28 April 2008

Social Entrepreneurs Target Climate Change

"The profit for us is impact," award-winning social entrepreneur says

Michael Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy, has studied renewable energy since the 1970s. (Courtesy ACORE)

By Lea Terhune
Staff Writer

Washington – "I didn’t know what social entrepreneurship was until I was notified about this award. And it turns out that we were doing exactly what they had in mind … using the attitudes and techniques of entrepreneurs to resolve social issues," says Michael Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) and recipient of the 2008 Skoll Foundation award for social entrepreneurship.  

"You might say social entrepreneurs are those who form an organization whose product is social impact," he told America.gov in a recent interview. For ACORE, that means driving innovation and financing toward wind, solar, biomass and geothermal energy resources instead of fossil fuels.

ACORE is a Washington-based umbrella organization that brings together businesses, professionals and nonprofit organizations that are concerned about the environment and want to bring renewable energy into the mainstream. Eckhart, whose pioneering work in the field dates back to the 1970s, co-founded ACORE in 2001.

"We say we are for renewable energy and against nothing because it’s so inherently good we don’t have to be against oil, gas, coal or nuclear, the energy forms that have given us the society that we have. But they come with problems. They create pollution, they do some damage," Eckhart said.

ACORE invests in technologies that do not pollute. "We’ve developed these technologies; we transition toward them," Eckhart said, adding he thinks "we can get … well over 50 percent of our world energy supply by harvesting the energy from nature." He has many friends who think 100 percent is possible. "The sunlight’s coming down on us. Harvest it and put it to use."

The international renewable energy networking community was showcased for government ministers attending the U.S. government-hosted Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) in March. ACORE helped organize the event and orchestrated a highly successful co-located trade show. (See "Governments, Local Groups Pledge To Cut Carbon Dioxide Emissions.")

"Rather than making a profit on what we do, the profit for us is impact," Eckhart said, adding that WIREC exceeded expectations. It combined a ministerial meeting, a business conference, trade show and an opportunity for free speech: "We created official side events where nonprofits and governments could also run miniconferences in the building, fully sanctioned, to get their point of view across, even if their point of view wasn’t covered in the main event." 

"A tremendously high number of people" attended -- 8,600. It was "a great mixing bowl" where ideas could be exchanged, Eckhart said.

The conference showcased applications that can work equally well in the African Sahel or on an American farm: solar cookers and accumulators, pellet stoves that burn fuels made from waste materials, portable wind turbines and much more. "Education is what these conferences are all about," Eckhart said. It enables government officials to go home to make informed choices as they enact environmental legislation.

UNITED STATES CAN BE A LEADER IN ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

Awareness of the need for alternative energy sources comes none too soon, according to Eckhart. "Everyone in the United States thinks that we are leading this renewable energy charge and we’re not. In fact, we’ve lost the lead here. Europe went first. We’ve had the 30 years of research and development funding, but we were a little bit asleep, frankly, on the energy issue." Japan also is a leader in solar energy.

Eckhart said that with America’s culture of ingenuity, education, financial system and technology, it can catch up. "If the United States employs all that in renewable energy, we will again drive the whole worldwide industry."

One outcome of WIREC is a long list of pledges from countries, states, cities and businesses to replace fossil fuel use with renewable energy. The pledges are tangible action steps.

"These pledges are the real essence of communicating what they are going to do," Eckhart said. He was struck by pledges from Afghanistan and Iraq – countries "busy doing other things, in a state of war, are thinking about renewable energy, are thinking about how to build a country in the right way, in a better way."

"We are doing this to have a cleaner environment and more sustainable society and we can’t delegate that to a few big companies to take care of. We all have got to take it on as a personal … responsibility and make it a part of our lives," Eckhart said. "We’ve all got to take this action or suffer the consequences."

The United States has many advantages, he acknowledged, "But we spend too much and we spend it on the wrong things, maybe. We’ve gotten a little self-centered, so America also is a country that is still growing and learning its role in the world." Eckhart said he is confident America can adjust its perspective and be a leader in sustainable energy.