Social Sustainability | The Power of Synergy with NonProfits

I’ve highlighted on many podcasts the power of the four pillars of sustainability.

They are human, social, biz, and environmental.

Viewed through the lens of sustainability, these pillars are an opportunity to create a new future that preserves the most important aspects of each.

With our work at Community Solar Authority, we try to incorporate each of these pillars as often as we can.

For example, much of our work involves supporting underserved communities like Housing Authorities or LMI communities to ensure clean energy access is equitable for all.

This article goes a bit further into the idea of social sustainability, and how we’re doing some additional work in the space to add synergy, support the missions of nonprofits, and create a brighter future for all.

Synergy As Fuel

One aspect of our ability to serve that I’ve come to understand has been the idea of using synergy as fuel.

We think of donating our time or money to support nonprofits, as an example- but I’ve discovered a more powerful opportunity.

The idea is to use YOUR resources beyond time/money to bolster the mission of a nonprofit, often ending up with a multiplier effect.

An example is something as simple as using the power of connection. You could volunteer your time at an event, or write a check as a donation. Or, you could come to understand the mission of the NPO, and figure out WHO in your network could bring them an abundance of resources.

Synergy has Greek roots that originally meant, “working together.” I see synergy as the ability to create a unique recipe by combining resources and using that creativity to enhance the results of collaboration.

The idea of collaboration and working together is nothing new, in fact it’s an age old concept that helped us evolve. It’s also a human sustainability practice of people helping people.

However, when we can use it with intention, we can start to take aim at solving high-level problems in our society and create better solutions.

Synergy in Partnerships

Thinking about the idea of using synergy in fuel allows us to start to consider the vehicles we’d like to put this gas into.

Our company has been partnering with large users of electricity to help them identify opportunities to lower electricity costs for six years.

We’ve helped housing authorities, HUD apartment complexes, & nonprofits access improved operating profit from out work.

We’ve unlocked access to over 1M+ in future electricity savings for our work in this space, specifically focused on social causes and underserved communities.

The obvious idea is that we can take the work we do as a for-profit company, use our resources to give away to organizations that need it the most, and help them improve their organization in through our own unique way.

Next Level Partnerships

A deeper idea we’re exploring is the ability to credit nonprofits to our own business growth, and donating a portion of that growth back to the NPO.

This could look like running a marketing campaign to partner with an NPO and donating a portion of the proceeds back to them.

Another example we’re currently working on is participating at NPO events and getting connected to people there that we can serve in our business.

We recently got connected to a NPO that focuses on climate change and energy, and many of the organizations that support that organization are our ideal clients.

We’re setting ourselves up as educators, coming in to speak on our expertise, and have set it up such that any growth that comes out of the opportunity; a portion of our profits will be donated directly back to the NPO.

This way, we’re providing value to the network of people supporting the organization, and then also pouring money directly back into the NPO to support it’s mission and continue to grow.

This gets me excited because they’re working on very similar stuff in the social sustainability space- from solar farms in Hati to support communities, to local initiatives with food banks.

Conclusion

Considering social sustainability and building an equitable future is good for everyone.

There are so many NPO’s that you could support, and I encourage you to find the ones that matter most to you.

You don’t need to donate money or time exclusively- but of course, that’s encouraged.

The purpose of this article was to highlight the importance of getting creative and adding fuel to the mission of the organizations you care about the most.

Over at Community Solar Authority, we’re going to continue to push towards embedding all four pillars of sustainability into our future.

Thanks for your time! Questions? [email protected]