Green Built Alliance is welcoming fellow nonprofits and local schools to apply for funding support to complete clean-energy projects in 2020 through its Appalachian Offsets program.
Appalachian Offsets funds renewable-energy projects and energy-efficiency upgrades in Western North Carolina schools, nonprofits and low-income housing by pooling money contributed by local businesses and individuals through its voluntary carbon-offset program.
The application submission window to be considered as one of Appalachian Offsets’ 2020 projects is open now through Friday, Jan. 31, 2020. Green Built Alliance’s Board of Directors will review applications and may invite several organizations to present their ideas in greater detail before voting on the project(s) they wish to fund.
Appalachian Offsets has historically completed a variety of energy-efficiency and renewable-energy projects over its 15-year history in the Western North Carolina, but the program is also open to considering applicants with carbon-sequestration plans in 2020. To receive funding, the project must be under the umbrella of a nonprofit, school, or coop.
Green Built Alliance is opening up this application process for new project partners as it celebrates the successful completion of its fundraising campaign for a solar system at Asheville’s Isaac Dickson Elementary School. Appalachian Offsets finished fundraising for that project — its largest undertaking to date — in 2019 and the solar system is expected to be installed on the roof of the school in the spring or summer of 2020.
Isaac Dickson was designed as one of the state’s first Net Zero Energy schools and has been awaiting the solar system that would help it move toward that vision since it was built in 2016.
People interested in supporting the work of Appalachian Offsets can visit cutmycarbon.org to calculate their carbon footprint and offset emissions by paying into the community fund that supports these projects in local nonprofits, schools and low-income housing.
Organizations interested in applying for this funding and those with additional questions can email Green Built Alliance Executive Director Sam Ruark-Eastes at sam@greenbuilt.org.