Forest Frizzell, Software, Hawaii
Forest Frizzell is cofounder and CEO of Shifted Energy and lives in Waimanalo, Hawaii. He’s been in the industry for 5 years.
Why is clean energy important to you? I believe climate change and all of the underlying equity, economic, ecological, and destructive factors that come with it is our most pressing issue. I want to be part of the solution, empowering my staff, my community, and the global effort to be as impactful to the outcome as we can be.
What’s your proudest accomplishment in clean energy? In Hawaii, we have a 2.5MW demand response pay for performance capacity project. 95% of our installs are in LMI, multi-family, rental communities. We have been able to accomplish this because our partners believe in our work. It's harder, takes more time, and costs more but we’ve challenged ourselves with the question of “if not us, then who.” We want to scale this around the world.
What did you do before entering clean energy? I’ve spent my professional career in the technology space ranging from startups to government, and community-based organizations. The 5 years in government taught me that when I have agency to make far reaching and impactful decisions I must understand the consequences of those decisions. I made it my personal mission to find ways to use technology to be of service to the broader community. It was those learnings that have broadly influenced why we started Shifted Energy, a company focused on the equitable transition to green energy for residential consumers.
How did you first get introduced to clean energy? I have always been conscious of my footprint. When you live on an island, every decision you make has much greater consequences for those that come after you. Specifically, I remember in 2010 installing an early version of a home meter and realizing the lights underneath my kitchen cabinet were drawing 400w. It was such an eye opener to realize how inefficient those bulbs were, but without insight, I would have never known. Shortly thereafter in 2011 I purchased an EV with no way of charging it in my apartment. I was famous for keeping a skateboard in my car so I could get from place to place while my car charged at what very few public charging stations existed. These stories along with many others have inspired me to build a company that is focused on building energy solutions for all, especially those living in multi-family, LMI, rental, or other scenarios that make entry into the clean energy economy difficult.
How does clean energy impact your community? We have a lot of work to do to ensure that clean energy is actually helping everyone in our community. We’re chipping away at that every day and learning what our impact can be when we deliver access to clean energy at scale. We elected to go first in Hawaii, and we have a compelling story to tell about the why, the how, and the what.
What is something you wish more people knew about your job? I can only do this job because of the support from my family. We are committed to leaving our home and the global community better than we found it. These are generational commitments that we don't take lightly.
Why should Congress invest in clean energy jobs, not fossil fuel jobs? Fundamentally it's the right thing to do. Clean energy is lower cost, it's creating more jobs, and the general public is asking for it. We need to govern for all the people, not just the ones that are represented by a handful of powerful and connected fossil fuel companies.