“I am thrilled to work closely with SolSolution’s team to coordinate our efforts in a more formal manner as we both navigate this new green economy. It is my dream for every human being to breathe clean air, receive a proper education, as well as to nurture our newer generations to take care of our planet while being successful in whatever field they so choose. Maintaining a cleaner planet and thereby creating a robust economy is where we must head and together I feel we will better realize this dream.”
–- Chrissy Coughlin, Nature of Business Founder & Host

“SolSolution is looking forward to collaborating closely with Chrissy and Nature of Business. Soren and I were immediately captivated by Chrissy’s contagious energy and dedication for creating a space where people and organizations like us can share their stories and experiences. We value this new partnership greatly, and we have no doubt that together SolSolution and Nature of Business will climb to new heights and light up more lives.”
– Samantha Go, SolSolution Marketing Manager

We are excited to welcome Chrissy and Nature of Business team into our SolSolution community. Working together, both SolSolution and Nature of Business know that we will be able to more effectively reach out to all our audiences and supporters in the Massachusetts and New England area and beyond.

About Nature of Business and Chrissy Coughlin
Nature of Business provides its listeners access to the most respected business leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, political leaders who are on the front lines clearing the path for modernization of business practices that focus on efficiency, cost reduction, and productivity. Chrissy focuses on how rapid innovation, nimble management, and managing complex regulatory and environmental issues will define success for local business and beyond.

Want to read more about Chrissy and Nature of Business radio show? Interested in being featured on Nature of Business? Find more on www.natureofbusiness.fm.

SolSolution is proud to be a founding member of Catchafire’s Boston network. In collaborating more closely with Catchafire, we aim to expand our outreach to communities for support and strengthen the strategic development of our social enterprise. With their network of skilled professionals bolstering our efforts, SolSolution will without a doubt be able to bring solar to more schools in the Greater Boston area and improve the quality of education in those schools. Moreover, SolSolution will provide our volunteer professionals with a unique opportunity to serve not just one, but two missions simultaneously and more effectively make an impact in our children’s lives.

See what Catchafire had to say about us and our other environmental peers on their blog. Here is a small excerpt: “What makes these four so compelling, is not just their impact on the environment, but their approach to tackling a combination of social and environmental issues simultaneously.” Thanks, Catchafire! We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

About Catchafire
Catchafire’s mission is to improve the quality of the volunteer experience by providing pro bono opportunities for skilled professionals. Catchafire’s vision is to make it easy for every professional to use their skills for good, and to make it easy for every nonprofit and social enterprise to access and effectively use pro bono as a way to build capacity within their organization. Catchafire matches professionals who want to give their skills with nonprofits and social enterprises that need their help. We match professionals and organizations based on a variety of characteristics including skills, cause interests, and time availability.

We believe in providing efficient, effective, and meaningful volunteer experiences for both skilled professionals and the organizations with whom they work. We believe that a great pro bono experience can transform someone’s life, and we also know that a bad one can turn someone away from giving their time forever.

]]> http://www.sol-solution.org/catchafire-catches-fire-in-boston-with-solsolution/feed/ 0 http://www.sol-solution.org/the-power-of-two-more-than-doubles-your-impact/ http://www.sol-solution.org/the-power-of-two-more-than-doubles-your-impact/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:05:08 +0000 SamGo http://www.sol-solution.org/?p=2473 Boston, MA–Starting on October 17, 2011 SolSolution will be holding regular bi-monthly dinners at Tantric India Bistro in downtown Boston. Every second Monday of every second month, join the dynamic duo of SolSolution and Tantric India Bistro for some delightful dinner dishes and tantalizing evening conversation. We are grateful to be able to work closely with Mary Sen and the rest of the Tantric team in order to hold these regular events for the SolSolution and Tantric communities.

Join us at Tantric on October 17 for our first dinner together! Directions to Tantric India Bistro

Every two months, you’ll have the opportunity to hear about SolSolution’s latest progress on putting solar up on our local schools and then just get to enjoy a wonderful meal with great friends from the environmental, educational, and green business communities. Every month there are sure to be new faces to meet and new stories to share over a Indian entrees that are sure to satisfy you. And, thanks to the generosity and support of Tantric, 25% of your total dinner bill will be donated back to SolSolution (taxes and gratuities excluded). So mark it in your calendars now, and make it repeat every two months. You won’t want to miss out on these dinners.

Teaser: Those who come to our first dinner on October 10 will find out all the details and get a hard start in the SolSolution and Tantric India Bistro Light It Up loyalty program. Be there to find out how you can win a variety of prizes from SolSolution or Tantric.

About Tantric India Bistro
Tantric India Bistro is located in the heart of Boston’s Theater District and has been serving Bostonians since 2004. Owners Shubhro & Mary Sen are committed to bringing the freshest fruits, vegetables, and meats to the table every night of the week.  But the dining experience at Tantric India Bistro is more than just about taste. Tantric brings together your sense of touch, sight, and smell, for a truly holistic eating experience. And the rest of Boston knows it too! In 2010 Tantric won OpenTable.com’s Diners’ Choice award.

The Sens also have a passion for supporting green enterprises and environmental projects. Every month, they offer their space to non-profits doing important work in the community. SolSolution is grateful to have the added support of Tantric behind us. We are excited to kick of this partnership in a few short weeks! We’re getting hungry just thinking about it!

Find out more about Tantric India Bistro here on their website.

Listen in to SolSolution’s segment directly on the Nature of Business website. You’ll also find an archive of all of Chrissy’s past shows.

Nature of Business, provides its listeners access to the most respected business leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, political leaders who are on the front lines clearing the path for modernization of business practices that focus on efficiency, cost reduction, and productivity. Chrissy focuses on how rapid innovation, nimble management, and managing complex regulatory and environmental issues will define success for local business and beyond.

