Summit Strategy Sessions Offer Useful Insights – Great Ideas, Best Practices for Entrepreneurs

Day two of the SJF Summit on the New Green Economy offered participants the chance to have a facilitated conversation about challenges and opportunities in the new green economy.  Sessions were held on issues that entrepreneurs face, the needs of rural and urban communities for economic development, and issues unique to the Triangle region of North Carolina.  We’ve picked out and posted to this blog some of the most interesting and useful insights from these sessions and paraphrased or quoted the participants.   Please feel free to leave your own comments or suggestions!

ENTREPRENEURS OFFER GREAT IDEAS, BEST PRACTICES

What do you need to know to be a successful entrepreneur in the green business space?  Lots of great ideas were offered up at the Entrepreneurship Strategy Session during SJF’s Green Economy Summit.  Top of mind for entrepreneurs: every relationship matters.

Other nuggets of advice:
•    Don’t despair if capital investment seems to only go to the big guys.  Our panel argued that micro-lending is an available, viable option for smaller firms.
•    Notes one participant: there are many new debt options. Lightly collateralized loans up to $50,000, and lending up to $200,000, might be an option. While this might not be much money for capital-intensive companies, it can be helpful for service businesses.
•    When you’re short on people-power or fresh ideas, tap business school students.  Our panel found them to be eager and socially motivated.  Moreover, to have students working on a discrete project that relates to their studies can be a real win-win.
•    Work on that elevator pitch!  As one participant emphasized: “say in a few words what the market opportunity is. Entrepreneurs have too many words and grand ideas. Instead, say ‘here’s the need, and here’s how we’ll address it in a differentiated way.’”
•    Be clear about the shortest path to revenue and breakeven point.  Small and income-generating is better than big and in the red.
•    Find an investor who cares about the problems you are working to solve. “If you’ve got them by the heart, the wallet is close to follow.”

The entrepreneurs also had ideas as to the most pressing needs for budding green entrepreneurs:
•    The need for experienced mentors: “How can we connect people with a business background to mentor those who have the heart but no business experience?”
•    The need for seed funding: “Many environmental or mission-driven businesses don’t fit the formula for lending because they don’t have a track record. But they’re visionaries, and they’re the ones we [the market] need to figure out how to fund.”
•    The need for good metrics to measure social and environmental performance.a

Day two of the SJF Summit on the New Green Economy offered participants the chance to have a facilitated conversation about challenges and opportunities in the new green economy.  Sessions were held on issues that entrepreneurs face, the needs of rural and urban communities for economic development, and issues unique to the Triangle region of North Carolina.  We’ve picked out and posted to this blog some of the most interesting and useful insights from these sessions and paraphrased or quoted the participants.   Please feel free to leave your own comments or suggestions!

BUILDING THE NEW GREEN ECONOMY IN NORTH CAROLINA’S TRIANGLE REGION
The Triangle Region strategy session participants identified some local resources for green business entrepreneurs including:
•    The Sustainable North Carolina Business Council
•    North Carolina Sustainable Entrepreneurs Group
•    NC Board of Science & Technology
•    Advanced Energy

Some of the next steps that the SJF Green Economy Summit strategists considered to develop green business in the Triangle included:
•    Organize like-minded investors
•    Look for ways to collaborate
•    Develop great business plans
•    Have more say in policy development
•    Collect information for faith-based initiatives embracing the green movement

Day two of the SJF Summit on the New Green Economy offered participants the chance to have a facilitated conversation about challenges and opportunities in the new green economy.  Sessions were held on issues that entrepreneurs face, the needs of rural and urban communities for economic development, and issues unique to the Triangle region of North Carolina.  We’ve picked out and posted to this blog some of the most interesting and useful insights from these sessions and paraphrased or quoted the participants.    Please feel free to leave your own comments or suggestions!

IN RURAL COMMUNITIES MONEY REALLY DOES GROW ON TREES

Here’s a thoughtful take-away from the SJF Summit strategy session on rural economic development: the glass is half full, not half empty.  In terms of green jobs potential, rural communities have great bioenergy and other assets, and are rich in natural capital.  However, new strategies for marketing and corporate development are needed so that private money, including venture capital and angels, can effectively reach small-or-medium-sized businesses in rural economies.

