During this period of rapid change and concern for public health, I want to share that CGC is well-positioned to continue our critical work to address climate change at full speed.
CGC began taking steps to protect the health of our team and partners over two weeks ago by limiting travel, eliminating large meetings, and providing sanitizer and cleaning materials in offices. As the situation evolved, CGC moved to mandatory work from home for all staff on Monday March 9, with all travel cancelled. Therefore CGC was prepared for the rapid lockdown experienced in recent days.
First, thankfully CGC is extremely well-positioned to continue to operate at full strength during this crisis. Half of our team has already been working remotely and from home for years, as team members are located around the world. We have no functions that require in-person activity, like retail or manufacturing, so working remotely with good connectivity allows 100% of CGC projects to continue. All team members have already switched to video-conferencing for internal and external discussions to maintain camaraderie.
Second, the work of CGC’s mission is also unaffected. Clean energy deployment and investment is one of the few areas of the economy that can not only continue, but can grow, during this time. Much of the economy must shut down to avoid spreading the virus. But construction projects are moving forward, and clean energy construction is a part of that. So not only is CGC as an organization going to remain as productive as ever, but our work is now even more important with the potential to thrive.
And finally, as governments around the world prepare for massive economic relief and stimulus, now is the time to rectify the mistakes of the last global economic crisis and make long-term public investment in clean energy infrastructure. Clean energy infrastructure construction should increase 5-fold during this period when nearly all other parts of the economy must slow. Public investment at historically low borrowing rates can be paired with private capital and put people to work building the clean energy platform of the future.