Dear NESEA Community,

On behalf of the NESEA Board of Directors, I am pleased to provide you all, once again, with the annual update on efforts and progress put forth towards Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

It has been quite a year for NESEA as we continue to explore ways to drive change within our community and the industry at large. Many of our initiatives have been building and coming to fruition this year. In last year’s Annual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Update, I announced that NESEA received a grant from Massachusetts Clean Energy Center that funded the development of BuildingEnergy Access, a program intended to support businesses owned by people identifying as Women and/or Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC), or others traditionally underrepresented in our industries. I’m so pleased to announce that, in partnership with HELM Construction Solutions, we officially launched our first BuildingEnergy Access cohort last week. Cohort 1 will consist of companies led by women and other underrepresented gender identities. Through the summer of 2026, these companies will receive custom business development services, attend industry events for education and networking, receive marketing opportunities through a spotlight program, and participate in a business-owner peer group to hone their triple bottom lines practices (people, planet, and prosperity). Cohort 2 will serve companies led by BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color), launching in January, 2025. (Applications for the second cohort will be due in the fall, but are open now.)

Another highlight in 2023 was the convening of our first-ever Diversity Caucus at the BuildingEnergy NYC conference. Meant to establish a sense of community, traditionally under-represented people, such as BIPOC, LGBTQIA, women, and people with disabilities, met to share experiences and express recommendations for future engagement beyond meeting at the conference once a year. The NYC Diversity Caucus is convening a working session in April meant to inform a new NESEA DEI Roadmap with the intention of recommending specific, measurable goals, actions, and key performance indicators for both the board and NESEA operations to ensure the board members, staff and community are meeting their commitments to the strategic priorities outlined in NESEA’s 2022 strategic plan. This work builds upon earlier efforts by community members convening at our BuildingEnergy Boston conference and an NYC-specific inclusion listening session conducted during our virtual conference in 2021.

As the DEI liaison to the board of directors, I am particularly looking forward to driving the creation of the NESEA DEI roadmap in conjunction with member stakeholders, other board members, and Florence MacGregor, NESEA’s Executive Director. I will also be excited to report back on the progress we’ve made with BuildingEnergy Access. As always, work is never done related to DEI, environmental or social justice, and we are constantly adapting, listening and looking within our community to help drive our initiatives. The incorporation of a more data driven approach to ensuring we are meeting our commitments is one recommendation that we will look to adopt immediately.

Best regards,
Andrea Mancino