Summer is right around the corner, and the Leyline team is gearing up for a productive and impactful season. We made significant strides in our anti-racism and social change work since the beginning of the year, which we highlight in our Q1 2021 Leyline Addressing Racism (LAR) report. Q1 was all about reaching out to our network and community to listen to and amplify the voices that most need to be heard. We welcomed our first Renewable Energy Ex/Intern at Leyline (REEAL), honored Black History Month, and made important new connections with our Durham community.
Our commitment to continuous improvement can be seen in our three main overlapping focus areas – education, employment, and finance and community partnerships – this past quarter:
Education
This quarter, we hired Vivica Moore, a rising junior at North Carolina A&T, as our first REEAL intern. After joining Leyline in the first quarter, Vivica completed her externship rotation through four out of seven teams, and her incredible engagement and curiosity brought this new internship to life.
As part of Leyline’s educational engagement initiatives, members of the Leyline team took part in Mock Interview Week at Meredith College, participated in career fairs at N.C. A&T and Howard University, and offered perspectives on renewable energy and internal processing at the Elizabeth City State University Career Conversations. The team is also developing a mentorship program in conjunction with North Carolina Central University to bring more Black, Indigenous, and people of color populations into the world of renewables and sustainability.
Employment
Leyline is growing, and our work toward ensuring equitable and just hiring practices continues to develop. As of this quarter, we completed a full draft of our hiring policy with a prioritization of just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive (JEDI) practices; trained leadership on this new policy; completed our Diversity and Inclusion Policy; and more.
Leyline also become a “seedling partner/sponsor” of Black Oak Collective, a new organization whose mission is “to increase Black representation within businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations not as an end, but as one tool toward that goal.” We also continue to be involved with Renewables Forward working groups, speaking with other organizations in the field on best JEDI practices.
Finance & Community Partnerships
This month, we reached out to potential partner organizations in our hometown of Durham, continuing conversations with one of the city’s leading affordable housing and community developers, Durham Community Land Trustees, to explore how rooftop solar systems installed on its rented and owned units could reduce energy costs for its residents.
We also kicked off our project with a student team from MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative. A team of students from the initiative’s flagship class, “Laboratory for Sustainable Business,” began work with a group of Leyline employees to determine a path for incorporating JEDI metrics into Leyline’s origination process. This group of Leyliners will meet with the MIT team weekly for updates, and we are excited to share the final project in Q2.
Having broadened and assured our foundation at the end of 2020, we continue our commitment and do what we can to create mindful, positive change to combat racism in our professional field and local communities.
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Just when you thought ice cream couldn’t get any better, the Leyline team partnered with PurposeEnergy to turn it into renewable energy for the Vermont grid. Learn more about how Leyline is helping provide power for up to 1,000 Vermont homes.
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FastGrid, a solar, energy storage, and renewable energy company, completed work in nearly every U.S. state – plus the Caribbean! Click here to learn more about our conversation with FastGrid’s Managing Principal and President Eric Curry, where we discuss the renewable energy industry from an engineering and design perspective.
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Worth a Read
Energy Storage News
The Wall Street Journal
NPR
The New York Times
Forbes
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