All Good Things Must Come To An End
Posted by Sonja Ebron
After nearly 10 years in business, the time has come to turn out the lights at blackEnergy. I’m grateful to our past and present staff, suppliers and vendors, advisors and coaches, and most of all, to our loyal and demanding customers over the years. Personally, this has been the best job of my career, at all times tough and satisfying in equal measure. But bank accounts don’t lie, and the truth is we’ve run out of steam in pursuit of our mission.
When we started 10 years ago, Enron was on top of the heap and California’s utilities were going bankrupt. We wanted to increase the options for Blacks and others vulnerable to mistreatment as energy deregulation moved across the country. We partnered with community organizations like the American Association of Blacks in Energy (Atlanta chapter) and the Concerned Black Clergy of Metro Atlanta for everything from free light bulb swaps to energy town hall meetings to countless workshops on home energy efficiency. We worked with natural gas companies to provide services with lower rates, low-credit options and cash contributions to local organizations working on issues we cared about. We sold tons of energy saving products through our e-commerce store. We took pride in serving the needs of Black communities throughout the country.
I want to share a few lessons learned over the years. First, while we found tremendous value in our focus on the needs of Black people, the problems we wanted to solve really required a solution that worked for everyone. Second, a social enterprise is first and foremost an enterprise. It’s tricky to balance social, environmental and financial goals, but financials must be primary for the other goals to have a chance. Third, having said that, it’s so important to follow your heart where it leads you. Rewards of the heart far exceed all others.
I’m going to rest for a moment or two before dreaming up a new adventure. Those who want to stay in touch can find me on Facebook and Twitter, and in the ether. Toksa Ake! (Lakota: Until next time!)
PBS On Blacks And Energy
Posted by Sonja Ebron
Check out this 10-minute PBS Online story on how Blacks are coping with the recent rise in energy prices. High gas prices and utility rates are taking a bigger bite out of typically lower Black household incomes. People are juggling transportation and food issues along with trying to keep the lights on. Luckily, the story covered some weatherization projects, the best way to combat high home energy costs. But there’s so much more that can be done.
There’s a short mention of blackEnergy midway through on the difference between the last oil crisis and this one — pointing out that price will be the rationing force this time around. We need a new deal.
Why Blacks Pay More For Utilities
Posted by Sonja Ebron
Blacks do pay more for utilities, but not because we get different rates or a special energy tax. It’s because, since the 1980s, we use more. A 1975 Ford Foundation study (The American Energy Consumer) found that Blacks spent less on energy than others, mostly because of our limited housing choices. At that time, the typical Black home had no running hot water, few windows and doors, natural gas heat (gas was a lot cheaper then), and few appliances.
Then as now, most of us paid rent each month instead of a mortgage. But now, even renters are living large. We have all the amenities — washers and dryers, frost-free fridges, central air and heat, and all the electronics we can stand. But don’t ask us about the level of insulation in the walls or attic, the amount of weatherstripping or caulk on our doors and windows, or the number of Energy Stars on our appliances.
Slavery and the Value of a Barrel of Oil
Posted by Sonja Ebron
Edwin Drake drilled the first major U.S. oil well in 1859 outside Titusville, Pennsylvania. U.S. oil production that year was 2000 barrels but rose to over 4 million barrels per year within a decade, driven by the growth in internal combustion engines. That decade also saw the U.S. Civil War and the emancipation of slaves. Coincidence? Hardly.
Energy is the ability to do work. Oil represents a form of energy so dense and liquid that there is no adequate replacement. According to Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), longterm member of the House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, one barrel of oil does the work of 12 grown men doing physical labor for a year. [Four men by my calculations, but that's a distinction without a difference.] What is the market value of that work? $100,000 if they’re prisoners, $250,000 if they’re free. That’s the value of a barrel of oil.
And we’re squealing at $150 per barrel? In less than 150 years, humans have grown a global economy based on a very limited supply of extremely cheap energy. We’ve used up half the available supply, and we’ll use up the rest in far fewer than 150 years. I’m a pessimist today, so I don’t think those of us in the most developed countries have time to unwind and ramp down without a very difficult adjustment. Our fluorescent lighting and electric cars and rooftop gardens will help, but they are not enough.
There are neither substitutes nor good ideas for substitutes that will get us anywhere near the economic benefits of oil, not even a return to slavery. At least I hope that’s off the table…
People Make blackEnergy Go Round
Posted by Sonja Ebron
I like to take all the credit for blackEnergy’s success, but the truth is there is a fantastic staff doing the company’s work. Dave Benfield, our VP for sales and marketing, is retired from the same position at one of Georgia’s natural gas suppliers. Besides mentoring me (read: keeping my head on straight most days), he uses a thick Rolodex to introduce me to lots of helpful contacts. He’s also made it much easier than we thought to transition from exclusive relationships with utility suppliers to a tenable independent status. Gwen Sheppard, an old and dear college friend, is a retired military officer and software genius. As director of operations, she keeps the trains running on time and just gets the job done right every day. Crystal Grant (pictured below discussing energy conservation with an Atlanta resident) is a recent graduate of Spelman’s innovative environmental science program. As our special projects coordinator, she has a hand in everything from government contracting to consumer education initiatives.
Crystal also supervises our summer intern, Sarah Jones, a political science and environmental science major at Spelman. Perhaps because they’re young and inexperienced, Crystal and Sarah add the energy and out-of-the-box thinking the rest of us old-timers sometimes lack. Along with our vendors and suppliers, I think we make a great team. So while I can’t take credit for their work, at least I can take credit for hiring them.
Regentrification and the Suburban Doughnut
Posted by Sonja Ebron
With the price of oil going through the roof, it’s been interesting to catalog the links to transportation, consumer goods and food. With the credit crunch in full swing, we see there are also links to housing patterns. From blackEnergy’s archives, April 2005:
I had an interesting conversation this morning with a brotha in St. Louis. He’s concerned about the regentrification of our inner cities and sees it happening all over the country. Upper middle-class White people are buying up depressed properties neighborhood by neighborhood, investing tons of money in them, and moving in. Property values rise and Black folks can’t hang on.
Community Is The Solution
Posted by Sonja Ebron
By far, the best part of my job is visiting with community organizations and seeing the great work they do to help people better their lives. Whether they’re working on housing, health, education or women’s empowerment, the people in these organizations choose to spend their working hours and careers improving the odds for other people. There’s an obvious cultural difference between for-profit corporations and nonprofits, and it shows up clearly in the attitudes and enthusiasm with which people in community organizations do their jobs.
Engineers Are Lazy Bloggers
Posted by Sonja Ebron
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:
blackEnergy’s CEO Named Atlanta Tribune “Superwoman”
Posted by Sonja Ebron
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).
Atlanta’s WSB-TV Profiles blackEnergy for Black History Month
Posted by Sonja Ebron
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.