Building WRISE from the Ground Up — Lisa Daniels on Community Power and Tribal Energy Leadership

Catherine: Hi, I’m Catherine McLean, Founder and CEO of Dylan Green. Today I have with me Lisa Daniels, Program Director at NativeSun Community Power Development and founder of Windustry Enrise. Lisa joins us from Minneapolis today. Thanks for joining us.

Lisa: Nice to be here.

Catherine: You serve as Program Director at NativeSun Community Power Development and you’re also the founder of Windustry. Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on right now?

Lisa: Sure. I am currently working primarily with NativeSun Community Power Development. We are working to deploy EV vehicles and charging stations in tribal communities in the upper Midwest. The states that we’re primarily working in are Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. This is new technology in transportation and we’re hoping to see how it serves the tribal communities, most of which are rural and also have a fair amount of good cold weather.

Catherine: You founded Windustry to promote community-based wind energy. What inspired you to start the organization and what were some of the early challenges that you faced?

Lisa: Okay. Brace yourself. I’m going to talk about the early days. More than 20 years ago, I came to this work and you could even say more than 30 years ago, I came to this work as an environmentalist. But when you were a teenager. When I was so young, I might not have been born yet. I came to this work as an environmentalist and as a pragmatist. I started taking classes when I lived in Berkeley. I lived literally right across the street from UC Berkeley, the north side of UC Berkeley. I just wanted to learn about renewable energy and see what it was all about. I became sold on wind energy. When I moved to Minneapolis, I wanted to make my work all about renewables. One of the first things I really had to figure out was why our energy system was built to ignore wind and solar power. This was just natural energy that was all around us. Instead, we were digging up fossil fuels, coal, gas, oil, and transporting them long distances to a central station power plant and burning them and releasing all these toxins into the air. I was not sure why all of this was happening and how we got here. Part of figuring all that out got me deeper involved with renewable energy and working for non-profits that were working to clean up the air and clean up our environment. This is really how I got started. I will say I never really set out to start a new non-profit. I did not really think that this was what the world needed was another non-profit. I was working to put together a curriculum for farmers, ranchers, rural landowners, and communities in Minnesota. The work was just getting started. We were just getting our courses out there and getting good responses from the meetings we were having. This was in the late 90s. Just like that, our funding was pulled because of changes in leadership at the Minnesota legislature. It probably sounds a little bit familiar about what is happening these days on a federal basis, but I just really felt like I was just getting started and I was nowhere near done. I literally took the work home and worked out of our family then. After trying a few things and talking with other non-profit leaders, it turned out that the best way for me to get funding to go forward on a long-term basis was to start a new non-profit.
That was the start of Windustri.

Catherine: Amazing. Through your work with Windustri and Native Sun, you’ve been a strong advocate for community ownership and renewable energy. Why is that so important? Can you share any success stories or lessons learned that have worked?

Lisa: Yes. I have always been an advocate for the community ownership of renewable energy. Just intuitively, I knew that this was the best way to keep the economic benefits as local as possible. The main business model in the U.S. was something very different, and it still is. It still is where large multinational energy companies will finance a large wind project of hundreds of wind turbines across the landscape and lease the land from farmers and rural landowners, rural communities. Many folks in these communities felt that if somebody could come and lease their land and put up a wind turbine or a solar project on it, then why couldn’t they just put a project together themselves and own it themselves? So I went to work collecting the information or creating the information to do town meetings, workshops, conferences for ordinary folks, rural communities, groups of landowners, ranchers, so that they could build their own projects. Yes, there are several success stories from municipalities that actually put up their own wind turbines, and to small and medium-sized businesses, from ski resorts to mainstream beer breweries, universities, colleges, public schools. So many different entities were interested in harvesting the wind for themselves. That’s what we really did, was work to put these resources together so that people could put a project together for themselves. It was never easy. Wind energy on any level was never all that easy.

Catherine: Right. Well, it seems like that’s a common theme with wind energy, especially nowadays. You’re also a co-founder of WRISE, which is why we’re talking today to celebrate the 20th anniversary of WRISE. What motivated you and the founding team to create WRISE? What are some of the early moments or experiences that stand out for you?

