With an ambitious goal of raising $350 billion in clean energy investments through employee 401(k) and IRA plans, The Renewable Energy Trust Initiative (TREI) officially launched into action on Thursday, June 17th.

By Nick Wolfe

The law office of Patton Boggs LLP, with its commanding view of downtown Denver and the front range, graciously hosted the non-profit launch event which was lead by TREI advisory board chair Ken Beitel.  He spoke of some of the current challenges relating to the lack of renewable funds presence in employee plans and how TREI can help provide educational outreach to the 500,000 Colorado employees who hold a plan that could benefit from increased renewable energy investment.

State representative Joe Rice commented on recent legislative efforts to bring more awareness to the issue of choosing renewable energy in a portfolio. During the legislative session TREI joined with the Colorado Senate and House to hold a press conference announcing introduction of the Renewable Energy: Freedom to Choose joint resolution. While the resolution fell short this year, policymakers are ready to help educate fellow representatives and reintroduce the resolution early next year.

Fellow board members James Muchmore from Patton Boggs and Denise Kay from the Colorado Society for Human Resource Management discussed some of the opportunity that TREI hopes to create for employees to allow the freedom to choose renewable energy investments.

While still in its infancy, TREI has already been successful with two Colorado companies in getting more renewable energy funds added to their employee plans. Vestas Wind Systems and EarthStream Global recently added a renewable energy fund to the 401(k) plans of their 800+ local employees.

Renewable energy investment is a powerful means to increase clean energy production domestically, grow the U.S. economy, create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, lower energy costs and build a healthy environment. TREI believes that 401(k) and IRA holders will have the freedom to invest approximately 5% of their assets in existing publicly traded renewable energy funds and bonds.

A grant request has been submitted to the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office (GEO), applying for $91,000 of the $3 million available under the New Energy Economic Development grant program. Future plans also involve opening brand offices in San Francisco, Boston and Washington D.C. The global market for renewable energy has the potential to grow to $600 billion annually, supporting 8.5 million jobs, within 20 years, the study said.

As energy investment shifts more to the private sector, organizations such as TREI are instrumental in encouraging clean energy investments locally and nationwide.

For more information visit their website at www.TREI.us