We started this blog last December, and I have managed a grand total of six posts since then. That’s just lazy, right? In truth, I’m one of the hardest working women in energy, and I have too much to do. Ramping up a new sales program for our utility services, developing a training module for our summer interns, maintaining inventory and getting the right stuff timely shipped to the right people, driving traffic to our website for More Money, and the list goes on… got a sista burning both ends of the candle.
But this blog is important for lots of reasons, mostly because I get to remember — and tell you –what we’re all about. So I’m committing myself to more frequent posts, starting now. Of course, I also remember why I became an engineer: I want to work smart, not hard, so I always try to think of ways to get the job done with the least effort. In that vein, I’m re-posting a piece I wrote three years ago on the need for Black leadership in the energy field. How’s that for lazy? Anyway, it’s about a speech I gave on the topic to the American Association of Blacks in Energy. I was preaching to the choir. Here goes:
The March issue of Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine carries a profile of blackEnergy’s CEO, Sonja Ebron. Each March, the Tribune honors Women’s History Month by designating several Atlanta women of color who are leaders in the fields of business, politics, sports and other areas. Download the full article here (pdf).
Consumer reporter Jim Strickland came over to visit blackEnergy in January. WSB-TV had heard good things about us and wanted to profile our company for Black History Month. Of course, we were happy to oblige. This 2-minute segment was the first profile out of the chute and ran on February 1st.
blackEnergy, along with the Concerned Black Clergy, Georgia Interfaith Power & Light, the American Association of Blacks in Energy and presenting sponsor the ChicoBag Company distributed free energy-saving compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) during “Lightbulb Swap 2008,” an annual event developed to introduce a cost-effective way of “Going Green” to the African-American community. The event took place on Saturday, March 22, 2008 at True Light Baptist Church located at 47 Anderson Avenue NW,Atlanta, GA.
Sonja Ebron, CEO of blackEnergy, was honored with the 2007 “Non-Traditional Business Enterprise” award by the Atlanta Business League at its 23rd Annual Super Tuesday Conference on September 25, 2007. The Super Tuesday Conference is the ABL’s signature event, designed to recognize and celebrate African American business women. This year’s sponsors included AirTran Airways, the Coca-Cola Company, UPS, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The summer issue of Ms. Magazine carried an article entitled “The Green Bottom Line: How environmentally conscious, women-run companies do good and do well.” The article, written by Ms. contributor Laura Orlando, begins with blackEnergy: “The trade-off between social good, the environment and profits isn’t really a tradeoff anymore — it’s an excuse. Just ask Sonja Ebron, CEO of blackEnergy in Atlanta. Her company, founded in 2001, secures energy for black communities, using collective buying power to negotiate some of the lowest natural gas rates in Georgia. Moreover, it sends some of its profits back to nonprofit organizations in its customers’ communities. And since the company anticipates that access to energy will get much tougher because of climate change, Ebron — who has a doctorate in electrical engineering — hopes its efforts to locally produce power will help ‘ease the transition to low-energy living’ for its customers.”
Welcome to blackEnergy’s blog. We at blackEnergy hope to start and maintain a discussion on energy in Black communities. The issues are large and complex, as they are for the U.S. as a whole on the topic of energy. But as we say, when America catches a cold, Black folks catch pneumonia. So we’d better get a head start.
On the real deal, I think our energy security is threatened by the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane, a combination of climate change and peak oil, and I think the “authorities” learned nothing of use to us from our experience with Katrina. We need to get informed and organized in a hurry. At least now we have time to prepare.
