Billy Parish | |
|---|---|
 Billy Parish | |
| Born | Billy Parish September 11, 1981 New York, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Yale University, The Mountain School |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 2003 - present |
| Spouse | Married |
Billy Parish (born September 11, 1981) is an American environmental entrepreneur, author, and activist. He is the co-founder and executive chair of Mosaic Inc., a leading financing platform for U.S. residential solar and sustainable home improvements. [1]
Parish grew up in Manhattan, New York City. His father, a lawyer, specialized in finance for electronic utilities. His mother, also a lawyer, met his father while working on a securitization deal. [2] He spent a semester of high school at The Mountain School in Vermont, where he was turned on to working for the environment. [3] In July 2005 he led a three-day fast in front of the White House to draw attention to the 150,000 deaths caused each year by climate change. [4] He designed his own major in sustainable economic developments at Yale University. [2] However, in 2002, he left Yale University and went on to found the Energy Action Coalition, renamed the Power Shift Network. [5] The Coalition became the largest youth-led clean energy advocacy network in the world, bringing together 50 environmental and social justice groups and over 340,000 members. [6] The coalition raised nearly $10 million in four years and helped more than 600 colleges make commitments to climate neutrality. [6]
In March 2009, the Energy Action Coalition organized Power Shift '09, which brought over 12,000 young people to Washington D.C., for the largest climate-focused training, lobby day and non-violent civil disobedience action in U.S. history. 1Sky states Parish is on the Board of Directors. [5] He is also co-chair of SolarAPP+ and board member and former board chair at The Solutions Project. [7] [8]
Parish played a leading role in creating the Clean Energy Corps proposal to create 5 million new green jobs in the U.S., [6] which was incorporated into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009. He also helped to expand the AmeriCorps public service program to include a new “Clean Energy Service Corps”. [9] With the idea that crowdfunding could affect a shift to green energy, Parish co-founded Mosaic. At that time, the company allowed individuals to micro invest in community-scale solar projects. [10] In 2014, Parish shifted the company’s focus from crowdfunding to financing for residential solar projects, and in 2018, expanded to sustainable home improvements. [11]
Billy lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and two daughters.
Parish has written over 50 articles for publications Inc., The Atlantic, HuffPost, and Grist.
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Power Shift Network is a North American non-profit organization made up of a network of youth-led social and environmental justice organizations working together to build the youth clean energy and climate movement. It runs campaigns in the United States and Canada to build grassroots power and advocate for tangible changes on climate change and social justice at local, state, national and international levels in North America. The organization changed its name from Energy Action Coalition in July 2016 in order to reflect its new leadership and it shift from a coalition to a network structure. The Power Shift Network's members, which include other non-profit organizations and student groups focused on environmental justice, social justice, and climate change, focus their organizing and campaigns on campuses, communities, corporate practices, and politics. The Power Shift Network is part of the Global Youth Climate Movement.
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Gregory H. Kats is an American businessman, environmentalist, and thought leader in the green economy sector. He is founder and CEO of the Smart Surfaces Coalition, a non-profit organization consisting of 40+ national and international partner groups working to ensure the rapid, cost-effective adoption of reflective, porous, and green urban surface infrastructure, or "smart surfaces", in cities. Previously, Kats served as a Managing Director at Good Energies,[2] a multi-billion dollar global clean energy investor, and Director of Financing for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).[3]
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Solar Mosaic is a clean energy fin-tech company based in Oakland, California. Founded in 2010, Mosaic created its initial business model using crowdfunding principals to offer loans for commercial solar development projects. After shifting its model in 2014, Mosaic is now focused on financing residential solar projects by leveraging third party capital partners. Through this model, the company aims to democratize the social and environmental benefits of clean energy.
James Eugene Rogers Jr. was an American businessman and author. He was president and CEO of Duke Energy, the largest electrical utility in the U.S., from April, 2006 until July 1, 2013. He stayed on as Chairman of the Board until retiring the following December. His book, Lighting the World, which explores the issues involved in bringing electricity to over 1.2 billion people on earth who lack it, was published August 25, 2015, by St. Martin's Press. The book asserts that access to electricity should be recognized as a basic human right.
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