Clean Air, Renewable Energy and Gender Equity
Today is International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. In 2019, the UN General Assembly designated September 7 for this purpose to strengthen international cooperation in improving air quality and reducing air pollution. The resolution includes a specific focus on the disproportionate effect of poor air quality on women, children and older persons.
Investing in renewable energy, such as solar, wind and hydro, is one way to reduce pollution and improve air quality, while at the same time supporting gender equity.
Propelevate Managing Director Krisila Benson developed a resource for the Asian Development Bank, Accelerating Gender Equality in the Renewable Energy Sector, to provide insights into why and how to think about women and girls in renewable energy.
There is a clear link between improved air quality and better health. This is especially true for women and girls around the world who are responsible for cooking and in the absence of cleaner energy sources, rely on burning fossil or biomass fuels for cooking, such as wood or charcoal.
The benefits of renewable energy for women go beyond health. They include:
Reduced drudgery. Expanded household access to clean energy reduces traditional fuel-gathering tasks that typically fall to women and girls. This creates more time for productive, educational, and leisure activities for women and girls.
Increased income. Women have expanded opportunities for energy-based livelihoods and income generating activities with affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy services.
Increased safety. Expanded household access to clean energy reduces the vulnerability of girls and women traveling long distances on foot to gather fuel. Expanded street and public space lighting can reduce women’s vulnerability at night.
Better access to communication and information. Increased access to telephone, television, and radio is essential for women who may not have as much opportunity to leave the home or community as often as men.
An explicit focus on women makes good business sense for renewable energy companies as well. Women make up 32% of the global workforce in the renewable energy sector, with a rapidly growing labor force. The International Renewable Energy Agency estimates that the number of jobs in the sector could increase from 10.3 million in 2017 to nearly 29 million in 2050 (International Renewable Energy Agency. 2019. Renewable Energy: A Gender Perspective). Increasing women’s engagement expands the talent pool for the renewable energy sector and ensures that women’s contributions (their skills and views) represent an integral part of the growing industry.
There are benefits of increasing women in the renewable energy workforce at all levels. An Ernst and Young analysis of the boards and leadership teams of the top 200 utilities in the world found that greater numbers of women on boards translate into higher returns on equity and investment, with the top 20 most gender-diverse utilities outperforming the bottom 20—a difference that can constitute millions of dollars in profit (Ernst & Young. Americas. 2019. Could Gender Equality Be the Innovation Boost Utilities Need?).
Gender diversity in research and development, operations, and marketing improves a company’s ability to meet customer needs and gauge customer sentiment, as the workforce better reflects customers. Innovation is critical in this rapidly changing and growing sector. Increasing diversity—including women—is key to fueling the creative thinking needed to meet the market’s evolving needs. A study by the Center for Talent Innovation found that companies with diversity are 70% more likely to capture new markets and 75% more likely to get innovative ideas to market (S. A. Hewlett, R. Rashid, and L. Sherbin. 2018. Diversity’s Positive Impact on Innovation and Outcomes. In B. Lanvin and P. Evans, eds. The Global Talent Competitive Index 2018: Diversity for Competitiveness. INSEAD).
Including women as field agents and suppliers allows a company to mirror its customers and employee base, enhancing the company’s brand and enabling it to tap into local networks and knowledge. For example, BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL)—an Indian power utility—deployed all-women teams to work with neighborhoods where substantial revenue was being lost to power theft. By improving community relations, BRPL’s female teams connected 200 new households in high-loss areas to the grid, enabling them to recover 100% of billed revenue from these homes (Tetra Tech. 2020. Engendering Utilities: Developing a Business Case for Gender Equality. USAID).
How are you celebrating International Day for Clean Air and Blue Skies? And, for those of you working in renewable energy, how have you engaged and benefitted women and girls?
If you’re interested in exploring incorporating gender equity in your renewable energy work, contact Propelevate at info@propelevate.global to set up a free consultation.