Why climate change is fueling efforts to bring pay equity to home electrification industry

by Taylor Barton, Bay City News January 11, 2025January 15, 2025

Andre Smith, co-owner and chief operating officer of Yellowjacket HVAC, uses a laser pointer to talk through installation strategy with his lead installer, Mike Trapani, as Stanford University student Bruce Lam observes the process in Berkeley on Nov. 15, 2024. Companies like Smith's are on the front lines of California's efforts to reduce carbon emissions by the next decade, but it's an evolving industry where much of the work is performed by non-union contractors and pay varies widely. (Taylor Lindsay Barton via Bay City News)

IT WAS 7:45 IN THE MORNING, and five young men stood in a driveway in the Berkeley hills, staring at Michelle Falise’s roof and strategizing.

The crew was with Yellowjacket Heating & Cooling Services Inc., a fledgling HVAC company that specializes in heat pump installations. They were preparing to take on the day’s work in the late fall chill: installing six electric heat pumps in one home, the most they’d ever done on a single structure. It would enable the Falise family to make the switch away from gas to heat and cool their home with added efficiency.

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