 Live in Washington DC for two days of wall-to-wall coverage. I'm John Furrier, your host of theCUBE. We've got two great guests here, Constan Thompson, VP of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Program at ACOR, American Council of Renewable Energy and Blair Anderson, Director of Public Policy Industries at AWS. Thanks for coming on theCUBE. Thanks for having us. So first of all, big announcement on stage. Max Peterson, head of public sector, announced some big news with ACOR. Yes. Tell us what it was. Well, we are going to be partnering with Amazon to do a supply chain study on how we can best diversify the renewable energy supply chain. So we're actually going to have baseline data on where we should start to be able to create a program that's going to be a model for the renewable energy industry on how to develop and support the success of Black women and BIPOC owned firms. So this program that you're running, Accelerate, ACOR Accelerate, is your programs and membership, tell more of how does it work and why the success is having, what is Amazon's relationship with it besides funding? Is there other things you can talk about? Yeah, so Accelerate wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for people like Shannon Kellogg with AWS, who about a year ago after the George Floyd murders said, you know, what are we doing as ACOR? He sits on our board in this area and we had to say nothing. So Shannon and a group of leaders got together and workshop this idea, let's create a membership program for women and minority owned businesses so that they can be successful in renewable energy. Let's pick a cohort and let's do whatever it takes to make them successful. Everything from introducing them to business connects, to mentoring them, to even legal services for them. Blair, this is like an interesting dynamic. I remember Andy Jassy was on stage when he was the CEO of AWS a year ago, kind of was preaching, you hate that I said that word, but preaching to the audience, build, build, build. There's an entrepreneurship public sector vibe going on right now. Very entrepreneurial across every industry. I mean, this is a real thing that's going on. Yeah, we're super excited about this opportunity. The work that ACOR has done to lead on this program for the last year, especially with Constance coming in, becoming the leader who's kind of been able to take this idea that, as she mentioned, that AWS was kind of a founding member at the Genesis of it about a year ago. She's taken this idea that many of these folks put on paper and been able to turn it into really hard substantive efforts to move it forward. So we've been able to have great conversations with the many of these 15 companies that have been brought into the program and start building a relationship with them. I think as you have seen around AWS, like we believe strongly in innovation and creativity, the renewable energy industry is very similar. There is a lot of kind of thinking big and innovative spirit that needs to take place in that space and having the diversity at all levels of these companies is kind of an important component to be able to move that entrepreneurship forward. You know, Constance, one of the things that we've been reporting on until getting on theCUBE is right in the wheelhouse of what you're doing is there's a cultural change happening and that cultural change with Amazon and cloud computing is causing structural changes, which are opportunities, like radical structural changes. So that means old incumbent, the old guard, as you guys call it, this can be replaced. Not because people hate them, it's because they're inadequate. So you start to see this kind of mindset shift, entrepreneurial impact oriented, I can make a change, but actually I can level up pretty quick because the people in charge don't know cloud. I mean, I hate to put it bluntly like that, but if you're not on that edge, if you're not on that wave, you're driftwood. Yeah. You know, it's funny you say that, I like to call it, our members are making systemic disruptions to the system in a very equitable way, meaning our members are in communities like Chicago, Jackson, Tennessee, they're in the north end of Texas, they are in everywhere and they're in the communities making these systemic disruptions to the way things happen, to the way we talk about renewable energy, to the way we deploy solar, they're making those kind of changes. So to your point, they're doing it, we have to catch up to them because they're already out there. They're moving, they're moving as they can. And entrepreneurial, it's like, there's a class of entrepreneurship evolving and it's like, oh, everyone's got the pedigree, this or that, knowledge is knowledge. You can apply it in software, you could, these be shrink wrap software you put on the shelf, they call it shelfware. No, it'd be successful. Inventory, give it back. Cloud computing, if you're not successful like right now, it's not working. So if you don't have results, no one bought it, it must not work. So it's easy to identify what's working. So that eliminates