This week I heard a beautiful story from Paul Lyons, BU alum and founder of a solar consulting company Zapotec Energy. I am working on a solar canopy proposal for Earth House, a dorm I lived in last year, and I am so grateful to have the support and guidance of someone like Paul. Here is what I can remember from his story: The Zapotec people have been in the central valleys of Mexico of Oaxaca for five to seven thousand years. When Paul was in Oaxaca, the people asked him, “Where are you from? Where is your people and town?” The Spanish word “pueblo” means “town/village” and comes from the Latin root word populous, meaning “people”. In Oaxaca, that is literally the case, as generations have lived on and been buried under the town—the earth of the town is made of the remains of the Zapotec people’s ancestors.
Paul realized that he was not sure where he called his “pueblo,” as he moved from place to place over the years because of school, work and family. He saw that people were using dirty fuels transported from across the country and saw what it was doing to their land, he saw the effect of our collective overconsumption polluting Mexico. So Paul designed and installed low-cost solar water heaters for the homeowners, schools and non-profit institutions.
When he decided to come back to the U.S., he told himself that he was going to make Cambridge his town and work on something that is sustainable, something will allow us to survive for 3,000 years. He named his company after the Zapotec people of Oaxaca to remind himself of the conversations that occurred. Paul shared that 50 years ago solar was too expensive and only used for spacecraft, but today, it has become cheaper because of aerospace research. The private business model of innovation, competitive pricing, delivering services and finding solutions has been the driver of change. Today, we can make high quality electricity for a reasonable price on rooftops, even for rural areas with no nearby grid! Solar PV technology really is transformative–if we did not have solar power for satellites, our global communication network, the viability of GPS, internet, and cellphone would not exist. It is an exciting time to be alive.
In summary, I gather from Paul’s story that people must be rooted, invested in their land to take care of it in a responsible, sustainable way. We are part of nature, therefore we must not poison it. Paul’s story was striking to me because I could relate to feeling like a nomad— as a third-culture kid, I do not belong to Taiwan as I moved when I was 6 years old, I do not belong to Shanghai, as I do not speak their mother tongue, nor do I belong to Boston, as I am not a U.S. citizen. I want to be able to spend more time to reflect and think about who I am, what my calling is, and where I call home and who I call my people.