HOME > WHO WE ARE Rising Sun Energy Center, founded in 1994, has evolved from a modest renewable energy education center into a leading green workforce development and retrofit services organization.

• Rising Sun provides low-to-no-cost retrofit services to Bay Area households, with a focus on under-resourced communities: moderate and low-income residents, renters, and non-English speakers.
• Rising Sun provides green job training and employment to young people and to adults who face barriers to employment.

The organization began in Santa Cruz, CA, as a center for demonstrating renewable energy and conservation techniques. In 2000, Rising Sun moved its main office to Berkeley, CA. It has grown into a national leader in its field, and now operates programs across ten cities in the Bay Area.

Rising Sun is a 501(c) non-profit. It has proved to be a nimble organization, with a willingness to listen closely to its constituencies and shape its growth accordingly. A suggestion from students at a Rising Sun workshop launched the organization into youth green job training. Feedback from program alumni and industry employers is shaping new training programs.

Today, Rising Sun runs the following programs:

A summer program that trains and employs youth 15 - 22 to provide free 'green house calls': energy and water-efficiency upgrades to homes in their community. MORE

Career ladder training for entry-level jobs in the energy efficiency industry. Eighty hours of classroom and hands-on training in a course approved by a panel of industry employers. MORE

Top employees in Rising Sun's youth programs are taught business and leadership skills. MORE

Over the past nine years Rising Sun has trained more than 550 youth and adults and provided more than 12,000 homes with energy and water saving measures, carbon footprint reduction strategies, and advice on further energy savings.

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How do I find out more? Call us at 510-665-1501.