— SolSolution has been selected as a semifinalist in the 2011 Northeast Cleantech Open competition. A total of 163 semifinalists were chosen out of an extremely competitive field of teams ranging from transportation to air, water, and waste management. As a semifinalist, we will receive rigorous feedback on our business plan and pitch for investors as well as a team of mentors who will be dedicated to the development of our team. We will now compete regionally for cash and in-kind services. After another round of regional judging in October, finalists will advance to represent their region and compete at the national level for a grand prize of up to $250,000 worth of cash and services.

We deeply appreciate the selection from the Cleantech Open, and we are grateful for the chance to continue to grow and develop as sustainable, cleantech business. We will continue to work hard to strengthen our social enterprise and reach more schools in Massachusetts, the Northeast region, and ultimately the entire nation. Read the full list of Cleantech Open semifinalist here

About The Cleantech Open Competition
The Cleantech Open is a non-profit organization that runs the world’s largest business competition for cleantech entrepreneurs.The mission of the Cleantech Open is to find, fund, and foster the big ideas that address today’s most urgent energy, environmental, and economic challenges. The Cleantech Open has established itself as the leader in developing clean technology startup entrepreneurs addressing these challenges. Since its inception in 2006, nearly 400 promising teams have availed themselves of the Cleantech Open’s one-of-a-kind hands-on workforce development, nurturing, and funding programs, with impressive results. They believe that the solutions to the most critical challenges facing the U.S. today, related to energy, environment and the economy will come from the creativity, dedication, and passion of entrepreneurs and inventors.

To find out more, read Cleantech Open’s pitch on PitchEngine.

MassChallenge is the world’s largest global startup competition and incubator. Out of an initial 440 companies, the first round narrowed the field down to 300 semi-finalists who were contacted to present pitches. Last week, our Founder & CEO Dr. Soren Harrison presented our pitch, explaining his inspiration for creating SolSolution, the environmental and educational problems we address, and our model and vision for the future. Out of the 300, 110 finalists were chosen and are now in the accelerator phase.

After presenting the pitch, Dr. Harrison felt quite satisfied with our team’s performance. “The pitch went really well. We got some great positive feedback from the judges, and it was great to hear it. It’s good to receive some external validation from leaders in the entrepreneurial community.” Now that SolSolution has entered the accelerator phase, we are eager to take advantage of the great resources and mentoring provided by MassChallenge. We look to improve how we connect with our supporters, how to streamline the process of going solar for schools, and how to strengthen our educational offerings as more schools come online with us.

We have a lot of work to do before the presentations in October to see if we can earn a spot in the top 10, but we look forward to the opportunity to strengthen our company in order to improve the environmental quality of the world we live in and bring better education to our children.

Our team may be small in comparison to others, but we are a tight-knit group that plays off each others’ strengths and diverse skill sets, and we love what we do at SolSolution. Find out what inspires us, who made a difference in our lives, and what we do for fun! Each week, we will feature a specific team member on our website in our “About Us” subpage, so check in weekly to find out more about your favorite people in SolSolution.

Thank you so much for your votes and encouragement in the Chase Community Giving Competition on Facebook.

By the end of the competition, we had a total of 76 votes cast! Although that was not enough for us to rank in the top 200 charities and win part of the prize money, participating in this competition taught us a lot about how we can better connect with you and improve our chances for the next contest or competition when it comes our way.

Though we are slightly disappointed with the result, we are not discouraged. We will continue to work hard to make our vision become a reality. We can’t do this without you, so we are grateful to you for taking the time to register and vote in the past month (and for future support). As we move forward to face our next challenge, we will take the lessons learned from this past competition and grow stronger with each new experience.

Thank you for your continuous support of SolSolution!


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Only a few days left to vote for SolSolution in the Chase Community Giving Facebook Competition!

For the past month, Chase Bank has been sponsoring a competition between charities and other non-profit organizations, like SolSolution. Chase will award the top 200 charities with the most Facebook votes a portion of the $5,ooo,ooo+ prize money.

Please cast your vote for SolSolution today or the next time you sign on to Facebook. Or, to make it even easier, click on the link provided and follow the instructions to help kids and protect the environment!

Your Vote Can Make a Difference–Visit SolSolution’s Chase Community Giving Profile

The Black Eyed Peas and Green For All have teamed up during the North America run of the Peas’ World E.N.D. [Energy Never Dies] Tour to help raise awareness about how environmental challenges and lack of economic opportunity combine to adversely impact many American communities. At each tour stop, plastic bottles from the band’s concert venues are being recycled into t-shirts and other band merchandise. Green For All volunteers are conducting educational outreach at those venues, encouraging people to support climate change and green-jobs legislation.

Representative Ford, who is the longest serving black member in the history of the Iowa legislature, praised the band for their work on recycling. “I am very proud that the world-renowned Black Eyed Peas are coming to the city of Des Moines to perform. I especially want to let them know how excited we Iowans are not only about their musical talent, but also about their great community and environmental work worldwide,” Ford said.

Representative Ford is the founder and executive director of Urban Dreams, an organization that has been serving the residents of inner city Des Moines with a series of health and welfare programs for almost 25 years. He added: “I am also very proud that Green For All is part of this tour and of the organization’s untiring dedication to a clean-energy economy that will move America past some of its most pressing challenges.”

Green For All is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through a clean energy economy. Working across many platforms, the group is working to fight poverty and pollution at the same time.

“We are honored to have Gov. Culver, Representative Ford, the people of Iowa, and The Black Eyed Peas as allies in this movement to create the kind of economy that lifts people out of poverty while reducing the risks to the planet,” said Green For All CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins. “Together, we are changing the face of environmentalism and the world we live in.”