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About the Program

The Project Accelerator is a new program from Indigenous Clean Energy designed to support the start-up and development of Indigenous energy efficiency housing projects. The program is open to all First Nation, Inuit, and Métis communities and housing organizations who are committed to making improvements to housing. Over 18 months, participating communities will move through capacity-building training, gain access to a national network of experts and mentors, and complete the program with a concrete energy efficiency project underway.

The Project Accelerator is a community-scale initiative. A strong project will be rooted in community and needs the support and involvement of leadership, staff, and members.

A Project Steward will take part in capacity building and work with their community or organization to develop an energy efficiency project using the knowledge and resources gained from the program. The program offers a mix of virtual and in-person training to prepare participants to lead community-scale retrofits and/or high-performance new build projects.

$125,000 in project grants will be available to participants to assist with the development of an energy efficiency project.

How it Works

The program will take participants through two phases. The first phase will occur in the program’s first six months (June – November 2023). This will include a webinar series that covers the basics of energy efficiency and project development practices. During this phase, participants will begin initial community work and submit a project development work plan.

Examples of project work include:

The program’s second phase will take place over a 12-month period (November 2023 – November 2024). During this phase, participants will go through intensive project development work. This phase includes two weeks of intensive in-person training:

On-Site Intensives

November 19-24, 2023 – Harrison Hot Springs, BC

February 4-9, 2024 – Wakefield, QC

These intensives will be a deep dive on project development and training to build lasting change. Participants will have time to work on projects, see existing energy efficiency projects first-hand, and complete hands-on activities. Sessions will be led by Indigenous mentors, industry experts, and leaders across many areas of energy efficiency and housing.

Examples of on-site intensive sessions include:

Project Partners & Structuring
Maintenance education for community members
Blended Finance for Energy Efficiency
Project Budgeting & Procurement
Quality Assurance at Every Stage
+ many more.

Program Impacts

We recognize that energy efficiency is often not the top priority for housing in Indigenous communities, but we see it as a critical means for driving co-benefits that are important to community members, such as health, durability, and availability. With strengthened capacity and literacy of energy efficiency, we believe that communities can use the connection between clean energy and sustainable investment to make lasting improvements to housing.

The goal of the Accelerator is to drive lasting impacts for communities. Through this program, participants will walk away with:

An energy efficiency project ready for funding/financing and implementation
The ability to lead energy efficiency project work
Enhanced literacy and knowledge of financing for energy efficiency
Knowledge of healthy housing and how to make lasting change
An established network with other communities, energy efficiency leaders and experts
Enhanced skills related to:

Commitments

The scale of energy efficiency work that will be developed through the Accelerator is a major undertaking, and a significant time commitment must be made. Project Stewards must commit to all virtual and on-site learning. The workload can be similar to a medium-sized renewable energy project. The entirety of the Project Accelerator Program is 18 months, but an energy efficiency project can span multiple years.