WPS
Today, we, Women in Power Systems, are speaking with two of the founders of a new bursary called Trellis Fund, Rebecca Black and Debbie Ellis.
Rebecca Black
Hi, I’m Rebecca Black, and I am a professional who works exclusively in the sustainability space. My focus is on strategic communications and design and I’ve been in this space for 20 years.
Debbie Ellis
I’m Debbie Ellis. I’ve been a professional in the energy sector for 33 years, representing G&W Electric. I met Rebecca when we originally founded Women in Renewable Energy WiRE.
WPS
Rebecca, can you explain what are the main goals and principles of the Trellis Fund?
RB
It’s a new fund that has been designed to support students who self-identify as female and who are looking to apply their education to participate in the clean energy transition.
What do we mean by clean energy transition? We mean renewable power generation, energy storage, smart grids, smart planning, energy efficiencies, really the transition that is needed in order to negate our reliance on carbon-based energy systems.
In terms of students, we are very agnostic about how someone is approaching their professional engagement in the energy transition. We are interested in hearing from people who are in technical college or apprenticing to be power line workers or electricians. We are interested in people at university studying business and sustainability or energy policy or electrical engineering. We’re interested in people that are doing micro-credentialing, or continuing education in order to pivot their careers into the clean energy sector.
Trellis Fund just launched on International Women’s Day. We’re offering four x $2,500 grants per year to students in Canada. This is our first year and applications are open until April 6. The goal is to reduce financial barriers to working in the sector for a traditionally underrepresented population segment.
Rebecca Black with her mother, Veronica Barnes (Gardner)
WPS
This will be really interesting for many of our readers, especially young women who find inspiration in our magazine. How is Trellis Fund different from other similar organizations that give grants to students and such?
Rebecca Black
The fund is named after and in honour of my mother, Veronica Barnes Gardner. She inspired me and was very proud of the work I was doing in the sustainability space. But also, as Debbie mentioned, my other source of inspiration was when we all collectively founded the Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE) organization ten years ago. My mom was a feminist and a single mom, and a very strong influence in my life. When she passed, I really wanted to use some of her modest gift to me to ‘pay it forward’ and help reduce financial barriers to education for other women.
It’s really about elevating the experience for women who are trying to work in this really rewarding sector that has great jobs and lots of opportunity. Studies that show that we are falling behind in replacing our energy workers and we’d love to see more diversity in the sector. This is a vision-driven, values-driven initiative, and I am lucky enough to have this incredible group of seven women who I’ve already collaborated with on WiRE. When I brought the idea to them, I knew that I didn’t want to do it alone, and with their support, I didn’t have to! And that drives the way the fund is organized too.
My mom was a feminist and a single mom, and a very strong influence in my life. When she passed, I really wanted to use some of her modest gift to me to ‘pay it forward’ and help reduce financial barriers to education for other women. – Rebecca Black
WPS
That’s wonderful because it reflects the main idea – you found your supporters and now you are sharing that support with others.
DE
Everybody has visions of what they foresee for the future. Only unique people will actually go out on a limb and state them and go after them. Rebecca is one of those. She takes action. I support her visions because I’ve thought the same things. What is very unique for me and very important about this initiative, I love the tribute to her mom. Also, Rebecca is a very generous person, and probably one of the most practical people that I’ve met as far as putting the planet first, so it’s really easy to get behind that.
When I was first asked to join Women in Renewable Energy, I was reluctant. My previous experiences with groups of women were not favorable. But my history with the WiRE alumni team proves that when a group of women get together with a vision and a mission, they will collaborate. They will be high energy. The morning after the Trellis launch, I was supercharged. Through the power of unity and collaboration we made the launch a success. That’s what this group really represents to me, it is support and mentorship. I look forward to the future, through Trellis, paving the way for a sustainable energy workforce that is inclusive to women.
RB
I think everybody brings something to the table, and it’s something that I learned later in life because I was educated and brought up and worked in a time when you turned to ‘the experts’ to decide what to do. That is not a viable way forward any more. That type of siloed, consolidated decision making has led to some of the unintended consequences that we’re seeing now. We need solutions that work for everyone and are equitable and inclusive. In order to do that, we need processes that are equitable and inclusive. That’s what collaboration is really about, making space for everyone.
Another thing that I have been so blessed with is that I actually learn a lot from people that are much younger than I am. Those relationships and the ways that we can learn also become more inclusive when we start to open our minds and our hearts to what each individual can bring to the conversation. I think mentorship can be intergenerational in all directions.
DE
Rebecca makes a good point here about mentorship, which also ties into the collaboration point. We are at a pivotal moment. In order to meet our net zero emission targets, collaboration is key. The baby boomers and Gen X generations are contemplating retirement. The next generations are required to become experts at a much quicker rate. It is imperative for the generations to collaborate. Past experience and knowledge combined with savvy for new technology and digitalization is the perfect blend to achieve our net zero goals.
Trellis Fund is offering four $2500 grants to assist female identifying students to pursue education leading to a career in cleantech. However, Trellis Fund will be much more than just financial aid. The launch itself provided students an opportunity to network with a room full of industry professionals with a ton of experience. – Debbie Ellis
WPS
What I am taking from this right now, and I really like it, you’re not saying we are providing support and help on our terms. You are telling people, tell us what you can also bring to this, and we will support it. I think this is really unique and really interesting because not a lot of people have that angle, from my experience at least. How do you help women younger and older connect with their mentors?
DE
Trellis Fund is offering four $2500 grants to assist female identifying students to pursue education leading to a career in cleantech. However, Trellis Fund will be much more than just financial aid. The launch itself provided students an opportunity to network with a room full of industry professionals with a ton of experience.
