Josh Helke started rock climbing at five years old. Throughout a lifetime spent in a sport that relies on steady, deliberate movement, he also built a business based on those tenets. Helke started the company Organic Climbing in his garage in Laramie, Wyoming, in the early 2000s, sewing together crash pads used for cushioning climbers when they fall from a rock face.
Organic Climbing is known for producing brightly colored chalk bags and crash pads used for rock climbing. Organic Climbing
Today, Organic Climbing and its sibling brand Nittany Mountain Works operate out of a facility in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, that employs more than 20 people. The Organic Climbing brand is known for using bright swatches of fabric, and each chalk bag and crash pad comes with a little tag reading “Solar Sewn.” The humble textile factory has a solar project on its roof generating twice the amount of energy the operation needs.
“We produce all the energy we use currently,” Helke said. “It was one of the best choices we ever made.”
Organic Climbing has practiced sustainability from the start by recycling packaging and using leftover materials in its other sewing projects. These environmentally friendly methods of production are even written into the company’s job descriptions. While the larger rock-climbing accessory market was homogenizing its products, Helke said he was making crash pads with brighter-colored fabrics and using leftover swatches to make bags with multiple colorways.
His method kept cut fabric from the landfill and helped him make more products, but it also paid off in free advertising. The bright Organic bags and pads were easy to spot in photos in major climbing magazines.
The next step — or rather, hand hold — in Organic’s sustainability route was bringing solar to the factory.
“In retrospect, I think Josh always had the ‘Solar Sewn’ tagline in his head,” said Jason Grottini, president of renewable energy services at Envinity. “He had a vision.”
Envinity is a solar and energy efficiency contractor based in the nearby town of State College. The company installs solar, tightens building envelopes and constructs energy efficient homes.
In the region, Organic’s business had grown alongside Envinity, and the contractor had previously conducted an energy audit on Helke’s home. When it was time to add solar to the factory in 2018, Envinity was the first choice for an installer.
With financial assistance from the federal investment tax credit, a regional utility solar rebate and a low-interest loan through the Small Business Administration, Organic could afford to install a 60.5-kW solar project on the factory’s roof.
Local installer Envinity built the 60.5-kW solar project on Organic Climbing’s factory in 2018. The array was sized to produce double the energy used by the factory. Envinity
The PV project was assembled in three sub-arrays that feed into one three-phase SMA Sunny Tripower Core1 string inverter. Helke requested U.S.-manufactured components, so the system is composed of CertainTeed panels attached to the metal roof with S-5! standing seam clamps. Building the project was as straightforward as they come.
“I wish solar was more complicated, but sometimes it’s really just putting small rectangles on big rectangles, and his roof was the epitome of that,” Grottini said.
The irony of having a solar project on Organic’s rooftop is that beneath the factory is a coal vein. Helke’s neighbors told him to use the coal to cover the cost of the PV array, but “you can’t sell coal to pay for solar, that just doesn’t work,” he said.
Organic paid off the array seven years after it was completed, and without coal money. Since coming online, it’s more than covered the energy consumption at the factory. Organic is a small shareholder at a rock-climbing gym in State College, and the additional production subsidizes that facility’s energy costs, as well.
Having solar on the roof has given the company more economic predictability in a time when energy costs are rising exponentially. Central Pennsylvania was a region that once had a booming textile industry, and Organic hopes to keep the trade alive and its people employed for the long-term. Solar is assisting in some part.
“I like making stuff. It’s really hard work, but I can’t imagine it feeling good to have shipping containers of stuff in plastic bags that you bring from overseas and sell,” Helke said. “The sense of family that we have because we work alongside each other and make a product — you don’t get that often. That’s something people probably lament about the loss of manufacturing. That is special.”
Organic’s website leads with messaging pointing to the fact that the factory is powered by solar. The company produced a two-and-a-half-minute video about the solar project, which features Helke reading prose about rocking climbing and photovoltaics. When people tour the factory, he shows guests how much the array is producing through SMA’s Sunny Portal. As the tag states, solar is sewn into the fabric of Organic Climbing.
“This is a case where Josh really wanted to sell the marketing side of solar and you just don’t get a lot of that anymore — people making decisions based solely on public perception impact,” Grottini said. “But this is 100% of a case where I think he almost had to put solar on the building for his business.”