We caught up with the brilliant and insightful William Barber III a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
William, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
Rural Beacon Initiative (RBI) is a BIPOC led, social enterprise, headquartered in Durham, North Carolina and serving the Southeastern United States. RBI is motivated by the knowledge that while the southeast is
characterized by the nation’s largest concentrations of people of color, poverty, and billion-dollar
climate driven weather disasters, it is also a region with a long history of self-determination and a growing set of
community driven solutions to the climate crisis.
Our organization’s mission is twofold:
First, we seek to leverage deployed projects to increase ownership diversity in the supply chains of renewable energy and regenerative agriculture.
Second, we seek to explore how integrated capital can be used to address Black land loss and support regenerative development in rural communities. Our flagship project, Free Union Sustainability Hub is a model of conservation finance, rural development, and resilient community-based solutions to the climate crisis and food security.
We are guided by our belief that those closest to the problem are also those closest to the solution. Frontline communities most impacted by climate change must be seen as more than just new consumers within the green economy or markets to be exploited— they must be active participants, co-creators, and owners.
Our Free Union Farm project is being developed in the historic community of “Piney Woods” a multi-
racial isolate of free people of color south of the Mason Dixon line with deep familial roots and a legacy
of cooperation and self-determination.
The project and the historic community of Piney Woods serve as a counterfactual to modern Black land ownership in this country; it exemplifies what BIPOC wealth and connection to land could have been in the United States had BIPOC landowners been allowed to thrive.
RBI is spearheading a new-type of rural economic development project that demonstrates energy and food solutions that can be deployed not only with zero-harm, but with net-benefits to the triple bottom line of equity, environment, and economy for impacted communities.
As we see unprecedented government spending to address our climate and energy crises, it is critical that these resources flow to communities in a way that they allow for the creation and recycling of long-term economic benefits, – instead of having the hundreds of billions of government spending earmarked to address climate change reinforce the existing racial and economic power structure.
RBI that is building a financial and business model rooted in this outcome. We seek change not just for Free Union, but for so many “free unions” across the nation.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a renewable energy professional, with a history of environmental and climate justice scholarship and advocacy. As a native of eastern North Carolina, I grew up witnessing the strength, resilience, and dignity that manifested itself in rural communities. I grew up hearing stories of legacy and innovation that were shared amongst families that had often lived and worked on land in areas for generations, often in the face of incredible societal challenge. I took inspiration from these stories.
My personal activism was fueled significantly by the examples of my father, Bishop William J. Barber II, and my mother, Rebecca McLean Barber, who ingrained in me a commitment to community service, social activism, and personal integrity.
It was also fueled by the disruption I witnessed that often happened at the hand of the extractive and fossil fuel industry. My most pertinent memory is that of participating in the North Carolina Poverty Tour in 2012 and visiting Navassa, North Carolina. It’s a small town in eastern North Carolina that was once a vibrant community with over 600 acres of land, but was then poisoned by a wood-processing facility and led largely to the community falling into disrepair. The community is still listed as a superfund site by the Environmental Protective Agency (EPA). The experience of visiting that community shaped my activism and caused me to want to do all I could to help hold industry players accountable for the disruption, while seeding communities with the economic power to be able to resist those types of encroachments.
In my career, I believe there are a few truths that we must embrace: First, the current crises that we face are of such a scale that no single sector of society can develop adequate solutions in of itself. We need intersectional, whole-of-societal approaches that rethink our way of living and that embrace the opportunity of collective action.
Second, that as we see the re-emergence of equity in conversations around sustainability, it is crucial that we honor the decades of political thought, strategy, and expertise that fed the environmental justice movement. Equity and subsequent frameworks of environmental, climate, and energy justice are not abstract concepts nor are they undefined disciplines. They are fields of thought that experts and elders have put in innumerable hours to define and lay out pathways for society to follow. As the renewable sector embraces equity, the expertise of the actual experts must be honored.
