Why I Want to Provide Free NABCEP PV Certification Training

In July of 2021 the pacific northwest endured a record setting heat wave with temperatures in Portland reaching 116F on July 28th. The 116 temperature broke the previous day's record-setting high of 112 degrees. The previous day's high had broken the 108 degree-record set the day prior, which broke the previous high of 107, first set in 1965. Salem also saw a record high, hitting 117 the warmest temperature since the city started keeping weather records in 1890.

Later that summer in August, my family and I took a camping trip up to Lake Quinault in the beautiful Olympic National Forest in Washington. The Olympic National Forest is one of the most wild temperate rainforests in the world, boasting massive conifers, some of the world's largest trees, and the lush and ancient Hoh Rainforest. As an amateur arborist, as soon as we entered the park I was struck by the damage I observed in the forest due to the heat earlier that summer. 

The leaves of deciduous trees were blistered and yellowed. The conifers were browned like they had been roasted in an oven, because they had. It was no surprise when wildfires ravaged the kiln-dried forests throughout the western U.S. later that fall.I've been concerned about climate change since 2005 when I decided to take action by applying to Babson College's Entrepreneurship-focused MBA program. 

In my application essay, I wrote about the growth coming to the clean energy industry over the next 20 years and the opportunity to utilize the good parts of capitalism and business to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and our impact on the climate. I didn't know it at the time, but this concept has since been labeled social entrepreneurship.

As I left Babson College I launched an education business called HeatSpring focused on training building professionals on clean energy technologies like geothermal heat pumps, solar PV, passive-house and green buildings. 

At this time I couldn't even talk to customers about climate change because it was too political, so I was mostly quiet about my underlying mission and focused on educational innovation.

After years running in-person training events around the country. We found that we could reach more students, offer courses at lower cost and that we could actually offer better educational experiences online than in person - or at least with a hybrid format.

I had taken some undergrad computer science classes and knew html, so I slowly developed, with the help of many others, an online training platform to deliver our courses.  

Students could then stretch out their learning over weeks instead of crammed in a hotel conference room for 3 days. They could rewind and rewatch videos, skip around to topics they needed help on and receive instant feedback from knowledge checks and quizzes.

For nearly 17 years from 2006 to 2023 I helped bring innovation to the clean energy training market, building one of the first organizations to offer online training for both the IGSHPA Accredited Geothermal Installer and NABCEP PV Associate credentials. 

I was recognized by Business Week as one of America's 25 most promising Social Entrepreneurs and also selected for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's Zero Net Energy Task Force. 

Over this time I helped develop hundreds of online courses across a broad range of topics for an audience that grew to over 100,000 members.

In 2023 after a long process and faced with the prospect of losing control of the company and its moral and ethical mission, I decided to sell my ownership and leave the business. 

An exit is supposed to be every founder's dream, but honestly selling my first company kind of sucked and I was left feeling depressed and hopeless. 

I needed some time and took it. As I started to come back online I got sucked into OpenAI's launch of the ChatGPT API and within 2 years launched, grew and sold OpenShiro, a SaaS platform for managing, testing and optimizing large language model integrations. 

Selling this company was more fun, but I realized it was because I wasn't as emotionally invested and I didn't want that either.

After some more sole searching and a much shorter break, I launched Waivolt, an open startup and Oregon benefit company with a goal of using my skills and knowledge to bring further innovation to education. 

Waivolt soon merged with Rose City Robotics (Robotics and STEM education) and is now Waivolt by Rose City Robotics.

Now more than ever, the world is in need of STEM professionals.

I believe in the promise of technology, having watched the innovation, reduction in cost and gains in efficiency in tech like solar, wind, batteries and electric vehicles over the past 20+ years. 

I also believe that for the next 20+ years artificial intelligence and robotics will drive many additional innovations. I have invested both time and money in climate-focused AI and deep-tech startups in addition to my own.