Danny Kennedy (environmentalist)

Kennedy was born in Los Angeles to Australian parents. Kennedy and his family moved between the United States, Europe, and Australia until he was 11 years old, when his family settled in Sydney, Australia. Kennedy attended St. Aloysius School.

As a youngster Kennedy was a community organizer, fundraiser, journalist, and youth activist. At the age of 12 he was involved with a successful campaign to prevent construction of a dam in Tasmania. From 1983 he worked with the Australian Conservation Foundation on various projects including forestry protection and ozone depletion. In 1990 Kennedy was a representative at the Montreal Protocol Negotiations in London, where he met Alec Guettel (with whom he would later found Sungevity). In 1992 Kennedy organized around the first Rio Earth Summit and worked for the UN Conference on Environment and Development.{{cite web |last=Woody |first=Todd |url=http://sustainableindustries.com/articles/2011/02/smooth-agitator |title=Smooth Agitator |publisher=Sustainableindustries.com |date=March 1, 2011 |accessdate=August 22, 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509161103/http://sustainableindustries.com/articles/2011/02/smooth-agitator |archivedate=May 9, 2012 }}

Kennedy began working with Greenpeace in the early 1990s, as a researcher seeking to end new oil exploration in Papua New Guinea. He almost died of malaria in the process. He left Greenpeace in 1995.

In 1996 Kennedy founded and directed Project Underground, an organization focused on human rights and committed to protecting people threatened by mining and oil operations.

Kennedy became the Director of the USA Clean Energy Now Campaign in 2000, and set up the California Clean Energy Now Campaign in 2001 and 2002;{{cite web|author=|url=http://www.sramanamitra.com/2009/02/25/from-greenpeace-to-green-power-sungevity-ceo-danny-kennedy-part-1/ |title="From Greenpeace to Green Power," Sramana Mitra, February 2009 |publisher=Sramanamitra.com |date=February 25, 2009 |accessdate=August 22, 2013}} this campaign helped create the state's California Solar Initiative.{{Cite web |url=http://archive.greenpeace.org/climate/climatecountdown/news_nov7.htm |title="San Francisco Voters Back Solar Power Measures Backed by Greenpeace," Greenpeace.org, November 2011 |access-date=August 17, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623062322/http://archive.greenpeace.org/climate/climatecountdown/news_nov7.htm |archive-date=June 23, 2011 |url-status=dead }} He moved back to Australia in 2003 and was the Campaigns Manager for Greenpeace Australia Pacific from 2003 to 2006.

Kennedy has worked with the actress Cate Blanchett in a project to green the building of the Sydney Theatre Company.Cate Blanchette, [http://odewire.com/53862/danny-kennedy-solar-energy-entrepreneur.html 'Danny Kennedy: Solar energy entrepreneur'], Ode Magazine, January 2010. In 2022, Kennedy and Blanchett launched the Climate of Change podcast on Audible to discuss climate change and the importance of preserving the environment.{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2022/02/cate-blanchett-sets-climate-change-podcast-audible-1234924523/|title=Cate Blanchett Sets Climate Change Podcast At Audible|work=Deadline|first=Peter|last=White|date=February 3, 2022|accessdate=April 17, 2022}}{{cite web|url=https://people.com/royals/prince-william-interviewed-cate-blanchett-climate-change/|title=Prince William Is the Surprise Guest on Cate Blanchett's New Podcast About Climate Change|work=People|first=Stephanie|last=Petit|date=April 13, 2022|accessdate=April 17, 2022}}

In December 2006, Kennedy left Australia and moved to Oakland, California, where he currently lives with his wife and his youngest daughter, to start Sungevity Inc., a residential solar power company.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HvR4iX2BhLkC |title="Rooftop Revolution: How Solar Power Can Save Our Economy—and Our Planet—from Dirty Energy" (Google Books excerpt) |date= September 3, 2012|isbn=9781609946661 |accessdate=August 22, 2013|last1=Kennedy |first1=Danny |publisher=Berrett-Koehler Publishers }}{{better|reason=not an independent source|date=November 2023}}

In 2010 Kennedy offered to install solar panels on the roof of the White House. He also installed 48 solar panels on the roof of the residence of the president of The Maldives.{{cite web|url=http://solarfeeds.com/the-plea-for-solar-panels-on-the-white-house/ |title=The Plea for Solar Panels on the White House |publisher=Solarfeeds.com |date=August 16, 2011 |accessdate=August 22, 2013}}

In 2015, Kennedy became managing director of the California Clean Energy Fund, a non-profit working to optimize the clean energy transition by connecting money to investments, ideas to support and issues to solutions.

Kennedy co-founded Powerhouse, the only incubator and accelerator solely focused on supporting solar entrepreneurs to succeed. Additionally, Kennedy serves on the board of The Solar Foundation,{{cite web|url=http://thesolarfoundation.org/aboutus/board-directors |title=Board of Directors |publisher=The Solar Foundation |date=November 4, 2010 |accessdate=August 22, 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130906134224/http://thesolarfoundation.org/aboutus/board-directors |archivedate=September 6, 2013 }} a global research and education organization in Washington, DC, VoteSolar, and several solar start-ups including Powerhive, a solar utility in Kenya, and Sunergise, a Fijian company taking solar as a service across the South Pacific, and was a founding board director of Mosaic,{{cite web|url=http://joinmosaic.com/about-mosaic |title=Create Solar Energy Together | Mosaic |publisher=Joinmosaic.com |accessdate=August 22, 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130806163212/https://joinmosaic.com/about-mosaic |archivedate=August 6, 2013 }} a solar-focused, crowd-funding start-up in Oakland, California. Kennedy writes a monthly column about renewable energy innovation, trends and opportunities called Shine On for Climate & Capital Media.{{Cite web | url=https://www.climateandcapitalmedia.com/?s=danny+kennedy | title=You searched for danny kennedy }}{{better|reason=not an independent source|date=November 2023}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://blog.sungevity.com/tag/danny-kennedy/ Sungevity Blog]
• [https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/the-climate-debt-the-us-owes-the-world The Climate Debt the U.S. Owes the World]
• [https://www.newenergynexus.com/ New Energy Nexus]
• [http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/clean-disruption-renewable-energy-canada-1.3470590 Clean disruption? Stanford group plans for 100% green-energy future], Canadian Broadcast Corporation. March 2, 2016
• [http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060031761 Solar power's rebel capitalist], E&E Reporting. February 4, 2016
• [http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-30/australian-entrepreneur-cashing-in-on-california-solar-boom/6977846 California sun: Australian entrepreneur Danny Kennedy cashes in on US solar boom], Australian Broadcast Corporation. November 29, 2015
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/magazine/the-secret-to-solar-power.html?_r=0 The Secret to Solar Power], New York Times Magazine. August 9, 2012

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Category:Living people

Category:1971 births

Category:American environmentalists