First Service Corps Team of 2009:
Feasibility Study for National Energy Retrofit Enterprise,
For Rubicon National Social Innovations (RNSI)
(April 30 – July, 2009)
About the Organization: Rubicon National Social Innovations (RNSI) (http://rubiconnsi.blogspot.com) is a recent offshoot of 35-year old Rubicon Programs (www.rubiconprograms.org), a social services agency that runs two social enterprises, including a bakery and a landscaping firm, in Richmond, CA. The goal of the San Francisco-based non-profit organization is to launch nationally-scaled social enterprises that have a positive and lasting impact on individuals living in poverty and are financially sustainable in the long-term from the revenues they generate.
The Project: Feasibility study for a national energy retrofit enterprise.
Green for All (www.greenforall.org), a team of part-time pro bono consultants from Bain & Company (www.bain.com), and three business school interns have partnered to carry out this study.
In addition to earning revenue, the social enterprise must achieve three social objectives:
· To employ hard to employ groups and create an enterprise which will help facilitate disenfranchised populations to tap into the burgeoning green jobs that will form the apex of the new economy.
· To increase the value of low- and middle income homes by making them more energy efficient.
· To increase the ability of low and middle income households to invest in deep efficiency measures by increasing their access to financing tools that increase the affordability of these measures.