Three, as we think about scaling community solutions, we must honor the realities of frontline communities. We must honor this by realizing these communities are not impacted because they are destined to be so, but they have been impacted because of intentional bad policy decisions that we have unfortunately perfected over the course of our society’s history. We cannot talk about current climate impacts without talking about environmental racism. We cannot talk about environmental racism without talking about the denial of land and home ownership for BIPOC communities through redlining and other means. We cannot talk about the current opportunity to invest and create new markets in these communities, without talking about and addressing the legacy of predatory finance and exploitative economics. If we are to truly meet this moment, the economic transition that we are witnessing as we shift to a green economy must be done in concert with communities, not imposed on them.
And four, we face the fierce urgency of now, in which we must change the priorities of a society that claims to be the most powerful in history—technologically, economically, educationally, politically, militarily—or there may not be very much more history. Each of us, at this moment, is met with a moral and generational obligation, not to despair, but to continue to work to effect change; not just to strive for it, but to see it—enacted—if there is to be a
future. In doing so, we redeem ourselves and prove ourselves worthy of this great human experiment.
Possessing over a decade of social justice organizing experience and deep academic training in the history, science, and law behind environmental and climate issues, William is committed to connecting policymakers, grassroots leaders, faith leaders, and corporations to ensure we are collaborating on climate solutions that are equitable for all. He continues to inspire through his tireless work in protecting our environment and empowering our Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities on the frontlines of this climate crisis.
His background includes a degree in environmental physics from North Carolina Central University and a degree in environmental law and policy from UNC School of Law–both of which he has utilized in driving results-based change for impacted communities over nearly a decade’s long career of social justice organizing focused on environmental and climate justice issues.
In Barber’s prior roles, he advised the Cooper gubernatorial administration on how to promote equity and justice within North Carolina’s Clean Energy Plan, facilitated campaign efforts to oppose the now-defeated Atlantic Coast Pipeline, as well as coordinated participation of the NC Poor People’s Campaign as a filing party of a Title VI Complaint–recently accepted by the Environmental Protection Agency–that calls on a more stringent review of the environmental justice impacts of expanded permitting of biogas facilities in North Carolina.
Most recently, he founded The Rural Beacon Initiative,—a social enterprise that provides consultation on operationalizing equity frameworks within sustainable solutions, and works to increase BIPOC ownership in the growing supply chains of regenerative agriculture and renewable energy. Rural Beacon has evolved, exploring the role of green finance as a vehicle to address social disparities.
Barber’s work on community solutions has been featured in numerous outlets, including NextGen’s 30 under 30 Young Black Changemakers, Paypal’s Rising Leaders Series, and EarthInColor’s 5 Changemakers Making Earth Day Every Day.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I think RBI’s fierce commitment to self-determination for communities helped build our reputation. As I mentioned earlier, we believe firmly that the people closest to the problems are the people closest to the solution and lead with that as we think about the development of community based solutions to our climate and energy crisis. We’ve looked at everything from how investments in clean energy can result in increased self-determination for communities on the frontlines of environmental impact to how new technological innovations can meet community needs in regards to energy, food, and water access. And we continue to look at this through a lens of ownership. We often say that while commitments to DEIJ for organizations are important, our team commitments to DEIJ take a different form–we are interested in how policies and projects impact the Dollars, Emissions, Individuals, and Jobs in a community. We firmly believe commitments to equity are valuable insofar as they translate to real outcomes along these categories. Leading with that intensity I think has inspired our peers and built credibility within the communities we seek to serve.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
I am constantly learning from people around me. I am blessed to have a network that consistently exposes me to diverse people on a regular basis. With every conversation that I’ve had, I’ve learned that there is always something you can learn from every person you talk to.
Whether you end up working directly with that person, whether you agree or disagree, or whether they intended to teach you is non-consequential. The reality is that you can learn something, for your benefit, from every person you interact with. It is just an exercise in listening and reflecting to understand what lesson they were there to teach.
I employed that philosophy as I built the team for Rural Beacon Initiative. Knowing that we needed a diverse set of expertise to be successful, I intentionally took stock of my strengths, but also my weaknesses, and sought out individuals who would complement the areas where I lacked expertise. I believe in building a team that you can not only learn from, but where your individual strengths cover each other’s individual weaknesses. In that crucible of collaboration you can be succcessful.
Contact Info:
- Website: ruralbeaconinitiative.com
- Instagram: @ruralbeaconinitiative
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=745946865
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-j-barber-iii-544a63116/