The Summit strategists concluded that rural communities may have missed the Internet explosion, but they don’t need to – and shouldn’t – miss the ‘green’ explosion.  How can these communities get in the game?
•    Increase access to capital.  One reason interest and enthusiasm from investors is lacking is because the capital needs are smaller in rural areas than elsewhere. One potential area of interest to investors could be community infrastructure.
•    Develop workforce training in new skills related to new green industries
•    Develop low-tech employment opportunities in green industries for entry-level employees
•    Recognize rural and urban needs are different!  Urban strategies may not work in rural communities.

Rural communities have big potential to develop their natural capital assets. One attendee noted that Latin American countries are beginning to protect their forests rather than cutting down the trees and are then using carbon credits to trade in the European market. U.S rural communities now have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to respond to the interest of the energy industry in biomass production by exploiting their bioenergy assets.

The lack of a trained workforce and matched skill sets are two of the biggest hurdles for rural communities. There may be lessons to learn here from urban communities, which use empowerment strategies to build capacity through leadership.  The best organizations are market-based networks, like farmers’ cooperatives, or are organized around a sector (energy products, forestry products) to serve large market.

Words of wisdom: to be successful, the regions themselves need to organize to develop an infrastructure.  One key need is on-the-ground leadership that’s sustained over time.

Jeff Wolfe had a simple call to arms for SJF Summit attendees to wrap up the two-day event this afternoon: go develop and promote alternative energy in order to “save the planet.”

“We will win not by losing our senses, but by finally gaining control of them,” said Wolfe, CEO of Vermont-based groSolar. “This is the moment.  Let’s go do it.”

Wolfe ended his lunch keynote with this inspirational message.  Before he got there, he laid out a bleak picture of the current times: a huge, crippling recession, global warming and a dependence on oil for energy.  But all of these trends, Wolfe noted, open up great opportunities for wholesale change.

Wolfe and his wife, Dori, began groSolar, an SJF portfolio company, in 1998.  The solar energy firm has exploded and now has 200 workers.

“GroSolar is a fantastic example of what our economic system can do and repeat,” he said.

Wolfe advocated for “endeavor” capital over venture capital.  The distinction, he said, is that venture capital sometimes makes a problem in order to solve it, while endeavor capital would be organized around fixing existing problems.

So how do businesses, investors and others move forward in promoting sustainable energy sources?  Wolfe had a few ideas.  Among them: mission statements should include the mantra, “in harmony with the Earth”; the public sector should make investments without expecting an immediate return; business should ditch its old ways and find new techniques; and labor interests need to be involved in dialogue.

Our Green Economy Plenary, which was moderated by SJF’s David Kirkpatrick, featured five capital markets leaders who offered a multitude of useful nuggets as we look to invest in the new green economy.  The panelists were: Andrew Kassoy, of B-Lab; Ariane van Buren, of Ceres; Mark Pinsky, of the Opportunity Finance Network; Kathleen Starr of the F.B. Heron Foundation; and Don Shaffer, of RSF Social Finance.

Here are just a few of the points and takeaways from the plenary:

Kassoy noted the need for social and environmental standards in the green marketplace.  He compared such a system to the LEED standards used for environmentally sustainable building practices.

Pinsky offered a glimpse into his group, which is a network of community development financial institutions across the United States.  He said there are 800 such CDFI’s in America today.  “We’re trying to figure out how to do better in the CDFI world,” he said.

Starr said there is a misconception that entities that are doing positive work with social impacts have to lose out financially in some way.  She said that’s certainly not the case.

Shaffer told attendees they should consider ending their bank accounts with organizations like Bank of America and Wells Fargo and invest in credit unions such as Self-Help that are more focused on social benefits.

Van Buren discussed how her organization, Ceres, helps investors and organizations promote sustainability.  She said Ceres works with state treasurers and individual state investment funds.

Panelists also encouraged Summit attendees to visit several Web sites to get more information about capital.  Here are some of those resources: greenforall.org, moreformission.org and missionmarkets.com.

Self-Help Credit Union Founder Martin Eakes received a standing ovation from a packed ballroom of SJF Summit attendees this morning after giving a commanding and inspirational keynote about the need to embrace to trusteeship and sustainability.

