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Arctic Solar Ventures – 2017 Impact Report
As we welcome 2018 and reflect on 2017, we are so appreciative of our employees and all of our customers and vendors who supported us throughout the year. Having so many individuals and businesses support clean and renewable energy and a company trying to make positive changes has been not only humbling, but empowering.
Without a doubt, 2017 was a banner year for solar in Alaska. Solar is booming due to lower equipment costs, the extension of the thirty percent federal tax credit, rising utility costs, and local incentives (net-metering).
We are pleased to share our 2017 Impact Report with you. We culminated our impacts into four main categories; Economy, Safety, Community, and Environment.
In 2017, Arctic Solar Ventures employees spent 6,252 hours working on projects in and out of the office. We had many wonderful opportunities to team up with and utilize forty-five different companies around Alaska. We are grateful to be able to share our vision with so many businesses and look forward to working with even more in 2018. Aside from impacting the Alaskan economy by creating jobs and opportunities for Alaskan workers, we also saw half a million dollars in first year utility and tax savings by our customers!
Here at Arctic Solar Ventures, we spend a lot of time ensuring that all of our projects are completed in a timely manner while still keeping in mind the overall design of the house, and utilizing the highest quality products. Our employees spent 800 hours training with industry professionals this year to make sure we execute all of our projects correctly. Above all, we take the safety of our team members and customers into consideration every day. In 2017, out of 6,252 hours worked, we had zero safety incidents, zero time lost on projects, and zero equipment failures.
This year we were pleased to spend 350 hours with local organizations introducing a clean and renewable energy source and actively teaching our community members about the benefits of solar specifically in Alaska. We completed projects on low income housing, the UAA Admin building paid for by the Student Green Fee Board, and even a veterinary clinic in Homer. We held ten different workshops with organizations like Girl Scout Troop 483 and the Carpenters Union. We participated in community educational talks at 49th State Brewing Company, Bear Tooth, and the Nature Conservancy. We donated ten percent of our overall profit in 2017 to local charities and we look forward to giving back even more in 2018.
In 2017, Arctic Solar Ventures projects produced 2,000 megawatt hours of clean energy. Those projects offset the greenhouse gas emissions produced by 367 gasoline-fueled passenger vehicles per-year, or the equivalent of carbon dioxide emissions produced by 185 homes per-year. Our projects will sequester the amount of carbon equal to the planting and growth of 44,400 trees per-year.
2017 was an amazing year for solar in Alaska and for our company. Thank you to all of you who contributed to our success and continue to push for a better and safer economy, community, and environment. We wish you a happy New Year and look forward to expanding solar in 2018.