Through a pilot project with Edmonton's Bissell Centre, Newo Global Energy developed business case scenarios for energy-efficiency retrofits and micro/community-generation solar installations that provided Edmonton investors with a mechanism to support projects that stimulate the local economy, create jobs for vulnerable workers and provide clean-energy accessibility for all.

Emerging from alternative notions of abundance, generosity and interdependence, “wêyôtan” (the Plains Cree word for “abundance”) aimed to turn the individualistic language of ROI (Return on Investment / “When is payback?”) on its head. More than an investment approach, this project was meant to foster a next-generation economy of sharing and interdependence.

The project proposal outlined in their grant application culminated in a pilot 30-kw solar-PV array on Bissell Thrift Shop, owned by Edmonton’s Bissell Centre, which also provided training and employment to Bissell clients. This pilot successfully tested a replicable financing model for energy-efficiency retrofits on buildings owned by local non-profits, faith communities and First Nations across the province. This financing vehicle provides investors opportunities to support projects that stimulate our local economy, create jobs for under-served workers and provide clean-energy accessibility for all.

This business model provides multiple scaleable benefits that:

• Support comprehensive energy retrofits throughout Edmonton’s non-profit sector

• Provide Edmonton’s non-profit community with a streamlined, risk-free pathway toward comprehensive energy retrofits.

• Welcome and encourage the wider Edmonton community to co-operatively invest in climate solutions that support our local economy.

• Reduce operating budgets for Edmonton non-profits once the retrofit has been paid off.

• Increase and stabilize training, hands-on experience and long-term work in Alberta’s renewable-energy economy for the Edmonton area’s most vulnerable workers.

• Build organizational capacity within SPICE as it completes its first investment offering.

Subsequent installations on Edmonton nonprofits are already in development. This pilot has shown that this model can work! The next step is to scale. If we want community investment into microgen projects on nonprofit buildings to be successful, we need to significantly increase the number of projects that we can offer. This means connecting with more nonprofit groups in Alberta, educating boards so that they understand the benefits of solar retrofits and making more people aware of this investment option.

Increased scale will also create more opportunities for training and a viable pathway to employment for people with barriers to this industry. It's a real opportunity for communities to invest in themselves and to create a model that could be replicable all over Alberta. It's an investment opportunity that has many positive social and environmental externalities.

Until the organizations have grown to a size that allows them to sustain their operations from revenues, the ability to scale and develop more projects highly depends on available funding to support personnel and contractors.