a lot, a dogma a lot, a weird blocking. This is a democratization opportunity. Absolutely, I think you're talking about transparency. And transparency is one of the tenets of inclusion. If you're truly doing things to be inclusive, you're transparent and that's where you see the changes. That's exactly what you're talking about. Data driven. This is something I love about this data world. Data is now part of how apps are built. That's not like a database, that you go fetch a file. Data is now transparently available if you know what to look for, if it's available. So the whole old siloed mentality, this is one of the Amazon strengths player you guys are doing, so I have to ask, how is this translating out in the public policy world because when you can make this kind of change quicker, you're going to have some wins under your belt. And then you've got to double down on those. I think there's a lot of transformation we're talking about in this conversation. You take one of the missions we're talking about here, which is around clean energy and the expansion of clean energy. AWS and Amazon, we have procured 10 gigawatts of renewable power and making us the largest corporate procure globally. To kind of put that in maybe a little bit more approachable context, that's the equivalent of powering 2.5 million homes. And they're still farther to go. To be able to meet that kind of think big that is happening in the industry right now, you have to have a broad diverse industry to be able to reach all those communities, to be have kind of all types of different leaders in it because we need everybody at the table, both for the industry, but also for the communities that are being served. What does sustainability mean to you? Because this is a core focus. I know the energy thing's huge, but it's not obvious to some people. But it's getting better. What's the core tenets behind the sustainability strategy? Both of you guys can take a stab at that. Yeah, no, I think there's a lot of different ways you can take a stab at that. Like for us, it's probably most out there in the public that people talk about is our climate pledge. This is kind of a goal that we've set to be net zero carbon by 2040, which is 10 years ahead of the Paris climate change. Within that there are components of that that are related to electric vehicles, clean energy, renewable energy procurements, carbon offset programs around the world. And I think throughout all of that is kind of coming back to, as you said, with sustainability and approaching climate change as an issue that needs a kind of comprehensive holistic approach. Costa, talk about some of the stories and the members that you have, because is the recruiting strategy climate change? Or is there another, like how do you recruit? Because renewable energy obviously could be a no-brainer, but like how do you get people excited? Like save the world? What's the, what are people aligning with? And then what's their reaction? So you know, it's very simply the way we see it with our members. Most of our members, 87% of them are in the solar area. Many of them, when we talk about sustainability, how can people live their lives in the way where they save money on their energy bills? How can communities understand how they can harness their own renewable energy, make a little money from that, but also live their lives in a very peaceful, sustainable way, right? So that's part of it. An example, a couple of examples, is that we have 548 Capital as a member company. And keep in mind that these are early startup companies. 548 Capital is in Chicago and their models started off with we want all homes in our communities. And these are places in the hood, some of them. SunTex works with people, works with Spanish speaking customers solely in Texas where they explain to them the benefits of renewable energy. They explain the benefits of sustainability and what it is. So that's kind of what we're looking at here. So it's just kind of show up and just kind of tell them the truth. Exactly, and show them the benefits that they've kind of not been letting on, actually. The other thing is that this is about economics. So this renewable energy movement that we're going through is about economics. It's our next wave of being able to ensure Americans are able to live lives in a way that's equally economic. Well, you got visibility on the unit economics event, good energy, now there's also a community angle. Yes, absolutely. Talk about some of those stories around the community response to this idea, wow, this actually is gettable. Yeah, WeSolar is one of our members and it's owned by the first female community solar owned company. She's out of Baltimore, but she has a solar farm here in D.C. And what she did was was engage churches in how can you get involved in this renewable energy movement? How can you save money? How can you create a community around this work? WeSolar's an example of that. SunTex, I have to mention them again. They work with only Spanish speaking customers who had no clue about this and who are now making, having their lives live better