Green Empowerment

Green Empowerment was born in 1997 from several interrelated communities in Portland, Oregon: social justice activists, environmentalists, and internationalists.  These roots led naturally to the mission of Green Empowerment: To partner with rural communities in the developing world to implement renewable energy and water systems that alleviate poverty and preserve the environment.

The story of this organization includes many unique and capable individuals, all of whom contributed to its character.

With the ideals of justice and sustainability as the basis for a development model, Green Empowerment’s first major project was funding the continuation of micro-hydro projects in Nicaragua that had been started by Ben Linder, a young engineer from Portland who had been killed by the Contras. One of the responsibilities of supporting development projects, especially when a portion of the funding comes from donations, is to see first-hand how the project is going. In 1998, Green Empowerment founder Michael Royce traveled to Nicaragua to meet with individuals from the Asociation of Rural Development Workers-Ben Linder (ATDER-BL), the Nicaraguan NGO (non-governmental organization) formed by Ben Linder’s colleagues to complete energy projects in an impoverished and off-the-electric-grid area of the country.   Michael facilitated the formation of their three-year strategic plan and was inspired to help other NGOs implement similar renewable energy projects. This was the first step in Green Empowerment’s growth from a funding organization to an operational one that provides more than financial resources to foster renewable energy projects.  In 2001, Green Empowerment became the steward of the Ben Linder Memorial Fund, and we have continued to support ATDER-BL’s growing projects to this day.

By October, 2000, volunteers at Green Empowerment included engineers with special interests in sustainable energy.  Green Empowerment’s first project in which we  participated first-hand with technical assistance was in Borneo, Malaysia. This was in partnership with The Borneo Project, which had worked in Borneo for years, and with Sahabat Alam Malaysia, one of the largest environmental organizations in Malaysia.

The members of the small village of Long Lawen had been relocated from their land due to a major hydro dam project. After fleeing to their ancestral land, they wanted to own and operate their own micro-hydro project. This project to bring micro hydro energy to the small village of Long Lawen aided in the evolution of Green Empowerment’s development model. This was by underscoring the importance of partnering with a local NGO partner, which understood the local languages, culture and dynamics of the community.  The project confirmed our approach of following local leadership, working for social justice, and paying attention to the environmental, economic, technical and social factors that lead to true sustainability.  

At this same time, Green Empowerment was introduced to YAMOG, our first partner in the Philippines, by the Hangzhou Regional Center for Small Hydro Power in China.  We became involved in some of YAMOG’s first micro hydro projects and have continued a growing seven-year partnership that has seen the development of a Three Year Strategic Plan, seven micro hydro and solar pumping projects serving thousands, training of YAMOG staff in solar and solar pumping technology, and networking with local and national NGOs throughout the Philippines.  By 2006, the work in the Philippines had matured to a partnership with the three principal field-level renewable energy NGOs in the Philippines: YAMOG, AIDFI (located in Negros Island), and SIBAT. It also included the formation of a vision of a national strategic plan bringing electricity and water to 100 villages.

Since 2000, Green Empowerment’s approach has included funding-raising assistance, strategic planning with partner NGOs, training, networking, media exposure, as well as technical training and technical assistance on the ground. Each of the services requires flexibility and openness to the lessons that can be learned from experiences of partner organizations and from each of the unique communities that we wish to assist.    The project phases of planning, organizing with partner NGO’s and the community, fundraising, building, and afterwards evaluation, bring to light problems and solutions that are applied to later projects.  A major example is the maintenance, repairs and day-to-day operation of power projects, requiring the community to be able to collect fees from users and generate revenue from the projects.  The understanding of a need for fees is improved with significant community participation in both the planning and the building of the project.  Community contributions include the hard work of physically building the projects; supplying locally-available materials, such as sand and gravel; providing food or lodging for project advisors; and transportation.  Another important aspect of the integrated projects in each community is watershed protection. One example is El Bote, Nicaragua: they have mapped the watershed, implemented sustainable agriculture and established a 1300 acre Forest Reserve to reduce erosion, protect the river and thus ensure that their micro-hydro system can continue working for decades.

