The Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI) and our grantee Elemental Excelerator announced that 25 clean technology companies will provide 30 paid, full-time internships to Black, Indigenous, Latinx and other underrepresented students across the United States. The EDICT (Empowering Diversity in Clean Tech) Summer Internship Program is co-founded by Devin Hampton, the CEO of TSFF’s impact investee Utility API.
The companies taking part in the internship program are “among a larger cohort of companies that have taken the EDICT Pledge, which cements their commitment to equity outcomes,” the announcement said. The announcement goes on to say:
“Equity, much like the innovation being done in the clean energy space, is a dynamic, community practice,” said Dawn Lippert, CEO of Elemental Excelerator. “EDICT interns represent the enormous potential of the next generation of workers, entrepreneurs, and community builders that will guide us toward climate solutions that are designed with equity at their core.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are already three million people working in the clean energy economy. With President Biden’s recently proposed “Build Back Better” program, 10 million more well-paying jobs could be added to the United States’ clean energy workforce. However, a recent report from the Brookings Institute points out an unsettling reality: fewer than 20 percent of workers in clean energy production and energy efficiency sectors are women, and Black workers fill less than 10 percent of these sectors’ jobs.
Read the full announcement. Meet the 2021 interns.