It’s a good time to be in the business of energy efficiency and renewable energy in Los Angeles/LA County, San Francisco County and Cleveland/Cuyahoga County! 

LA County is executing $30 million in public clean-energy retrofit projects. In Cuyahoga, up to $15 million in public- and private-sector projects are in the pipeline for funding through the county’s Clean Energy Financing Hub. The San Francisco Bay Area has $12 billion worth of new construction contracts in San Francisco alone; all new construction is subject to the Green Building Standards of California. Additional work is available on green infrastructure projects.

So if your small minority-, woman- or veteran-owned business does energy efficiency projects in one of those metro areas, Emerald Cities Collaborative’s E-Contractor Academy can help you qualify for contracts in that growing sector.

In each metro area, a partnership between ECC and the county supports the local E-Contractor Academy.

The LA Academy, sponsored by Citibank, works through the California Public Utility Commission’s Southern California Regional Energy Network (SoCalREN) – a local government pilot program serving SCE and SCG service areas. The county’s procurement strategy for awarding projects promotes local contractor participation, an integrated workforce development strategy rooted in direct pipelines to union apprenticeship and the creation of local, highly skilled careers. Upon implementing a successful pilot program, LA County will seek to execute additional countywide energy efficiency projects.

The Cleveland E-Contractor Academy, sponsored by JP Morgan Chase, will help local contractors build their careers and businesses by preparing them to compete for, win and perform public- and private-sector green infrastructure, energy efficiency, renewable energy and stormwater management projects across the Greater Cleveland Metropolitan Area.

The San Francisco Bay Area E-Contractor Academy is sponsored by an AHEAD program grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank. It is our first in the Bay Area, offering small, minority, disadvantaged, women and veteran contractors training on green infrastructure topics on energy efficiency, solar and battery storage, electric vehicle charging stations, as well as getting certified, bonding, local hire and PLA compliance, business and cashflow management. 

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