Fresh Energy’s new strategic framework, Vision 2030, doubles down on our commitment to a swift and equitable energy transition in Minnesota and beyond. We recognize that public policy remains a crucial lever for change, and we are expanding our work to encompass all five sectors of our economy: electricity, buildings, transportation, heavy industry, and agriculture. Our work takes place through a multifaceted approach to policy solutions, communications, and implementation, which are tightly integrated within the organization.
Our strategic framework also underscores the fact that racial, economic, and geographic equity must be central to every aspect of our work. Everyone can and must be included in a 100% decarbonized economy.
Elevating energy access and equity across the organization
Fresh Energy launched its Energy Access and Equity program in 2018. Since then we’ve made progress in many areas, from increasing funding for energy efficiency in affordable housing to creating multiple state incentive programs that ensure under-resourced communities can access clean electric appliances and equipment.
While creating and elevating a standalone program dedicated to equity and access made sense in 2018, Fresh Energy has grown and evolved toward a new approach that embeds equity across the organization. A centerpiece of Vision 2030 is to move Energy Access and Equity from a program to a Guiding Principle across the organization: We are committed to achieving a decarbonized economy where benefits and burdens are equitably distributed, resulting in reliable, affordable energy for all and new jobs and investment that address racial and economic disparities. See our full list of Guiding Principles here.
Every Fresh Energy department has started and will continue to build solutions specifically designed to ensure no one is left behind on the path to a decarbonized future.
For instance, our transportation department works to electrify our major transit agency’s buses with other members of the Coalition for Clean Transportation, an effort undertaken to expand access to zero-emission vehicles beyond personal car ownership.
Our policy and implementation team has built a team of partners across the state working to help under-resourced and racially diverse urban and rural communities reap the benefits of clean energy, including through the Empower Crookston project.
In our electricity department, we are placing expanding emphasis on affordability and access. Through carefully crafted work at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), we recently succeeded with other members of Xcel Energy’s Equity Stakeholder Advisory Group in securing a pilot project that will provide direct, automatic enrollment in Xcel’s energy affordability programs to high-energy-burdened Minnesotans across the state.
Finally, an understanding that solving a complex clean energy challenge like decarbonizing our heating systems would need an inclusive and diverse coalition propelled our buildings department to work with partners COPAL and the Citizens Utilities Board of Minnesota to launch Clean Heat Minnesota.
Building a culture that tells the story of who Fresh Energy is today, with strong partnerships and modeled core values are fundamental aspects to the health of the organization. Janiece Watts and the work she leads are now supported by the operations and public affairs departments.
In the coming months, we will be further elevating equity in the organization with a new staff position, Chief Equity Officer, to ensure a coordinated and holistic approach to equitable decarbonization across programs is further strengthened.
Fresh Energy’s path to equitable decarbonization
Fresh Energy’s work of energy access and equity was first established as a program department in March 2018, when Ben Passer was elevated to lead as Director of Energy Access and Equity. It was time that Fresh Energy secured the staff leadership, financial resources, and organizational capacity to support and integrate racial and economic equity as a foundational principle of Fresh Energy’s work in its clean energy policy and mission.
This first iteration of Energy Access and Equity had a special focus on energy affordability and accessibility for renters, under-resourced consumers, and communities of color. This commitment guided policy and partnerships, resulting in Fresh Energy leadership in key coalitions such as the Minnesota Multifamily Affordable Housing Energy Network (MMAHEN) now named Minnesota Energy Efficiency for All (MN EEFA), that through 2023 was co-led by Fresh Energy and Community Stabilization Project (CSP). CSP was and remains a critical thought partner in how Fresh Energy must sustain its efforts in embedding racial and economic equity within its key policy priorities by developing organizational measures that will shift cultural practice. Our work together has included MN EEFA, the Tenant-Landlord Energy Project, and most recently, securing $1 million in funding for electric lawncare and snow removal equipment in the 2024 legislative session, with an emphasis on access for communities bearing the brunt of air pollution.
In August 2018, Janiece Watts was brought on to the team as a Policy Associate. This formally created the team of Energy Access and Equity (EAE) to direct Fresh Energy’s mission of integrating equity throughout programs and the organization. Janiece focused on the internal organizational culture work of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). A first action toward embedding DEI was forming the DEI Committee in 2019 and defining what this work means to the staff of Fresh Energy by crafting and adopting a Commitment to DEI, and then a Commitment to Anti-Racism in 2021.
Energy affordability and accessibility continued to be key priorities of EAE. This was demonstrated by working with organizational partner Community Stabilization Project on understanding how renters and property owners communicate about energy needs within the shared space of the home, how one may seek resources, and how this is navigated while facing a high energy burden. Recognizing that adequately addressing the issue of high energy burden and its impact on underserved communities such as multifamily housing residents and households of color would require dedicated staff, Fresh Energy hired Mari Ojeda as a Senior Policy Associate in February 2021 to lead on energy efficiency for multifamily and affordable housing.
As our access and equity work grew, so did all staff capacity for understanding racial and economic equity. When the founder of Fresh Energy’s Energy Access and Equity Department, Ben, decided to depart for new opportunities, Fresh Energy looked to elevate internal leadership. Janiece was promoted to Director of Culture and Partnerships, and Anjali Bains, having spent two years advancing transportation electrification, stepped into the role of Lead Director in August 2021.
For the next several years, Fresh Energy’s Energy Access and Equity team further distinguished its roles in both leading programmatic efforts on equity and building organizational capacity across policy teams to work on equity, defined as: the elimination of barriers to full participation in the process and access to the full benefits of the outcome.
We must remember where we were in the social political context during this time. Racial, economic, and climate justice were national conversations as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the globe and racial justice uprisings raged in communities internationally and right here at home after the murder of George Floyd and many other Black Americans by police—all while we experienced record-breaking heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and health threatening poor air quality. The climate crisis was clearly here, and its consequences were made explicit with the intertwining global pandemic, extreme weather events and mass movements demanding for human rights, climate action, and the end of white supremacy that runs through all these major threats to the planet and all living beings. Fresh Energy staff were not immune to experiencing these shocks to the system and the need for responsive leadership was made clear.
During this time, our equity-focused work grew to encompass new aspects of policy work in electric transportation, local government in climate action planning, and a new phase of community-focused implementation work following the largest federal investment in climate in history with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. Fresh Energy understood that there would be new opportunities to help funnel this historic funding to communities who most needed it. In May 2023 Fresh Energy brought on experienced organizer and solar developer John Vaughn to address this community and economic development opportunity. To date, his partnership-centered efforts have spurred multiple vital projects, including Empower Crookston, and effort to support White Earth Tribal and Community College’s efforts to create a trades building to expand clean energy work force training.
Fresh Energy recognizes equity and community building as an expertise and invests in staff capacity to advance equity in regulatory policy. Shubha Harris was hired in January 2024 as the Equitable Energy Policy Consultant. Shubha’s experience includes representing Xcel Energy as a Regulatory Attorney at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and co-leading the Equity Stakeholder Advisory Group a collaboration of energy equity advocates and Xcel Energy.
Today, Fresh Energy’s commitment to equity is stronger than ever. At the same time, we are evolving into a model where energy access, equity, and inclusion are a focus across our organization.