Eakes, a national leader in CDFIs and in the fight against predatory lending, said it’s important to be a trustee for the poor and disadvantaged.  He told a story of how a borrower visited him and explained how he had been hoodwinked into making a bad refinancing deal on his mortgage.  He said this case pushed him into starting the Center for Responsible Lending, which is affiliated with Self-Help.

He said it will take some time to get over the mortgage meltdown.  “It’s going to be four or five years before we have a recovery,” he said as he showed a graph to illustrate the housing crisis.

Eakes noted that many subprime loans were designed so they would fail.  He said more than 50 percent of black residential mortgage holders have subprime loans, a problem he called a “walking neutron bomb.”  And he said the effects of this crisis will hurt nearby homes.

“It becomes an infection for the four or five houses around it,” he said. “You end up with this epidemic that becomes a downward spiral.”

He said Self-Help has been trying to get vacant, foreclosed homes back on the market.  Just last week, he said Self-Help sold homes in hard-hit areas for $1,500 a piece.

But Eakes said there is hope that Americans can turn things around.

“I believe that suffering and self sacrifice can heal the corrosion that’s taking hold of this country,” he said.

As he closed, Eakes neatly wrapped up his message against predatory lenders with this call: “While it is true that we love our enemies, sometimes we have to stop them first.”

Janet Cowell, NC state treasurer, kicked off the second day of the SJF Summit by reminding attendees that the Old North State is in a good place to tap into the emerging green economy.

“North Carolina’s a state that is well-positioned to take advantage of this movement,” Cowell said.

Cowell, a former SJF employee and state legislator who was elected as North Carolina’s first female treasurer last fall, praised SJF for organizing the Summit and convening a variety of leaders who want to collaborate to create good green jobs.

She called on Summit attendees to offer state government officials feedback to help get the economy flowing again.

“I hope that you can help the government sector identify the barriers and policies that need to be changed,” she said.

At the end of the SJF Summit’s first day, three concurrent sessions took place here at the Durham Convention Center.  Those sessions were a cleantech and green jobs policy and program update, workforce engagement strategies session and a panel on green building and green jobs.  The following blog post will touch on some of the information presented at the cleantech and green jobs policy and program update.  Be sure to come back here to read about the other sessions.

The cleantech and green jobs policy and program update was moderated by Deb Gallagher, with Duke’s Nicholas School of Environment.  Three panelists offered their perspectives on efforts to create green jobs.  Those presenters were: Paul Dickerson, of Haynes and Boone, LLP; Ben Taube, of Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance; and Melissa Bradley-Burns of nonprofit Green For All.

Discussing the need for funding, Dickerson noted that “capital is the oxygen that cleantech needs.”  He also commented on the proposed “cap and trade” legislation that is meant to lower greenhouse gas output.

“Candidly, I’m not sure we as a nation can handle a run-up in energy prices for what appears to be a minimal displacement of carbon,” he said.

Regarding Department of Energy funding, Dickerson – who used to work for the federal entity – said there is funding available from the department for many “green” initiatives. However, he said there’s currently disagreement about whether efforts should be focused more on regulation, research and development or deployment of technology.

Meanwhile, Tauke, executive director of the Atlanta-based Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, gave a summary of how state energy offices are spending the federal funds they are receiving.  He noted that the Obama Administration has poured significantly more funding into the states for energy efficiency and similar initiatives.  For example, he said Georgia received $1 million last year, but this year got $82 million.

States are spending these funds in many different ways.  For example Louisiana is spending $3 million on renewable energy for nonprofits, $40 million to retrofit state facilities and millions more for other projects.

Here in North Carolina, he said $14 million is going to the NC Green Business Fund, $12 million is being put towards small business and industry and other funds are going elsewhere.

From various initiatives, Taube said the job creation figures are very promising.  He said Appalachian states could get about 77,000 new jobs in coming years.

Bradley-Burns continued with success stories from other states.  She said Washington State, for example, measures not only job creation but also the reduction in environmental impact.  And in Massachusetts, she said, the state began a Clean Energy Technology Center and has an alternative energy investment fund that contains $43 million.

She said the recent stimulus legislation allocated $500 million to the Green Jobs Act, a bill that passed under former President George W. Bush.  She said Green For All was instrumental in pushing for that legislation.