DEBC: Making Green Jobs Accessible with GRID Alternatives

Hive professor Shannon Randolph teaches Design for Environmental Behavior Change, where students engage in real-world projects that explore how design thinking can address and impact environmental and social challenges. This semester, the class has partnered with GRID Alternatives, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to renewable energy and workforce development in underserved communities.

Through an eight-week project, students embrace the challenge: How can renewable energy workforce development programs be made more accessible, affordable, and anti-racist? GRID has encouraged students to thoroughly consider participants’ systemic barriers in achieving long-term stability, such as employment access, housing, and financial constraints. One of GRID’s Workforce Development Program Managers, Maya Mariano, notes, “I think the ask on our end is to be open-minded and move with empathy. The people they’re engaging with come from different walks of life, and authenticity is key.”

In March, Shannon’s class took a field trip to GRID Alternatives’ Los Angeles location and had the opportunity to engage with GRID employees and trainees to learn more about their mission and day-to-day work. GRID Alternatives operates with two key pillars: providing no-cost solar installations for low-income households and offering hands-on job training programs to help individuals from these communities enter the renewable energy workforce.

Students will conduct interviews and research in small teams to explore the problem space, engaging directly with GRID trainees and staff. Their deliverables will include recommendations and design concepts that GRID can integrate into its workforce development strategy. As Mariano explains, the goal is to make solar installation training not only more accessible but also appealing: “How can we make this enticing? How can we offer it in an equitable way?”

At the end of the semester, students will present their research and findings to GRID, which hopes to use insights from students to refine their approach and improve the program’s impact, further enabling and enriching the success of their trainees. Shannon says, “This class connects human-centered design and behavior change tools and brings students out of the classroom to apply this knowledge with real-world partners to positively impact people in the LA region and beyond. The GRID trainees we met saw many benefits to them and their communities from the training they’re receiving, to the GRID network they’ve joined. Their smiles and confidence were evidence of a program that does much more than simple job skills training.”

____________________________________________________________________

by Salina Muñoz