ION Earth and Encircle: Powering People in Salt Lake City, UT
What’s the best way for a company to give back to its community? That’s the goal of both ION Solar and Encircle, both of whom partnered together recently to collaboratively power people, and power change in Salt Lake City.
ION Earth
Functioning as the charitable arm of ION Solar, ION Earth is an initiative aimed at donating solar based resources and assistance to deserving families and organizations in the community. ION Earth has donated time and resources to organizations like Utah Community Action, The Animal Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, and Homes For Our Troops. ION Earth has also donated solar services to a number of homes and schools throughout the United States.
No Sides Only Love
Acting as a safe place for teens in the LGBTQ+ community, Encircle in an outreach program with six home-locations around Utah. Devoted to daily programs, group support, and clinical therapy, Encircle also acts a drop-in space for teens, parents, and first-time visitors. It’s company motto of “No sides only love.”
In addition to outreach aimed at supporting area teens, Encircle has also been an active supporter of local events aimed at raising LGBTQ+ awareness. In recent years, Encircle has been involved in the LOVELOUD music festival, which generates donations for organizations that support LGBTQ+ youth, and the Out of Darkness Suicide Prevention Walk.
Donating Solar Panels to Encircle
In an effort to help Encircle save money by lessening its utility costs, ION Earth recently installed a number of solar panels at Encircle’s John Williams House in Salt Lake City. These high quality photovoltaic panels, paired with fully monitored Enphase IQ8 inverters, will give the Salt Lake City branch of Encircle the ability to offset the cost of energy while passing the saving on to the teens and families that they serve.
“Any way we can stretch our donor dollars matters,” says Richard Bingham, Director of Expansion at Encircle. “And for a home like this that’s operating every day, utilities is a huge cost to us. And so having solar really takes a big burden off of us.” As with all clientele, ION aims to help bring Encircle’s traditional utility costs down only a fraction of their old levels. “Money saved on utilities, it pays for therapy, or it pays for programming, or it pays for the house staff who are here helping these kids.”
"...for a home like this that’s operating every day, utilities is a huge cost to us. And so having solar really takes a big burden off of us."
Richard Bingham, Director of Expansion at Encircle
Get Involved
Interested in getting involved? Encircle offers a number of ways you can contribute, including volunteer work, fundraising, donations, and even internships. To learn more about the charitable work being done by ION Earth, visit us at our website or talk with one of our professional team members today.
