Stuart McMillen

Name: Local Power
Description: Solar photovoltaic bulk buyers/installers
Founded: Brisbane, 2007

What’s a tried and true way of bringing the cost down on purchases? Buy in bulk. This is the principle used by Local Power, a Brisbane not-for-profit that organises the bulk ordering and installation of solar PV power systems.

Every few months, Local Power opens a new ‘buying group‘ for householders to be a part of. Rather than offering a wide range of solar panels/inverters to cater to a wide range of personal preferences, Local Power’s buying groups only offer a few product options. Cutting down the complexity and focusing on fewer solar system models allows Local Power to negotiate better prices from its suppliers. It also simplifies life for the tradies that install the systems. Not only is it easier to repeatedly install identical systems on different roofs, bulk buying groups also allow the installers to better plan their work and efficiently drive between houses in local geographic areas.

As well as offering great value for people that are already interested in renewable energy, Local Power opens doors for people who are willing to embrace solar power, but lack the time or knowledge to buy systems on their own. Working in a coordinated fashion gets positive attention from the government, supports the fledgling renewable energy industry, and makes Local Power customers feel like the are a part of a kind of ‘movement’. A not-for-profit with four successful buying groups behind it, Local Power is a great example of a community initiative that has ‘filled a gap’ for hundreds of households, and made genuine steps to reducing the carbon intensity of our neighbourhoods.

Other resources:

• Local Power FAQs.
• Excerpt from a 2009 book about the Local Power story.
• Listen to a 12 minute chat between 612 ABC’s Madonna King and Local Power founders Russell Holmes and Rob Farago. Discussion mostly about broad, layperson descriptions of solar PV and solar HWS.

Name: Carrotmob
Description: Targeted green consumer activist movement
Founded: San Francisco, 2008

No, this has nothing to do with the crunchy orange root vegetables. The name Carrotmob comes from their principles of using ‘incentive carrots’ to try and change business behaviour.

Carrotmob aims to mobilise a group of shoppers who are willing to spend their consumer dollars with businesses that commit to improving their environmental credentials. Some steps to Carrotmobbing:

• Carrotmob organisers choose a particular geographic area and business category (e.g. bottle shop, restaurant) that they want to target, and then invite locals businesses to compete with each other.
• The businesses submit proposals for the percentage of sales revenue (etc) that they will use to improve their environmental impact.
• The proposals are all evaluated by the Carrotmob organisers, and eventually one winner is chosen.
• On a particular day, the Carrotmob supporters all visit the winning business and spend their money to reward the business owner for their outstanding commitments.
• The results of the day’s trading are collated, and the Carrotmob organisers, often in conjunction with a supporting organisation, go about using the money to undertake energy efficiency improvements, etc.

The above video summarises things very nicely, as does the animation on carrotmob.org. In fact their site is a wealth of information, with FAQs, a guide to organising a Carrotmob, and a history of their past successes.

I have some reservations with the Carrotmob concept, but overall it is a good, positive initiative. Does anyone want to help me organise a Brisbane Carrotmob? Let me know.

Although I think that governments and large corporations must do a lot of ‘heavy lifting’ to get us moving towards a sustainable economy, it is often the smaller ventures that fill me with pride and inspiration. I am always pleasantly surprised by the nimble enterprises and initiatives that pop up to fill a specific gap in society. Importantly, as a person with a business degree, I can better relate to to entities that exist to tackle focused problems, rather than the more nebulous ‘advocacy’ organisations that exist.

I have already written about Green Drinks fairly extensively in the past few months, so thought I would share details of other enterprises/initiatives that have captured my imagination. I call it the ‘green groups‘ series and they will be collated in this category of my blog.

Note that I haven’t necessarily dealt with these groups/organisations personally. Often they’re just a great idea that I have heard about.