As a Certified B Corporation, we operate on a triple bottom line basis, which means our activities are intended to create a positive impact on people, planet, and profit. Our company’s existence is rooted in the battle against climate change, and every member of our team works diligently every day to make distributed solar generation a major part of the solution.
We are excited to release Pivot Energy’s 2020 Impact Report. Despite the challenges of 2020—the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting to remote work, facing the realities of racial injustice, and intense political polarization—this year was a tremendous opportunity for learning and growth for Pivot. We grew our team by 34% and increased our installed solar capacity by 180%. In addition to these key indicators, our 2020 Impact Report highlights how our activities have enhanced our triple bottom line approach.
This year Pivot prioritized diversity and inclusion within the company and the larger solar industry. We evaluated our biases and invested in unconscious bias training for our staff. While the company’s gender diversity has increased from 19% to 40% (exceeding the industry average of 26%) between January 2018 and January 2021, we realize that we still have a long way to go. Therefore, we transitioned to a new hiring software that will minimize biases in recruiting and instead focus on a skills-based hiring process.
To address the issue of diversity in the solar energy sector, we increased our charitable contributions and donated over $200,000 to educational and job-training organizations in Colorado. We funded more than 50 students pursuing energy-related educational activities through the Pueblo Hispanic Education Foundation and Bright Futures. We also contributed to the Peetz Plateau School District in Northern Colorado and the Weld RE-5J school district.
We continued our pursuit of tackling climate change by expanding our distributed generation portfolio. This year, our total installed solar capacity was 63.7 megawatts (MW), producing more than 104,870,229 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean energy. We completed 116 solar projects across 9 states. This offset 74,143 metric tons of CO2 from our atmosphere and prevented more than 81,030,876 lbs of coal from being burned.
This year, Pivot was also part of a number of exciting developments on the clean energy policy-front. One of the key highlights was our participation in the Senate Memorial 63 working group in New Mexico, where we discussed and sought consensus on key elements for an inclusive and successful community solar program with numerous stakeholders, which included government agencies, investor-owned utilities, environmental organizations, Indian nations, tribes and pueblos, and low-income service providers. The findings from the working group were presented to three legislative committees and will be used as a resource for a new community solar bill in New Mexico in 2021.
At Pivot, we strive to seek alignment of the three bottom lines because we understand that while creating a positive difference on people and the planet is integral, our potential would be limited without profits.
In 2020, Pivot continued its profit-sharing program. Despite the uncertainty of the year, we were proud to provide some extra support to our hard-working employees during a particularly tumultuous year.
We believe that balancing all three bottom lines – people, planet, and profit – will not only benefit the lives of our employees, clients, and community, but also allow us the opportunity to grow as a company. We still have a lot to learn and many initiatives to implement. However, we believe we are on the right trajectory and are committed to expanding our impact in 2021.