1. Startup Appalachia
Accelerating the Entrepreneurial Economies in Appalachia
Project Narrative
Startup Appalachia aims to (1) identify promising efforts that could produce larger results for the
economic transition of Central Appalachia, (2) encourage direct organizing by foundations to fund
around the most promising work in the region, (3) leverage additional resources to scale projects,
and (4) offer funders insight on how to capitalize on the investments they have made to date.
Section I: Project Identification
Project Title:NCIF/MACED Grocery Energy Savings Collaboration
Identify the name, contact number and email address of the following Startup Actors:
 Supportive Coach: Lisa Sharp, USDA, Rural Development
 Nominator: Sandra Mikush, Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation
 Project Leader: Marten Jenkins, NCIF
Paul Wright, MACED
Section II: To be completed by the Nominator
1. Please provide a short summary of your motivations for funding this project and what you hope to
gain out of participating in Startup Appalachia.
The Grocery Energy Savings Collaboration is a promising effort to help local grocery stores rein in
rising utility costs to stay competitive. Local grocers are a key part of the infrastructure for the rural
economy, making food available to communities without access to large-scale grocery chains. With
notoriously low profit margins, grocers can reduce utility bills, which are often the second largest
expense behind employee salaries. For participating groceries, the utilities savings could be the
difference between retaining employees or even staying in business. This project relates to two
promising economic sectors – local foods and energy – identified by the Appalachia Funders
Network and the Babcock Foundation as key to economic transition toward a sustainable economy
that offers economic opportunity and a healthy environment for all its citizens. As a collaboration
between two leading community development financial institutions, the project can expand access to
capital for rural entrepreneurs and create a financing vehicle that can spread across Appalachia.
Section III: To be completed by the Project Leader
1. Clarify the short-term and long-term results of the project.
The Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) and the Natural
Capital Investment Fund (NCIF) provide a suite of services – energy audits, technical assistance, cost
share grants and loans – to help small businesses control their energy costs and operate more
sustainably. MACED, which primarily serves eastern Kentucky, and NCIF, which primarily serves
West Virginia, have seen increased demand for credit from businesses and farms in the local foods
value chain that seek to implement renewable energy/energy efficiency (RE/EE) projects. In
particular, MACED and NCIF have had great success in applying this suite of financial and technical
assistance services to grocery stores. These are often projects that traditional banks are hesitant to

2. Startup Appalachia
Accelerating the Entrepreneurial Economies in Appalachia
Project Narrative
finance (either partially or fully) because of uncertainty about the relatively new field of EE/RE
financing.
During the next three years, NCIF and MACED will focus our resources and more intentionally
target the small grocery industry. In the short term, theGrocery Energy Savings Collaboration will
provide the following results:
59 EE/RE loans.
$4.4 million in loans.
$900,000 in energy savings.
47 new jobs created/retained.
The long-term results of the project are geared toward creating meaningful examples of EE financing
models that can be replicated at scale in other commercial sectors beyond groceries. Specifically, we
hope to achieve the following long term results:
Help groceries – which are vital community institutions providing food and important,
locally-based jobs – become resilient in the face of rising energy costs.
Demonstrate that the energy efficiency financing and technical assistance market can be
successfully financed with less risk than is currently assumed by more traditional financial
institutions. Successfully demonstrating this would encourage other organizations to invest
in these deals, thus reducing barriers to capital for commercial business owners.
Create a suite of packages that can be replicated at scale by other financial institutions.
Create a base of grocers and other appropriate commercial entities who can serve as
examples to utilities, decision makers, and others about the viability of energy efficiency and
renewable energy markets. EE/RE in the commercial market represent a key component of
advancing a clean energy economy in Appalachia. The goal here is to build political support
for demand-side management, on-bill financing, and other types of state- and utility-
supported retrofit and rebate programs.
Increase long term support by local utilities for cost share programs.
2. Please provide a detailed description of howthis project couldbe expanded.
Through the Grocery Energy Savings Collaboration, NCIF and MACED will collaborate to increase
market penetration in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, educate entrepreneurs about economic
incentives, and build capacity among stakeholders along the energy and food systems value chain. To
expand our current efforts, NCIF/MACED would explore the following broad areas of work:
Market Penetration:
Develop multiple referral sources among utility providers, food distributors, equipment
vendors and regional banks that serve the grocery industry.
Develop communication tools and marketing activities to communicate the value of energy
cost savings audits, incentives/rebates packaging, and financing provided by NCIF and
MACED to finance energy saving retrofits.
Increase direct marketing to grocery store owners through mailings, trade shows, press
coverage of completed projects, and other publicity highlighting the benefits of energy
efficiency cost savings.
Economic Incentives Packaging:

