Sonoma County at this point has the largest municipal financing program for solar and energy efficiency, modeled after the Berkeley First program, but run by the city themselves instead of a program administrator. The program allocated $100M and they’ve burned through about $20M of it in a very short period of time, since this is peoples’ favorite flavor of financing for solar.

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When I first heard about Carrotmob, I knew I had to get involved. I was living in Chapel Hill, NC at the time, so I became a fan on Facebook, hoping I’d wind up in San Francisco by the time they did another one. I didn’t realize at the time that it was something I could start in my town!

Then when I heard Steve Newcomb (CEO of Virgance, which owns Carrotmob) speak at Sustainable Brands ’09, I was even more determined to get involved. I started following Carrotmob on Twitter, so when Brent tweeted that he was looking for a summer intern, I jumped on it.

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GreenTalk Radio show host Sean Daily speaks with David Anderson, co-founder of Green Options Media about the story behind Green Options and their post-Virgance acquisition future.

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1 Block Off the Grid, the low-cost solar group-purchasing program, just launched a new campaign in San Diego.

1BOG expects to choose a solar installer around April 18th, and have them evaluting homes by the end of the month. The more people that sign up, the better the discount for anyone buying solar through the program.

If you aren’t familiar with 1 Block Off the Grid, what they do may be best explained by today’s article in New York Times Magazine:

…in a cultural moment when many individuals aren’t feeling all that rugged, perhaps it makes sense that a company called 1BOG has put collective buying at the center of its business model. The name is derived from the phrase “one block off the grid,” a reference to the goal of rounding up groups of homeowners willing to install solar-power systems on their houses — removing the rough equivalent of one block from a city’s electrical grid.

If you’re looking for solar in San Diego and want to get involved, check out their website. 1BOG has gone to great lengths to help spread the word, so don’t forget to check out the volunteer kit.

Disclaimer: Both 1BOG and GO Media (aka this blog) are owned by activism startup Virgance. Don’t worry though - we’re an independent media arm and we wouldn’t be telling you about this if we didn’t think it was a great program. Read more about us here.

So what is Virgance? They really sum it up best themselves:

Virgance is a company that seeks to create another moment of seasonal change. As the world has turned, some organizations have tilted towards the extreme of “business values,” and others towards the extreme of “activist values.” We hope to be an organization that finds the perfect balance between them. Naming this event after the equinox is our way of marking the onset of a new season, and a new era in the business world.

I love the idea of getting back to a more balanced place and working together for positive change! They’ve organized some great campaigns in the past like Carrotmob and the cost-saving solar program 1 Block Off the Grid. I can’t wait to hear what exciting plans they’ve got in store!

Not only can you learn about what Virgance is up to, they’ve got “a few surprises” up their sleeves for the evening. The event is this coming Tuesday, April 7th from 5-9pm at the lovely 111 Minna Gallery.

Are you planning to hit up the Virgance Equinox? Tickets are $15 online and $25 at the door, so snag your ticket here before they sell out! Already got your tickets? You can also RSVP on Facebook!

The English language has a wonderful way of evolving with major or minor events in the economic, social and political history of man. Following the release of words like “Mompreneur” and “Ecopreneur”, the latest buzzword that is floating around the business and economic sphere is “Obamapreneur.” While it is clear that all “Preneur” roads lead to a noble business mission but what the heck is an Obamapreneur?

President Obama is clearly the man of the moment and although running a business is not officially part of his resume, entrepreneurs are closely examining the way he has run his campaign, and now the country, to model their business strategy after his.  Barry Libert and Rick Faulk, authors of “Barack, Inc: Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign” point out three lesson to entrepreneurs based upon what they have seen in President Obama’s campaign:

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On Saturday, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom hosted a discussion on his radio show about the “Green Collar Economy.” Appearing on the show were Van Jones, founder of Green for All and author of a new book on the topic, and Dave Llorens, founder of 1Block Off the Grid.

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Mayor Newsom’s guests had a lot to say about how the new green jobs sector of the economy is bending the corner from “inspiration to implementation”.

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A Park Slope hardware store has pledged to spend 22% of Sunday’s revenue to make their store more energy efficient.

They have not made this pledge because of a mandate, a threat of punishment or an altrusitic love of the environment. Tarzian Hardware wants to make a direct profit.

This is because the Carrotmob is arriving in New York City. Started by Brent Schulkin in San Francisco, Carrotmob is a reverse boycott where similar businesses compete to see who will go the furthest to green themselves up. The winner is rewarded with a “mob”-hundreds of customers who arrive on the same day to buy up the store in order to support greener business.

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When we last wrote about 1 Block Off the Grid’s(1BOG) community solar initiative in San Francisco, many of you wondered why similar programs don’t exist across the United States. Well, good news for those of you in Boston, New Orleans, Seattle, Miami, Washington, and 15 other US cities—1BOG is coming.

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