On January 1, Elizabeth Lindsey stepped into the Interim Chief Executive Officer role here at Groundswell, a nonprofit social enterprise that helps communities switch to clean energy and drive a more socially responsible economy through a unique model called civic consumption. By pooling demand across communities, we allow families and organizations to buy clean energy by coming together.
Prior to serving as CEO, Elizabeth was Chief Operating Officer of Groundswell for four years. To mark her new role, we sat down with Elizabeth to ask her a few big picture questions and introduce her a little more in-depth to our community.
Elizabeth Lindsey has served as Groundswell’s COO for four years. She is now taking on the responsibilities of Interim CEO.Q. How would you put Groundswell’s mission in your own words?
Our mission is to unlock communities’ shared economic power to grow sustainability and prosperity on the local level. To me, Groundswell’s mission is all about empowering communities to use their buying power for good. We are the only nonprofit organization that has articulated this theory of change, and what’s really exciting to me is our commitment to making this idea accessible to diverse communities.
For many people, clean energy seems like it’s out of reach. Our work brings clean power to families, individuals, schools, faith institutions, small businesses, and other organizations, many of whom have never known how to go about making a switch like that before.
That’s why we really believe that the buying power that individuals and communities have can drive real change. The process of civic consumption, or using our shared buying power, allows people to directly participate in the clean economy and actively build our future.
Q. How exactly do you see Groundswell’s work relating to these issues around access and diversity?
It is our team’s vision to build a social change movement that’s powerful because it’s inclusive. To me, real access means that everyone—not just people who are formally educated, or passionate about specific issues, or able to read the New York Times or Vox every day—can use their buying power for good and directly benefit from doing so. When I talk about diverse communities, I mean just that: it’s key to our work that we are reaching, educating, and empowering people who are diverse in terms of socioeconomic backgrounds, race, and even interest.
Historically, I think we’ve all encountered this idea that environmentalism is only for upper class white communities. The work that we do to bring people together is key to helping communities access great things—critical things—like renewable energy. We’re proving that we can transform the way access works.
Q. What are you looking forward to most this year?
I’m looking forward to supporting the amazing staff, volunteers, and Board of Directors at Groundswell in deepening our impact. Groundswell has been around for five years; over the course of those five years, we have steadily honed in on how to mobilize communities to use their shared power in the marketplace. Through that process, we’ve learned what it means to empower families and organizations around their consumer choices.
I’m also excited to share our message about civic consumption with new audiences. One example of how we’re already talking about civic consumption on a national scale is right here, with this magazine that we’ve developed. In summer 2014, we launched a magazine to talk about how people can use their buying power for good on a daily basis. We’ve reached hundreds of thousands of people through the magazine, and I want us to grow that effort.
Q. What are some of the highlights from last year that you’re excited to build on?
We had a lot of meaningful accomplishments last year that directly impacted communities and helped bring our civic consumption movement to life. For one, I just mentioned the magazine, which was huge—we started from scratch, and are now publishing original content every day that reaches people across the country.
Another exciting accomplishment was our first solar pilot: we brought together community members and individuals across Virginia, Maryland and D.C. to switch to solar energy as a group. I’m particularly proud of the Groundswell Energy team’s creativity and innovation with this pilot—they realized that there was a lot of interest bubbling up around solar power, and then moved to deliver it to communities in this region.
Q. There can be a lot of jargon associated with social enterprises. What does it really mean to be an innovative organization?
We are unique in that we have a start-up culture at this organization. We are a place where people come in every day excited and encouraged to bring in new ideas and offer up new ways to do our work. At the same time, we have been around for five years, and so we also have great systems that enable us to operate smoothly. I continue to be proud of that combination.
I think our solar pilot is also a great example of innovation in action. When a few members of our team noted how many people were asking whether we could help them access solar power, we said, “Okay, let’s create what’s called a ‘minimum viable product’—a small pilot—to really test to whether this could work.” We encourage our team to try out their ideas, knowing that if they fail, it’s okay because they put something new to the test. The solar pilot was successful, but it might not have been—and that would have been okay. We’re not going to be able to grow and change if we don’t take those risks.
Q. What do you like to do in your spare time?
Most of all, I like to spend time with my family. We live in Capitol Hill here in D.C. It’s an awesome neighborhood where we love to spend time, but I also love to travel and learn about new cities. I also enjoy reading—so in my spare time I’m always reading books, novels, magazines, newspapers, gossip blogs…anything and everything!
You can learn more about Groundswell’s full team here and our Board of Directors here.