Ithaca, NY – EMPEQ (Empower Equity, Inc.) and Chyan Hulbert have been chosen to work together under the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)’s Climate Justice Fellowship program. Mrs. Hulbert will be tasked with investigating the feasibility of accelerating commercial building retrofits while concurrently performing workforce development for disadvantaged communities utilizing EMPEQ’s Fast Site Survey software product.

NYSERDA’s Climate Justice Fellowship program is a $6 million New York State initiative aimed at funding fellowships for members of priority populations. The program seeks to match fellows with host organizations that have demonstrated commitment to advancing climate justice and clean energy priorities for disadvantaged communities. Fellows are expected to assist with community engagement activities (e.g., plan, policy, or project), support clean energy project development and implementation, facilitate partnership building, support clean energy innovation companies, and/or engage in other projects related to advancing climate justice and clean energy priorities in disadvantaged communities.

 “I’ve dedicated my career to causes I feel passionately about”, Mrs. Hubert remarked. “My work with EMPEQ allows me to a unique opportunity to combine two of my great passions: fighting climate change and improving the career prospects of members of disadvantaged communities.”  

Because of Fast Site Survey’s native intelligence, it eliminates the need for a deep reservoir of knowledge of buildings and their equipment. As such, it is EMPEQ’s thesis that utilizing the product will help create career pathways into the clean energy sector for individuals in disadvantaged communities; new, entry-level workers would be able to perform initial residential & commercial building assessments and determine feasibility for building electrification. Hulbert will be investigating the viability of this approach to workforce development. If successful, this could solve two substantial issues:

• A labor shortage in the clean energy engineering and contracting industries (particularly in the entry level)
• A lack of clean energy careers with a living wage for individuals from disadvantaged communities

Founded by two underrepresented individuals, Climate Justice is a substantial priority for EMPEQ’s leadership team. CEO and a service-disabled Marine Corps veteran Herbert Dwyer commented, “We strongly suspect that Fast Site Survey can have a positive impact on disadvantaged communities and I’m incredibly excited to have Chyan build the roadmap to bring this vision to life.” COO and Kanienʼkehá꞉ka Nation member Derek LaClair added, “My Grandfather taught me that all Haudenosaunees need to consider how our decisions will impact the world seven generations from now. To that end, we are hopeful Chyan’s work will lead to equitable and sustainable change that will be felt far into the future.”

Details about NYSERDA’s Climate Justice Fellowship Program can be found at https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/Climate-Justice-Fellowship.

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About EMPEQ

America needs to decarbonize over 7,000 buildings every day for the next 28 years if we are to reach our 2050 climate goals and the first step in each of these projects is on-site data collection in existing buildings. EMPEQ’s revolutionary Fast Site Survey^TM SaaS product reduces the time spent on this initial energy assessment process by up to 80% – bringing critical additional bandwidth to a clean energy engineering and contracting industry that will quickly become a bottleneck in the fight against climate change. Learn more about EMPEQ at https://empeq.co and Fast Site Survey at https://fastsitesurvey.com.

About the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, known as NYSERDA, promotes energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources. These efforts are key to developing a less polluting and more reliable and affordable energy system for all New Yorkers. Collectively, NYSERDA’s efforts aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, accelerate economic growth, and reduce customer energy bills. Learn more about NYSERDA at https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/.