B Corp Installing 100s of Solar Projects Each Year — Kevin Schulte, CEO of GreenSpark Solar
Led by CEO Kevin Schulte, GreenSpark Solar is a certified B Corporation, distributed solar project developer, and #1 fastest growing company in Rochester, New York.
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What does GreenSpark Solar do, and what makes you unique?
GreenSpark Solar is a certified B Corporation and solar energy development/installation company based in Rochester, New York. We do a variety of distributed solar projects ranging from residential projects, of which we will contract 150-200 deals this year, to small business projects, to larger-scale projects for which we have an in-house engineering procurement and construction team. We will do about 50 MW of those projects this year. At our core, we are builders, and we’re building solar at scale in the larger Rochester area.
Can you say more about your B-corp certification?
GreenSpark has been a certified B Corporation for about seven years, and we have gone through the recertification process three times during that span. Fundamentally this requires the demonstration of a commitment to people, profit, and the planet, or what many call the triple bottom line. For us, the planet portion is front and center, as it is inherent to the work that we do. We work every day to make the planet more liveable for our children and future generations. Profit is an essential part of running a business in a capitalist society; there is no purpose without profit. Finally, we place great emphasis on our people, which really stems from the realization that our employees will spend more time at work and with their colleagues than they may spend with their families in many instances. As a consequence, we make great efforts to ensure that they are cared for in every regard, whether it be financial, as it pertains to physical and mental health, or in the sense of purpose and career fulfillment. We also believe that this focus on people should extend to the community that we work in. Rochester is the third most impoverished city in the country by some measures and, as a consequence, we feel a very real responsibility to make sure that affordable clean energy is accessible to all regardless of income level.
I believe that you spent the earlier part of your career catalyzing the developing 1 GW of wind projects as well. Can you tell us more about your career path from wind and environmental finance to solar?
I have always had the overarching intention of working for the benefit of others. I started college as a biotechnology and premed student with an interest in epidemiology. However, in my first college class, my professor showed a pictograph of the greenhouse gas effect. It immediately became clear to me that this was a very big problem that I wanted to work on. I changed my major and studied economics, public policy, and energy system design. After college, I sent a resume and cover letter to every company on the American Wind Energy Association webpage and got a job in the industry. In 2002 after a couple of years of working in the industry, my college friends and I decided to start a business. That business has evolved from a consultancy to the nation’s largest distributed wind installer, to a solar and storage company today.
As part of our Climate Mastermind, I know that you have set your sights on some ambitious goals. Would you like to expand upon that?
My operating philosophy working within the clean energy space has been and continues to be that we need fundamental disruption of the monopoly utility industry to drive the scale of impact that we need to see in the next ten years. Therefore, it is my goal through GreenSpark to effectuate this change and make Rochester an example to other places of what an equitable and affordable clean energy future can look like.
What advice would you have given yourself 10 years ago?
I think I would have told myself to find a sustainably scalable business model. Ten years ago, we were working in the distributed wind space where we made gross profit on every project but could not find enough projects to make a net profit positive company. These days we have found a sustainable and scalable business model in distributed solar, but I wish I would have made this discovery sooner.
What are personal habits or daily routines that keep you motivated and engaged?
I think more than anything else my habit of flipping a switch and focusing intensely on the task at hand has been incredibly useful over time. After I drop my kids off at school or summer camp in the morning, I go to work where I bring my full self to the task at hand for 8-10 hours. But when it is time to go home and be a good father and husband, I bring my full self to this task as well. Through time and experience, I have developed this ability to focus intently on the role that I am fulfilling at the moment, and I think that is incredibly important to the sustainability of a career. I also think it is important to find joy in life. I truly love and care about both the work that I am doing and the family that I have, and that contributes to this ability to switch.
Do you have a book recommendation for listeners?
The book that is most relevant to me at the moment is Companies We Keep: Employee Ownership and the Business of Community and Place, which is a foundational piece in the cooperative and worker ownership movement. At GreenSpark, we are in the process of converting the company to an employee-owned cooperative, so this book has been a helpful guide.
Do you have a podcast recommendation?
I really enjoy The Energy Gang and Freakonomics. I also enjoy Philadelphia sports podcasts and a local Rochester podcast that explores local politics and social movements, particularly in the wake of the death of Daniel Prude in a police homicide incident.
Do you have quote recommendations?
I find Albert Einstein to be particularly quotable. So if you are looking for quotes from me, I would suggest Googling some of his.
How can listeners support the mission of GreenSpark Solar?
I think the obvious way to support the mission is to call us if you live in the Rochester area, and we will take care of you. Otherwise, I would simply highlight the importance of the incremental steps towards a clean energy future that we can all take in our consumption decisions. It’s frankly cheaper to consume green energy than it is to consume brown energy in most parts of the US. I would encourage listeners to take advantage of that reality whether they be installing solar panels, buying an EV, or even purchasing a battery-powered lawnmower.
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Note:
THE TORCH is an interview series from Entrepreneurs for Impact. We profile CEOs and investors mitigating climate change. Our goal is to highlight their work and inspire others. As we deal with multiple crisis, from Covid and racial injustice to climate change and economic recession, we need some of this positive light in what seem like dark times. Onward and upward.