because of it. Well, you know, affecting change is hard. Now you got a tailwind with structural change and systemic opportunities there. What, what are the blockers? What are the blockers right now? Is it awareness? Is it participation, community? When we talk, I'm sorry. You know, go ahead. It's your show and I'm interrupting. No, no, you're the show. You're the talent. I'm presenting questions. When we talk about entrepreneurs in this space, particularly women and those from Bopop communities, the first thing that you'll hear is they'll say we don't have access to capital. People, the terms around getting capital to start up are tough and their barriers are. So that's one. The second is awareness. And that's awareness in introducing them to companies that might want to do business with them. So that's something that's a benefit for Acor. Acor's members are all people who touch every renewable energy transaction from the financers to the developers to the buyers. So this is what makes it unique. So what we're doing with Accelerate is breaking down the barriers of access to capital by introducing them to people who can potentially support their work, but also introducing them to companies that can help them be a part of their supply chain, which is why the study that Max announced is amazing, because we're going to be able to have baseline data on what are the demographics of the supply chain and the renewable energy? And what can we do about it? And we're going to scale Accelerate to be a model for the industry. And that's the transparency angle. Absolutely. Get the baseline, understand, this is classic Amazonian thinking. Get the baseline, raise the bar. You can see why Constance is a great partner. Data-driven. So, okay, so great stories. How do people get involved? Obviously Amazon's taking a leadership role here. What can people do to get involved? So if you want to support the program as Amazon is, acor.org slash Accelerate, or Thompson at acor.org, that's my email address. If you'd like to become a member company in our Accelerate program, we'll be opening up applications towards the latter part of this year, November, December. Again, acor.org slash Accelerate. And renewable energy. What's the coolest thing you've seen so far in your program around renewable energy? Could be story, could be people's story, could be tech story. What's the coolest thing you've seen? Push on the spot there. Yeah, you really did. Well, I'm coming to you next, so let's start. Yeah. You know, I think we have a company called Clearloop that's a member. They're out of Jackson, Tennessee. And they're actually working with retailers on renewable energy credits to create renewable energy farms in their area. And what I think is so cool is that she's disrupting the way that you can go about using renewable energy credits. Clearloop.org, look them up. Well, the New York Times have a story I was just reading in California, other areas, where you have a high density of electric vehicles. It's draining the power grid, so this idea of having it come back is what's not mature yet. It's not. This is kind of where it's going. So, okay, what's the coolest thing you've seen? No, for me, I've just enjoyed kind of, I've enjoyed the journey. I think the moment for me where I could see that this was real and this was gonna be an impactful program, Constance organized, it's called a speed dating, a virtual speed dating for us with about eight different companies. And it was fascinating to get on, spend some time being able to interact with eight different companies who we probably would not have ever had kind of introduction to before in the past. Either they didn't know how to get in touch with us, we didn't know how to get in touch with them. And it kind of opens your eyes to all the different ways people are approaching this problem and starts, the executives who I had in these calls, you can see their wheels spinning, the ideas sparking up, oh, there's some cool ideas here, there's something new that we could do, we should explore further. Nothing I could announce at the moment, but lots of good ideas. I'm sure you have baseline, Max has got baseline studies, I'm sure. There'll be a lot of doubling down opportunities on success or not success. Because once you have the data, you know what to work on. It's true. It will cause a great mission, I'm really impressed, congratulations. Thank you. The announcement, I love the program. Thank you. Take a minute to give a plug to anyone or public service announcement. I want to thank Shannon Kellogg. Shannon was really behind it, he's a member of our board, represents AWS and was really behind, we got to do something, it's got to be unique and it's got to be something intentional. And here we are today, I want to give a plug. Great opportunity, thanks for coming on theCUBE, appreciate it. Thank you for having us. Thank you for more CUBE coverage here from Washington DC, Amazon Web Services, Public Sector Summit, an event in person where people are face to face. This is great stuff, this is theCUBE, we'll be right back after this short break.