Long-time readers will know that in my spare time (ha) I've been serving as President of the Renewable Energy Business Network, a non-profit I and Andrew Friendly of ATV officially co-founded.
Yesterday we were extremely pleased to announce that REBN and the Clean Economy Network have joined forces, with the REBN network of chapters and leaders being integrated into the Clean Economy Network Foundation.
It's an exciting move that will mean bringing the existing REBN leadership team (both organizational and chapter-level) joining forces with the very strong CENF team. REBN had, over the course of the last couple of years, grown by leaps and bounds, from an initial handful of chapters to now 17 chapters across the US and Canada, strong support from sponsors like Rosenzweig & Company, Mintz Levin, Holland + Knight, Silicon Valley Bank, and Hattaway Communications, more than 10,000 chapter-level members and a pretty darn big online group at LinkedIn as well. REBN became big enough, at least, that the pursuit of our educational and community-building mission needed some additional support. And meanwhile, we had gotten to know the great team at CEN and found them to be completely on top of everything going on in the clean economy world, especially in regards to policy, which as we talk about on this site is so increasingly important for cleantech entrepreneurs and investors to know about. So when we started talking with each other about making a move like this, it seemed like a good match then and feels like a great match today.
It's been a wild, fun ride with REBN to date. REBN was actually the brainchild of a small group of smart young clean energy businesspeople, including the likes of Dan Kalafatas and Josie Gaillard and others, all of whom early in this decade came up with the idea of a low-key networking group in the San Francisco area to help renewable energy business types meet with each other, learn about the industry, find new business and startup opportunities, etc. That initial chapter did well, and at some point I got roped into taking on the role of chapter lead (I believe I grumbled about it to Dan and Josie at the time, but owe them a debt of gratitude now), and we held get-togethers, organized panel discussions, etc. It was a great, easy resource, so when I moved out to Boston in 2007, I left the group in Nick Allen's very capable hands, and Andrew Friendly and I talked about finding a similar organization in Boston to join and enjoy. But we discovered that there really wasn't one, at least not with the same feel as REBN. So we launched "REBN-East", and what we thought would be a very small thing ended up getting a pretty big crowd. Apparently San Francisco wasn't the only place where there was a big unmet need for low-key, come-as-you-are, open-to-all education and networking for cleantech professionals.
Then we were contacted by Cheng Chang in Houston, who let us know that he'd heard about REBN and liked the idea and was going to launch a chapter there. At that point, REBN was still unincorporated but had three chapters going across the country, and thriving. Suddenly, Andrew and I had one of those moments where we just looked at each other and realized, "wow, there's really something here." And so we decided to officially launch REBN as an incorporated non-profit organization, and put some effort behind it. We recruited Laura Bartsch and Helen Fairman to serve as part-time co-executive directors, and then held an official launch event and started spreading the word. Before you knew it, we had nearly ten chapters, and then things just started snowballing from there. As far as I can tell, the success of REBN has been due to its open-access and low-key educational/sharing format, and in huge part to the way that our volunteer chapter leads have stepped up to help organize chapters in their regions, in a really decentralized format where we in the tiny REBN national leadership team were constantly being amazed by the huge successes of chapter leads in places like Philadelphia, Minneapolis - St. Paul, Denver, New York, and elsewhere, without a lot of guidance, just smart entrepreneurial business people working to build a regional clean economy. An amazing effort by amazing business people, far too many for me to list here, but when you go attend a REBN/CEN event in your region now, make sure and tell them "thanks" for all their volunteer efforts, will you please? And there should be an upcoming event over the next couple of months in every one of our chapters, to celebrate this news.
The Clean Economy Network team now brings a level of policy knowledge to this effort this is exciting to be a part of. We've got some fun things in store that will start with the traditional REBN-type activities that existing members are used to, and will build from there, bringing in even more educational content and business-building opportunities. And we're certainly not going to lose the familiar REBN style -- doing what we can to contribute to regional clean economy efforts in whatever way makes most sense for each community, with dull elbows and small egos. Take a look, and think about signing up at http://www.cleaneconomynetwork.org if you're interested in getting involved. Of course, CEN's c4 sister organization is also doing a lot of community-building in another venue: In the policy realm. Lots to do there as well, lots of opportunities to get involved.
Big thanks to the many people involved in getting REBN launched and growing it to this point, from the early days in SF to the nationwide effort it's become. And big thanks to our new colleagues at CEN! Their vision and execution has been what has really inspired us to take this next step with them.