We haven’t defined any limits or boundaries on where Trellis will grow from here, and the possibilities are endless. We have already secured funding for 2025 and we have been approached by other companies wanting to donate to the cause. We will listen to the feedback we receive from our community and decide what else we can do to add value to the future of the energy sector.
RB
It’s an informalized network at this point. I think while the tactics might be different, all of us are reaching into our communities. All of us are very engaged in conversations to educate, listen and involve.
DE
Just to promote Trellis, we communicated with our contacts, and then our contacts told their contacts. Eight women can become 800 women very quickly! And that is the point of having something like Trellis Fund, to be able to make this grow and keep the momentum moving.
RB
The application form at trellisfund.ca is quite unprescribed. There are some quantitative elements that we ask people to report on, but then we really want to hear from them. In a way, this is research for us as well, a prototype of the fund to find out where the need really is. We also worked with Student Energy, which is an international organization I respect so much. They looked at our application form and helped us make it more inclusive based on their experience. They really loved how simple it was as well, and are partnering with us to reach out to their community. I’m delighted!
WPS
It’s great to hear that you’re collaborating with Student Energy, because in our last issue, we did an interview with Helen Watts, the CEO. I believe Student Energy provides support for both men and women. Why do you focus specifically on women?
DE
I have read that approximately 33% of the energy sector workforce is women. We have challenging goals ahead to attain Net Zero emissions targets and we have a limited quantity of skilled professionals to innovate and execute solutions. Encouraging women to pursue careers in cleantech to bridge this gap is critical. Hardening, greening, smartening the grid is going to require collaboration and innovation to solve these challenges. And so, we want to create opportunities for women to join the industry and flourish in energy-related careers. We are working on supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion, in order to build a solid and sustainable energy industry.
We can’t fail on these challenges that are happening. It’s very important that we get the message out to young women about considering careers in clean tech because we can’t fill the number of jobs with the current available people, employable people.
RB
And energy jobs are good jobs. They have long careers, they pay well, they are often with established organizations. I think it’s really important to bring women along to these jobs that pay well and can give them the opportunity to have a more economically fulfilling future.
DE
One thing I really like about Trellis Fund is that we are reaching an audience that has yet to enter the cleantech industry. We are encouraging women to study fields where women are currently under-represented.
I’m feeling very positive. We launched Trellis on March 7th, and we already have applicants. People who were at the event are sharing it with their contacts. The initial goals we set have been surpassed by an overwhelming positive response to the launch.
WPS
We heard from some of the women we featured in our last issue that women are often disproportionately impacted by climate change, and this is why it’s important to include them in energy transition. How can women specifically support the energy transition?
RB
We have to solve the right problems, and in order to understand what those are, we need to listen to the end users. I am a design thinker and I know that if you don’t understand the questions that you’re trying to answer, you’re not going to solve the right problems. Having end users at the table is going to make for more resilient solutions.
DE
I’d like to give a little example of how I feel about working in a predominantly male industry. In my job, I collaborate with the LDC (local distribution company) to provide solutions to resolve complex challenges to supply reliable, affordable power. I’m also a consumer of electricity. Knowing that the industry is predominantly male, especially at the decision-making levels, I am not confident that women’s expectations for the future of the grid are being considered.
WPS
If roughly 50% of your consumers are women, how is it possible that there are not 50% of women working on designing that product? Yes, your position is absolutely understandable.
How do you envision the future when the clean energy transition comes to fruition? And how does Trellis Fund play a part in this transition?
DE
It’s the hardest question of them all.
RB
We’ve heard from a lot of companies and individuals that they would like to support the fund. We’re looking at how to design that piece of the economics of the fund in order to be able to be sustainable. And so, yeah, we’re still in the design process for the fund itself! We do have an anonymous funder for next year, so we know we have at least two years runway. We also had sponsors and people paid by donation to participate at the launch, so I feel very confident that the Trellis Fund will persevere.
DE
When I go back to the question, the clean energy future, what does it look like? The reason that I say it’s the toughest question, because there isn’t just one simple answer.
For years each LDC, manufacturer, governing body and educator worked in their own individual silos within the industry. In order to move forward, we are going to have to work as diversified teams to represent all the different viewpoints in order to work together to define the answer “what does the clean energy future look like”. I think the important thing for organizations, such as Trellis Fund, is that we keep inspiring people to want to move forward and come up with innovative ideas and a clear direction of what the future will look like. This will mean, using my favorite word and stealing it from an episode of Friends: Pivot, Pivot, Pivot. When remembering the characters trying to move that couch up a narrow stairway, that’s where I see Trellis Fund right now. We don’t have all the answers. We will continue to pivot. We do know it’s going to be great and it’s going to be positive.
RB
The clean energy transition is low carbon, it’s resilient, it meets the needs of the communities that it serves, and it’s inclusive. I believe the technologies already exist. Now it’s just a question of making systemic changes. In Canada, we have a legacy oil and gas industry that’s actively working against a clean energy future. We have some really big challenges in Canada to get off carbon.
But I feel very positive that the solutions are already here. Now it’s a question of shifting legacy systems. In addition to Pivot, pivot, pivot, I would add Iterate, iterate, iterate. I think we can get there if we make good decisions, and we’re working towards that. We are optimistic. We do believe we can change. We’re here living it and being examples of the types of mindsets and courage that you need to change.
WPS
Thank you so much, Rebecca and Debbie. And thank you to the other Trellis Advisory Committee collaborators who gave their input: Valerie Kitchell, Mary Warner, Lisa Oelke, Jen Aitchison, Brandy Giannetta, and Stephanie Landers. And thank you to Aleezeh for introducing us to each other and for suggesting this interview.