Public Benefit Report

What is a Public Benefit Corporation?

A public benefit corporation is a for profit corporation or domestic cooperative that is intended to produce one or more public benefits and to operate in a responsible and sustainable manner.

What is a public benefit?

Section 7-101-503(2), C.R.S., defines public benefit as ‘one or more positive effects or reduction of negative effects on one or more categories of persons, entities, communities, or interests other than shareholders in their capacities as shareholders, including effects of an artistic, charitable, cultural, economic, educational, environmental, literary, medical, religious, scientific, or technological nature.’

In 2021, Amicus partnered with NAACP, Green Latinos, and other climate justice advocates to create the Residential Renewables for All coalition. Our coalition led the national advocacy effort to include a direct pay option for the Section 25D residential energy tax credit. Amicus commissioned an independent study by the RAND Corporation, which endorsed the need for equity in the U.S. solar market via policies like direct pay for Section 25D.

This tax policy would increase equity and open access to clean energy for lower income households and disadvantaged communities by allowing a direct payment in lieu of a tax credit. Lower income households have the least ability of all households to bear the upfront costs of clean energy investments and then wait for a tax refund months or, with carry-forward, years later. In the end, the Build Back Better Act included refundability for Section 25D, which is a big win for climate justice.

The Amicus JEDI Committee partnered with Center for Radical Connection (“CRC”) to lead monthly workshops for team members of Amicus companies throughout the year. CRC’s mission is ‘to foster connection, re-cognition, and re-imagining through the awareness of love, power, and identity’. These interactive sessions were held virtually which allowed for team members from all over the country to join each month. Each session we discussed a different topic which included; practicing connection and the role of mindfulness in anti-oppression work, cultivating curiosity, listening with love: repairing conflict, speaking from where you are: spheres of oppression and liberation, exploring your edges: interrogating dominant culture and creating a sustainable commitment. The intention of these workshops was to explore, challenge and help create more understanding of ourselves, our colleagues, our communities and our cultures.

We are also on the founding Board of Renewables Forward, a diversity and inclusion initiative in the solar industry as well as helping lead an effort with PVEL and SunSpec to remove the words “slave” and “master” from all technical documentation. Finally, we held a powerful workshop with Boulder County called Beyond Binary, which outlined LGBTQ concepts, etiquette, and allyship.

Amicus has created a working group with its members who have also committed to B Corp Net Zero 2030. Amicus helped lead the founding of the B-Corp Climate Collective in 2019. The Amicus Net Zero Working Group will evaluate, track, and offset our collective carbon emissions by 2030.