Green Story

Jim Gamble has a saying: "Grid Free or Die." Dramatic? Perhaps. But it is this sense of urgency that has helped the Concord businessman make the shift from marketing to alternative energy. After working in the communications field for nearly three decades, Gamble opened GreenSource Energy Solutions (GES) Solar Store in Concord in July 2009. "After decades helping big companies get bigger, I started to reevaluate what I was doing and what was really important," says Gamble. "I wanted to contribute something of value back to society."

Gamble describes his store in Concord as a place where people can get information and an education about various renewable energy options – particularly solar. "The internet is a great resource," explains Gamble. "But it can also be confusing and impersonal. Having a physical presence downtown, where people can come to have their questions answered and see what this stuff actually looks like takes away the mystery. It gives people a place to start and learn about what they can do today to conserve resources, reduce their environmental impact, and save money."

Almost everything in the GES store qualifies as a green version of a product or service, and includes everything from light bulbs to compost toilets, solar panels to electric scooters, appliances to lighting products. In short, everything in the GES store is intended to bolster the goal of weaning ourselves as a society off of fossil fuels. For Gamble, the switch ought to be a no-brainer: the sun is, after all, the greatest of all renewable resources, and should thus be our first and most dependable choice going forward.