Lisa: Well, we were all just making it happen. WRISE used to be called Women of Wind Energy, and the acronym was WOWIE. We enjoyed our normal day jobs, and then we also worked to put together WRISE, or WOWIE. At the very beginning, it was powered 100% by volunteers for a few years. Then we did some fundraising, and we did a search and hired an executive director. It felt like the effort was so much more solid when we finally got to that point of having an executive director. Of course, the board members were still all volunteers. That was our early start, just putting this together on a shoestring and making it go with our personal energy and personal attention.

Catherine: Amazing. Look how WRISE has grown over the past two decades. What do you think you’re most proud of? Are there any particular programs or partnerships that are important to you, milestones?

Lisa: Oh, absolutely. I’m sure other founders that you’ve been talking with have talked about how the wind energy industry was so male-dominated. Wind power, as it turns out, was really capital-intensive with all the financiers, the bankers, the real estate brokers, the insurance brokers. All of these things were mostly male-led. I can remember so many meetings, so many conferences, so many workshops where I was one of the very few women in the room. I’m sure many people have talked about that. Even the parties, you go to a conference, you expect to be wined and dined and go to a couple of parties here and there. So many men. It was like the song YMCA. It was just a way of life. That was the impetus for why we put Women of Wind Energy, now WRISE, together. I am really proud that WRISE is still going strong and growing and seems to be so much of a force today. That is so rewarding to me. There are so many more women in the renewable and sustainable energy fields now than ever before. There’s been so much investment over the last few years with the great expansion under the last administration that we can only speak wistfully of now.

Catherine: Good old days.

Lisa: Good old days, yes. It was just last year.

Catherine: It does seem like it was so long ago. I know it. Especially when you’re based in D.C. and in the thick of it, day in and day out.

Lisa: I can remember the times when we would have our annual luncheon at the Wind Power Conference way back when. On the day of our Women of Wind Energy luncheon or WRISE luncheon, there were almost no women left on the exhibit show floor. That’s what kind of influence and impact we had. It was the event that women made a priority. It wasn’t just women who went to the luncheon. There were quite a few supportive, forward-thinking men as well.
One of the other things that I loved about some of the activities that we do, and I believe we’re still doing it right now, the fellowship program where we sponsored new people to come to the conferences and see what it was all about. This was a big deal to give someone so new or somebody who was poised to enter the industry or to become part of the workaday world in the renewable field, to give them a glimpse of how it looked and how it worked from so many different perspectives. I will say that I think for many of the fellows that we sponsored, it was life-changing. It was a really sweet thing to be there when they were having their first glimpse and to help shepherd some of that. It was just really wonderful.

Catherine: It sounds like we’ve left quite a legacy. What trends or shifts in clean energy are you most excited about right now? Where do you see the greatest opportunities to advance both renewable energy and equity?

Lisa: I would say the trend that I’m seeing right now is that the federal level is going to be challenging for the next few years. I see the state and local levels being hugely important and hugely engaging. We’re just coming out of the administration where there was the most U.S. investment in renewable industries and sustainable energy fields ever in U.S. history. We have President Biden to thank for that. It was bigger than anyone could have imagined from the early days of scraping things together and all of that. Things are going to shift, and the shift will be okay.
There can still be quite a large amount of development and advancement in the right places.

Catherine: Right, exactly. For emerging leaders, especially women and people of color, what advice would you offer for finding their voice advancing in the industry? Second question, how can allies best support a more inclusive clean energy workforce?

Lisa: The industry is so much more complex now. Hang in there, connect with others, stay in WRISE. WRISE has always been a connector. Find a niche that suits you and your skills and learn as much as you can. Things are always evolving and changing. If you have an opportunity for a leadership role, I would say accept it. Accept it with intentionality, with grace, and with gratitude, even if it pushes your comfort zone way beyond what you think you can do. Also, enjoy the journey as you’re doing it. Meet the moment, be there for it, because the more you enjoy it, the more it will give back to you. The experience will give back to you.

