On Friday night I was lucky to be able to attend the Green Building Super Heroes Awards Gala, sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council. You can read more details about it on my EcoTuesday post. For me, the highlight of the evening was when GRID Alternatives won the award for Outstanding Community Organization. A little over half a year ago, I hadn’t heard of GRID. Their co-founder, Erica Mackie, spoke at an EcoTuesday evening I attended last spring, and it was her description of what they do that led me to participate in their annual Solarthon in July.

As soon as I heard about GRID, I wanted to be involved. Their mission to “empower communities in need by providing renewable energy and energy efficiency services, equipment and training” covers so many bases by doing a few simple things. I appreciate that, because there’s so much to fix in the world that it’s easy to spread ourselves too thin by trying to do too much at once. So picking one action that will solve many problems at once is a great use of resources. GRID does this well, and they deal with areas I’m particularly interested in: clean energy and community.

It was deeply satisfying to be involved in the Solarthon, both raising money and helping to install a solar system for a low-income family. And it was exciting, just a few months later, to see this organization win an award they so deserve. Congratulations, GRID Alternatives!