By 2005, in addition to our work in Nicaragua, Borneo, and the Philippines, Green Empowerment had branched out into new technologies and additional geographic areas, including Ecuador, Indonesia, Peru, Guatemala, and the Burma/Thailand border area.  In these countries, we have been helping to implement projects of solar lighting (for clinics, schools, homes, and community centers), micro-hydro, small wind, solar pumps and hydraulic ram pumps for irrigation, drinking water, and small enterprises such as patio farms, agri-processing, battery charging, woodworking shops. A belief in “building deeper not broader” meant that we choose to deepen our existing long-term partnerships with those NGOs with the capacity to respond to the unique characteristics of every village. We decided to grow in the regions where we were already working, focusing on regional and multi-year programs for potable water or renewable energy electrification so that we can effect systemic change.

In mid-2006, Green Empowerment moved forward with the hiring of a new Executive Director, Gordy Molitor, and consolidating its talented staff: Anna Garwood, Michel Maupoux, Stephanie Routh, Dexter Gauntlett, Jason Selwitz, and Emily Ferguson.   Strong advances were made in our funding base, our administrative systems, and the breadth of our technology expertise.  Collaboration on work in Mexico and networking with other International NGOs such as Mercy Corps, to promote their use of our partner’s ram pump technology in Afghanistan, demonstrated Green Empowerment’s growing depth and broadening reach.

Green Empowerment formed because a group of like-minded people concluded that social justice and environmental sustainability were interdependent.  Experience showed that both leadership from within communities receiving aid, as well as partnering with strong regional and national NGO partners, was a defining strategy for achieving this ideal: we envision an equitable and sustainable world where everyone has equal access to the basic necessities of water and electricity.

People in Green Empowerment’s History

Many of those active in founding Green Empowerment had been involved in movements against U.S. military intervention in Latin America and movements in favor of social justice in Portland for decades: Portland-Corinto Sister City Association, Portland Central American Solidarity Committee, National Lawyers Guild, Lawyers’ Committee on Central America, Physicians for Social Responsibility are just a few of the organizations that participated in these movements.

Michael Royce, founder of Green Empowerment, was a trial lawyer with Royce, Swanson, Thomas, & Coon (now Swanson, Thomas and Coon).  Partner Douglas Swanson was also a founding board member, as was the Office Manager Lynne McHarry. The firm was involved internationally in Haitian refugee asylum cases and in collaboration with the Center for Constitutional Rights in cases involving international human rights.  

Francie Royce was an active volunteer and Board member from the start, bringing her skills as an urban planner and her enthusiasm for organizing events and volunteers.   Lisa Adatto, another of the founding Board members, has been a leader in local efforts to combat Global Warming.

David Linder was another original Board member of Green Empowerment; his wife Elizabeth Linder served from the beginning on the Advisory Board.  After their son, Ben, was killed with two Nicaraguan co-workers in an ambush by Contras while they were working to build a new micro-hydro electric power system in Bocay, in Nicaragua, the Linders set up the Ben Linder Memorial Fund to complete and sustain Ben’s work.  In 2001, the Ben Linder Fund merged with Green Empowerment.

Many early supporters had been instrumental in the founding of the Peace Corps.  Congressman Henry Reuss (Wisconsin 1954-82) was the legislative founder of the Peace Corps and the Ice Age Trial, and was a founder and GE Board member. Robert Textor, Stanford Emeritus Anthropology Professor, was a manager training the first batch of Peace Corps volunteers in 1961; he serves on the GE Advisory Board and hosts one of Portland’s premier international forums, as does Irene Tinker, another supporter and expert in the field of Women and Development.  Indeed, many volunteers and staff of Green Empowerment are former Peace Corps volunteers.

A part of the community that supported the evolution of Green Empowerment is the Energreen Foundation. It was created in 1994 by Magrath Energy Corporation, a renewable energy company in Canada with a mission of promoting environmentally sustainable power production; its aim is to involve businesses internationally in the pursuit of green energy.  Energreen was an early donor to the Ben Linder Memorial Fund and was a sister organization of Green Empowerment in Ecuador, the Philippines, and Peru for many years.

Until 2000, Green Empowerment was staffed entirely by volunteers.  At present there are seven paid staff members, all of whose jobs are multi-faceted. There are also numerous interns and volunteers, but the bulk of the work is still done by members of the communities where the projects are taking place and by Green Empowerment’s technical NGO partners in each project country. In mid-2006, Gordy Molitor became the new Executive Director of Green Empowerment; Gordy had worked internationally for CARE for over 23 years in various leadership positions before taking over from our founder and first Executive Director, Michael Royce.