Catherine: I think that’s really great advice. How can allies best support a more inclusive clean energy workforce?

Lisa: Well, I hope in this time of great transition here, I hope that WRISE stays nimble and alert. This field is always sprouting into new areas with new technology. WRISE has always been a warm and welcoming platform for connecting with others. The more successful you are, the more you can honor that and share it with others. That is really it. I would say, the more successful you are and the more you share it, the more you honor it and share it with others in WRISE.

Catherine: As WRISE marks 20 years, what do you hope the next two decades will bring for both WRISE and the broader clean energy workforce?

Lisa: WRISE has always been about diversity from the very get-go. Just having so many women in this field that was so male-dominated. People of color, Native people. I would say, I’m working very much with Native communities. Native communities are looking at all the renewable energy stuff. They are looking at sustainable energy. They are looking at what they can put in place in their communities so that they can have energy sovereignty. I would say, if the politics look tough and people you’re talking to are not getting what you’re talking to, then find the ones who are. They have not disappeared. They are still there. Renewable energy makes so much sense for our planet, our society, for how we go forward, both within a community and for the greater good. Share it in the best way you know how. Working with folks in a way that inspires awe and respect is a good way to go forward. Stand in awe of the communities that you’re working with and really respect different opinions and different ways to go forward. I think that’s the best that you can do.

Catherine: Yeah, that’s great advice. As a woman leader in the clean energy space, what have been some of the key challenges you faced and how did you navigate or overcome them?

Lisa: I was balancing, like many others, being a wife and a mom with a growing family for a great deal of my career. It seems like I was always trying to pack in one more piece of work, one more project, one more telephone call, one more email. I knew that this was work that needed to be done. In many respects, I was honored to be in the position that I was in. The planet needed it. Our society needed it. My goal was meeting the moment right where I was. Being supportive of others was always a key thing because we were all in a fight together for a clean energy transition. I was grateful for the opportunity to bring about changes in the renewable energy industries. Just on a day-to-day basis, we were all just trying to fit it all in to whatever day we had. I have one story that I haven’t really told anyone. This seems like it might be a really good time to tell it. Like so many other women, I was balancing being a wife and a mom with a growing family for a great deal of my career. It seems like I was always just trying to pack in one more piece of work or one more email or one more project. I knew that this work needed to get done. I was honored to be in the position that I was in. The planet needed it. Our society needed it. My goal was to meet the moment as best I could. Meet the moment right where it is. I did my best with the resources that I had. Also, I was always very supportive of others.
We were all in the fight together for a clean energy transition. I was grateful for the opportunity to bring about changes in the renewable energy industries.
One story I’d like to share with you is a moment of fitting it all in when it all worked. I was just ending a week’s vacation and still had some guests with us. It was a regular work day. I had a phone call scheduled with Women of Wind Energy to search for a new name for the organization. It turns out this phone call was going to be at the same time as my husband’s plan to take our visitors for a canoe paddle in one of our favorite places, an old-growth cypress swamp with a trail through it for canoes in South Carolina. It was too late for me to request a change in the time of the phone call. It was the only slot of time that worked before our friends had to leave and go catch their plane. It was turning out to be a perfect collision of work and family time. I just decided I was going to do both and make it all work. Now this was way, way before COVID and the only thing we had was a telephone conference call, no video. There were going to be two colleagues on the phone and this was going to be our third call in the series for renaming Women of Wind Energy. I figured if I brought my phone and some earbuds I could do the call. I would just be the last one on the canoe trail and it would be quite enough for the phone call. So as it turns out, the suggestion for the new name WRISE, I came up with that on the phone call and it was a victory for the organization as the new name was quickly adopted and worked well for all, but also for me it was a victory for meeting the moment right where it is. I never really told them on the phone call that I was in a canoe and I was just hoping that they didn’t hear the water splashing.

Catherine: I look forward to meeting you in a couple weeks and yeah we’ll celebrate.

Lisa: Thank you.