3. Startup Appalachia
Accelerating the Entrepreneurial Economies in Appalachia
Project Narrative
Demonstrate viability of commercial energy efficiency retrofits with payback on the
investment in less than three years, using utility rebates, REAP grants, and other external
incentives.
Collaborate with commercial energy service representatives to package utility rebate
subsidies for businesses.
Aggregate grant funds from private and public sources to provide subsidy and create
incentives for retrofit projects.
Capacity Building:
Share lessons learned in the energy and food systems (e.g. underwriting, industry and
outcomes metrics, technology/interventions) with stakeholders in the energy and food
systems value chain, and with policy and decision makers who play an important role in
accelerating the demand and market for these services.
Develop a qualified pool of contract consultants across the region that would provide energy
audits at reasonable prices.
Provide financing to EE/RE service providers and equipment manufacturers to increase the
number of qualified service providers in the region.
3. What resources are needed to assist in this expansion?
The collaborative initiative needs some expertise in marketing to grocery store owners. We need a
marketing action plan that details our targeted marketing efforts, establishes metrics and methods for
measuring success, and trains our loan officers on how to best communicate with local grocers.
We also need to develop depth and breadth in our energy audit capacity between our two agencies.
This includes sourcing new consultants and more efficient methods and systems of conducting energy
assessments and providing quality recommendations and reports to grocers.
Funding Requirements (next three years)
$316,500 in operating support to scale up marketing and build referral system
$198,000 in program funds to provide energy audits and build audit capacity in the region
$3.5 million in loan capital and $500,000 in loan loss reserve capital.
4. Please list the specific activities that will lead to this expansion. (Provide a timeline for these
activities.)
In order to expand our collaborative work NCIF and MACED has identified the following activities
and work that needs to occur in the next 12-24 months:
(Fall 2012) MACED and NCIF receive technical assistance from Opportunity Finance
Network that will expand the organizations’ knowledge of how best to market to grocers
and how best to structure financing deals with small-to-midsized grocery store owners.
MACED will receive the marketing TA, while NCIF will receive the underwriting TA. Both
organizations will share their learning with the other.
(Dec 2013) Hire a full-time contract consultant to coordinate and implement the marketing
strategies, measure marketing metrics and outcomes.
(Jan 2013) Train lending and program staff on RE/EE marketing and talking points.
(Jan/Feb 2013) Develop a detailed marketing plan and tools that includes marketing
messages, a website and marketing collateral targeting grocers and EE/RE referral sources.

4. Startup Appalachia
Accelerating the Entrepreneurial Economies in Appalachia
Project Narrative
(March-June 2013) Cultivate relationships with public and private sector leaders who can
help us with market penetration strategies, incentives and referrals.
(2013-2015) Asses the need for developing more efficient, targeted loan products for other
EE projects beyond the grocery sector.
(2013-2015) MACED and NCIF continue to explore creative financing tools, rebates, and
other incentives to help implement RE/EE packages.
(2013-2015) NCIF and MACED continue to develop and finance EE/RE projects.
(2013-2015) MACED and NCIF continue to share best practices and knowledge they have
gained with each other and with others, especially for-profit and nonprofit financial
institutions.
Section IV: To be completed by the Nominator and Project Leader
1. How does this project contribute to the economic transition of Central Appalachia?
The primary contributions of the Grocery Energy Savings Collaboration to an economic
transition in Central Appalachia are two –fold. In the short-term, this partnership has the
real potential to increase the financial security of grocery stores, which are vital community
organizations in Central Appalachia. The profit margins for grocers are extremely thin, and
one of their greatest expenses, after people, is their utility bills. Helping them implement RE
and EE retrofits helps them save money in the short term while also protecting them against
future rate increases. The more resilient these businesses are, the more stable they are, thus
increasing their presence and ability to serve the communities in which they are located. se
In the long-term, the Grocery Collaboration can prove the viability of and provide a model
for the implementation of RE/EE at the commercial scale. If additional for-profit and
nonprofit financial institutions were to see the value in this approach to financing EE/RE,
the chance for this market to grow is greatly increased. Likewise, the base of existing rural
grocers who have benefitted from EE/RE services will serve as valuable examples to policy
and decision makers, thus helping to build the political case for expanded support of these
initiatives. Once there is a legislative or utility-driven mandate to provide a portion of energy
generation through EE/RE, the contractor market for providing these serviceswill greatly
increase and will help to create a great deal of meaningful, local jobs.
2. Provide a 1-paragraph summary of your project to share on the Appalachia Funders Network
website.
The Grocery Energy Savings Collaboration is a joint effort between the West Virginia-based Natural
Capital Investment Fund and the Kentucky-based Mountain Association for Community Economic
Development that seeks to develop and increase the availability of energy efficiency and renewable
energy financing and technical assistance services to rural grocers in Appalachia. The implementation
of energy efficiency and renewable energy measures represent a direct path for these vital community
institutions to save money and increase their profit margins, thus ensuring their longevity by
protecting them and their employees from future rate increases.
Section V: Conditions for Participation
Due to the educational nature of this initiative, your participation in Startup Appalachia confirms
your willingness topublically share and encourage the use of the ideas and strategies behind your
organization’s project.