Rachel Barge

Basic Info

Wild Gift Class Year:

2009

Better World Expertise:

Community Engagement/Activism

Public & Institutional Policy

Current Occupation:

Director of Marketing at Yerdle

Website:

https://yerdle.com/

Impacts of My Work:

I helped universities raise $16M in campus sustainability funds (during my Wild Gift project year). In total, those funds will grow to over $160M, because most of them had a 10-year lifetime.

The funds were based mainly on $5/student/semester "green fees". They are invested in on-campus sustainability projects, like rooftop solar, energy efficiency, water efficiency, green procurement policies, sustainability education & leadership, etc.

I directly trained over 2000 students from 250 universities, spoke at 30 conferences, etc - and distributed all of my materials for free so students could replicate in the future

I am a social entrepreneur who is passionate about young people using enterprise-based solutions to solve pressing environmental problems. As a UC Berkeley undergraduate student, I helped establish a $2M Green Fund that tripled the amount of capital available for campus sustainability. After graduating with a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies and a minor in Forestry, I was the recipient of the 2008 Wild Gift grant and founded Campus In Power, a national consultancy that spreads innovative financial mechanisms for campus sustainability. With Wild Gift's support, I was responsible for raising $16M in the first year of the initiative, personally training over 2,000 students from over 250 universities.

After developing a strong interest in private-sector models of environmental impact, I then became the Director of the Business Council on Climate Change (BC3), a network of over 100 of the San Francisco Bay Area's leading companies committed to sharing best practices on climate solutions.

I now serve as Executive Director of CleantechU, a new initiative that catalyzes cleantech entrepreneurship on college campuses through the unique avenue of human capital development. I am the recipient of the prestigious David Brower Youth Award, the nation's top prize for young environmental leaders, as well as the Morris K. Udall Fellowship and of course, the Wild Gift. I reside in San Francisco, CA.