Workforce, Community & Diversity Programs
The Planet Life – Project Support
Whether you are an individual with an idea, a climate impact startup, non-profit, established organisation, or volunteer group working on tackling the climate crisis, we’re here to help you find passionate, talented people to get involved with your climate cause through:
Donations – Small actions, big changes. Get your project funded with individual donations.
Skilled volunteers – Find passionate, talented people who want to use their skills and expertise to support projects and create a better planet for all.
Grow your team – Find candidates looking for full-time employment and ready to join your team. Please tell us a little about your organisation, yourself, and which of these types of engagement you’re interested in, and we’ll be in touch shortly to further understand what your needs are and get your project published on our platform.
READ MORE
Resilience in Climate Equity (RICE) Award
The Resilience in Climate Equity award will be given to outstanding Women of Color in the Climate & Environmental movement. The award is meant to recognize the often hard, diligent, unpaid, and underpaid work of Women of Color in the movement. Preference will be given to Women of Color who have been historically excluded from mainstream environmentalism.
Award winners will receive: a stipend of $5,000, professional coaching, the opportunity to join us for our healing retreat in Belize February 2023, and the opportunity to join us for our first annual Rise to Thrive convening in 2023 and present on the work you do in the Climate, Conservation & Environmental community
READ MORE
Clean Energy Technology RFI – LACI Community Benefits Pilots
The goal of this RFI is to reach clean energy companies focused on building decarbonization and electrification retrofits, including new and innovative hardware and software that could be employed in 2023 via LACI Community Benefit Pilots. LACI seeks to identify key resources for building decarbonization that will help Los Angeles and the county reach their climate goals. Intended outcomes for LACI Community Benefit Pilots focused on clean energy include:
-
Decarbonization for existing single and/or multi-family buildings
-
Reducing energy burden in DACs
-
Improving grid resilience
-
Local economic and workforce development
-
Reduced greenhouse gas emissions
-
Improved air quality and health (indoor and outdoor)
READ MORE
The Sunny Awards for Equitable Community Solar
The Sunny Awards for Equitable Community Solar (The Sunny Awards) is a $100,000 prize competition that will recognize community solar projects and programs that employ or develop best practices to increase equitable access to the meaningful benefits of community solar for subscribers and their communities.
READ MORE
Rahiem
READ MORE
NuWorld Energy
READ MORE
Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC) Round 2
The Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC) Prize recognizes the nation’s most innovative incubators. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), the EPIC Prize awards cash prizes to regional incubator teams that submit the most creative and impactful plans, then implement those plans to develop strong clusters, connections, and support for energy startups and entrepreneurs. OTT has also partnered with three other program offices to date to provide Bonus Prizes. In addition to the $4 million in Core Incubator Prize funding, $50,000 Bonus Prizes will be available for incubators supporting water power and/or the blue economy, buildings technologies, and solar technologies.
READ MORE
Advancing Equity Through Workforce Partnerships
This FOA supports the development of workforce programs and partnerships that will facilitate the continued deployment of solar energy technologies, while supporting an inclusive workforce with opportunities for career advancement, including through union membership. As part of the whole-of-government approach to advance equity and encourage worker organizing and collective bargaining, this FOA and any related activities will seek to encourage meaningful engagement and participation of labor unions and underserved communities and underrepresented groups, including consultation with Tribal Nations.
Areas of interest include:
- Apprenticeship readiness (pre-apprenticeship) or apprenticeship partnerships
- Community-led training partnerships
- Clean energy sector partnerships
Note that a Letter of Intent and Concept Paper are due before the final application deadline.
READ MORE
Cleantech Group Innovation Challenge Hub
Looking to scale your innovation? Need ideas, resources and advice to take your start-up or scale-up to the next level? From agriculture to transport, recycling, chemicals, clean energy and the latest in AI, you can search the Innovation Challenge Hub for and find opportunities to work with corporates, investors, accelerators and programs dedicated to helping create a cleaner, cooler future.
READ MORE
Frontline Resource Institute
The Frontline Resource Institute is releasing two grant opportunities through the Collective Action Fund at the Tides Foundation. Intended for environmental and climate justice organizations serving frontline communities, both opportunities will assist in building organizational capacity and promoting shared learning and peer exchange among grant recipients. Recognizing that organizations have different needs depending on their longevity, financial capacity, and development journeys, FRI plans to disburse funds via two tracks: (1) Organizational Strategy Development and (2) Organizational Capacity Building and Organizational Durability.
READ MORE
Community Geothermal Heating and Cooling Design and Deployment
The Community Geothermal Heating and Cooling Design and Deployment FOA will award $300,000–$13 million for projects that help communities design and deploy geothermal district heating and cooling systems, create related workforce training, and identify and address environmental justice concerns.
The Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) anticipates making approximately 1–10 awards under the initial phase, with individual awards varying between $300,000 and $750,000. In the second phase, following a downselect, GTO anticipates making 1–4 awards, with individual awards between $2.5 million and $10 million. GTO seeks diverse teams to form U.S. community coalitions.
READ MORE
Solar Manufacturing Incubator FOA
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) seek to invest in innovative research and development (R&D) as well as research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) projects that enable continued cost reductions, while developing next-generation solar technologies and boosting American solar manufacturing, especially in cadmium telluride (CdTe) photovoltaics.
The research and development (R&D) activities to be funded under this FOA will support the government-wide approach to the climate crisis by driving the innovation that can lead to the deployment of clean energy technologies, which are critical for climate protection. Specifically, this FOA will develop and demonstrate new technologies enabling fast deployment of large amounts of solar generation into the grid.
READ MORE