s Board President Kacey Lizon and Treasurer Eric Poff opened the speaking program with welcoming remarks, sharing their own personal connections to GRID’s work. Erica Mackie, CEO and Co-Founder of GRID Alternatives, addressed North Valley staff and guests about the national impact of GRID’s work and the exciting road ahead:
"The model created here in Northern California, particularly in Sacramento around equitable renewables policy, has become a model that is being used all over the country. We have just been awarded two multi-million dollar awards from the federal government that will help us install over 30,000 systems in the next 5 years, based on this model. As part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the federal government put $7 billion into what they’re calling the Solar for All program.
The Solar for All program is what you all do every day - it’s the same words we’ve been saying from every rooftop we’ve been on in the last 20 years, it’s the same program, and it cares about the same kinds of things: workforce development as an integrated component of the work, making sure we’re maximizing savings for families, and that we’re also looking towards resiliency… You’ve created something that isn’t just for your neighbor and your community, but also for someone living in Tennessee or Michigan and in many reservations across the United States. It’s an honor to be here with you all because you set the tone and built the pathway.”
North Valley’s new Co-Executive Directors Achini Bandara and Pablo Del’Aguila shared that in 13 years, GRID North Valley has installed over 10 megawatts of solar, generating $70 million in lifetime savings for our clients, preventing over 150,000 tons in carbon emissions, and graduating over 300 trainees from our solar job training programs. They introduced each team that makes North Valley’s work possible - Construction, Design, Outreach, Workforce Development, Development, and Commercial - to rounds of applause, ending the speaking program with thanks to our guests. The event closed with a conduit-bending workshop and competition led by Solar Installation Training Officer Ana Veronica (A.V.) Bourke, where guests tried their hand at bending conduit to a specified angle, followed by GRID solar installers competing to see who could bend a (slightly more complicated) conduit the fastest. It was a fun and lively ending to an event we hope to replicate in the future.
To quote our Co-Executive Director Achini Bandara, “We are thrilled to be able to share this space with you, to share our work with you, and to do this work for our communities.”
