It’s Getting Hot In Here

This post is a contribution to the Special Breakthrough Issue, “After Power Shift: What’s Next?”

By Helen Aki

For the activists and advocates of my generation, the 2008 election was possibly our first taste of political success.  And despite the daunting task of starting our careers in a plummeting economy, there is a sense of hope for those of us who eventually plan to make a living off clean energy, sustainable development, environmental design, and other green jobs.

But between today and the clean energy economy of tomorrow, we still have a lot to do.  After witnessing Obama’s election and inauguration, and after Power Shift 2009 (the party of the year for the youth climate movement), what can the youth movement do to sustain momentum and advance energy and environmental solutions? It has become clear that the traditional model of youth activism must be improved upon.  Although canvassing, rallying, and subscribing to a larger movement can be important political tools, the problems we face today demand more from this generation of activists. On Tuesday, Teryn Norris and Jesse Jenkins called for an “innovation-centric approach” to climate and energy, urging the youth of today to use their strengths and passions to solve the challenge of making clean energy cheap.  The new model for youth activism should empower individuals to rise to this challenge.

An ideal example of what the youth movement could look like can be found at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2005, a group of MBA students at the Haas School of Business recognized the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration on the subject of contemporary energy problems. They also acknowledged that the large Berkeley population (around 35,000 graduate and undergraduate students) makes it difficult for people with similar interests and agendas to find one another. So they created the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative (BERC), to bring together people with varied backgrounds but a common interest. Today, the 27-person leadership team includes liaisons to the schools of business, law, public policy, environmental design, engineering, physical sciences, social sciences, and natural resources. This community of entrepreneurs, engineers, economists, and future lawyers and policymakers is exactly what the clean energy movement needs to drive innovation and change.

BERC is not your typical student organization. The premise of BERC rests on one fundamental assumption, which is that the students at Berkeley are qualified and capable of creating the solutions to today’s problems. Its membership (now estimated to be over 1,000) is comprised primarily of graduate students, and characterized by a high level of professionalism. BERC is uniquely positioned, with access to some of the world’s top energy research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the wider community of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and energy industry-leaders in the Bay Area. (Berkeley is home to a plethora of other energy-related organizations and research labs, such as the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab, the Energy Biosciences Institute, the Energy and Resources Group, and the Center for Energy and Environmental Innovation, to name a few.)  Members of BERC have gone on to found their own companies (such as Mission Motors, an electric motorcycle start-up), work for utilities or in government, or develop their own cutting-edge technologies, many with the help of contacts made through BERC. The organization boasts a significant amount of recognition outside the university (and has even become a selling point for Haas!).

There is a high standard set for programs and deliverables spearheaded by BERC. The recent Energy Symposium took six months to plan and attracted over 600 participants. These were not just students (some of who flew across the country to attend), but community members, venture capitalists, and representatives from clean-tech start-ups, larger companies such as GM, non-profits, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the California Energy Commission (CEC), and a handful of California utilities.

Some of BERC programs use an application process to select students for cross-disciplinary, highly qualified teams. The Cleantech-To-Market (C2M) program works in partnership with the Tech Transfer Division (TTD) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), assisting in the process of bringing cutting-edge clean energy technologies to commercialization. Student teams are comprised of individuals with business, policy and science expertise, and they are paired with scientists working on these technologies. The teams evaluate the technology in terms of its commercial viability, doing market analysis and sometimes creating a business model. Another program, the recently-launched BERC Innovative Solutions (BIS) is designed to provide businesses, nonprofits and government with consulting services which address the opportunities and challenges of the energy world. Student teams conduct market assessments, advise on organizational strategy, and hold scenario-planning workshops.

These partnerships demand timely, high-quality work from the students, who derive satisfaction from knowing their contributions are given serious consideration. Well-defined roles and expectations create an environment in which participants both productive and useful. This results in a mutually beneficial dynamic: not only do the students gain valuable learning experiences, the inventors and clients they work gain useful information from their services. This sort of bottom-up catalyst for innovation and application, if diffused on a larger scale, could be a powerful driver for technology deployment and progress in both the private and public sector.

For scientist and engineers conducting their own research, BERC has another program: Idea Labs bring together people (mainly scientists) working on similar things to compare research and get advice from their peers. The Solar PV lab, started by a group of graduate student researchers, now draws over 30 researchers from LBNL and nine other research labs. They are working on the cutting-edge new PV technologies. Different Idea Labs are run in different ways: although the Solar PV lab is designed primarily for researchers working on new technologies, some, like the Climate Policy Idea Lab, are open to the wider campus community and feature free food and guest speakers.

Although BERC has a strong business component, you don’t have to be a business student to take on an important role. The Students for Environmental Energy Development (SEED) program organizes students who have an interest in environmental and energy education. They design and teach an engaging, interactive energy and climate-oriented curriculum for East Bay schools. In the past, Breakthrough has called for a the top down-policy of a National Energy Education Act, with the rationale that familiarizing students early on with how to think about energy, technology and climate change will help germinate the next generation of innovators and activists. SEED does this using a bottom-up strategy, and it presents an ideal model of a university-public school partnership that could be easily replicated in college-town regions nationwide.

The straightforward success of the BERC organizational model is a vision of the future of the youth energy movement. The gap between the Power Shift conference model and the BERC model is not insurmountable—both hold similar concerns about environmental degradation, climate change, clean energy and economic justice. The difference lies in the expectations members have for themselves, and others have for them. Sure, you can go to Powershift and cheer for the compelling rhetoric. But after the rally is over and the petitions have been signed, the big-picture is pretty much out of your hands. On the other hand, an organization like BERC is oriented toward short-term, manageable projects with scheduled deliverables and high individual expectations. Being directly accountable to your project, knowing that it can succeed or fail solely based on your participation: your hard work, and your ideas, cultivates a sense of responsibility and accomplishment. A culture that teaches accountability and self-worth will educate people to be bold and innovative, and also get stuff done. This is a next step between here and the clean energy economy of the future.