Green Success Stories puts James Ayer, Founder and CEO of Siamang Solar, in the Green Spotlight. James shares his journey from soul-sucking corporate America to the challenges, successes, and meaningful efforts of starting and running a climate startup. Siamang Solar offers solar, storage, EV charging, and other energy products to homeowners, businesses, non-profit organizations, and municipalities, and likewise ensures that contributions are made to the recipient’s favorite cause. James stresses optimism in the fight against climate change and encourages those thinking of starting work in this field to just do it!

Tell us a bit about your sustainability journey.

My love for sustainability and the environment started when I was a young boy, completely enamored with the siamang gibbons at the Memphis Zoo. Years later, I found myself in soul-sucking corporate America with a quarter riddled with anxiety, and needed to get back to my roots. After much introspection, I dove into the deep end into an entry level job at a local solar company. I spent a lot of time trying to be a sponge, learning a great deal about climate change on the side. After working for a few other organizations in solar, climate, green power programs, carbon credits, and climate change projects, I decided to start my own business. But we are always changing and evolving, so the journey doesn’t end here!

Tell us a bit about the product or solution you offer.

We offer solar, storage, EV charging, and other energy products to homeowners, businesses, non-profit organizations, and municipalities in about half of the United States, with a strong focus on the Midwest. With each project, we give our customers a gift and donate to a non-profit either in climate, for a cause that needs it, or one that is close to the customer’s heart.

Share a green success story with us – how have you helped customers or other businesses in the fight against climate change?

While we pride ourselves on helping homeowners go solar, the biggest thing recently has been helping more businesses. There was one particular business owner of an orchard in MN who was going through a hard divorce and had medical issues. We had many conversations to build trust, and talked a lot about how time is of the essence. We were able to get them solar, storage, and EV charging infrastructure. Not only did we pay some of their medical bills and donate to their favorite non-profit, but with the incentives such as the USDA REAP grant, the federal tax credit, and depreciation, they ended up with a $0 net cost project! We’re also paying them in advertising and referral bonuses to encourage their own customers to adopt clean energy as well.

What would you do with $1 billion dollars?

I would take a little bit for retirement, a little bit for family and friends, and then donate the majority towards organizations and projects that make the world a better place.

What do you envision your industry looking like in ten years?

I see acceleration. While we have a lot of the solutions, we need to grow it at scale and to go faster. I also see sustainability and climate being a vital piece of every organization. Hopefully it’s so engrained in our society at that point, that it’s a missing piece of the puzzle that many never realized we were missing.

What would you like readers to take away from this article?

Firstly, to have hope. The climate industry can be disheartening when we know where we want to be and it feels like we’re going against the current. The second thing is that you have others on your team. There are many amazing people working diligently to find solutions to the climate crisis. You are not alone. The last thing is that if you are thinking of starting an organization, project, or initiative, take Nike’s motto to heart: just do it.

How should readers get in touch with you and/or your organization?

You can reach us via a contact form on our website, and our email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter.

Kudos

Many thanks to James Ayer and Siamang Solar. Green Success Stories is happy to support and highlight your efforts! We invite you the reader to do the same.

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