Hannah Motl, Energy Corps

At only 24-years old, Hannah Motl probably knows more about conservation and energy use than the average American learns in a lifetime.

The Montana native has a degree in Conservation Biology from the University of Wisconsin. She's worked in Central and South America. Now, back in Montana, Motl is the first Energy Corps member to come to Missoula.

Motle has been helping the affordable-housing nonprofit HomeWORD monitor energy use in their buildings and helped create new programs to get tenants involved in sustainability.

The Energy Corps program is only in its second year and has a vision to create sustainable energy solutions.

“The whole mission of energy corps definitely aligns with HomeWORD,” said Motl's supervisor at the organization, Jennifer Betz.
HomeWORD receives grants for various energy saving projects – whether it be solar energy systems, water heaters or other technologies. Many of these projects are innovative and even experimental. Because of this, HomeWORD has had varying success with energy saving features installed in their buildings.
Staff at the small organization wanted to be able to gauge the ability of the different features to save energy, and to be able to decide whether or not they were helping residents save money. The nonprofit lacked the resources to make sense of all the information until Motl came along.
Betz said Motl's hard work has helped the organization achieve work beyond their original goals.

“Her flexibility has been amazing,” Betz said.

Motl's been handed a three-inch binder and asked to make sense of manuals about boilers and building systems. Her willingness to learn and transform this information into something useful has been invaluable to the organization.

“She jumps right into it and pulls that data out,” Betz said. “It's helped us evolve and grow as we've seen her capabilities in gathering data and putting it together, and allowed us to expand and brainstorm in terms of what we've been tracking.”

Motl's taken some of what she's learned with HomeWORD and applied it to her own home. This winter she taught a weatherization workshop and decided to make her own home more energy efficient.

Motl weather-stripped and installed a programmable thermostat that automatically turn downs when she leaves the house.

“I did a lot of things to attempt to fix my drafty house,” she said.

The vivacious young professional describes her Lower Rattlesnake rental home as 'the slightly haunted looking one on the corner.'

Outside, the house is dark, gray and in need of a paint job - but inside is much more reflective of Motl's personality. Her living room is open and bright. Art hangs on the walls, plants adorn coffee tables and two large tail-wagging dogs are ready to greet visitors at the door.

Before arriving in Missoula, Motl had been working on conservation and biology-related projects in South and Central America.

“What resonated most with me was when I worked on a permaculture farm in Ecuador,” Motl said.

While there, she learned how systems feed into each other.

“In lesser-developed countries, they can't afford to produce waste like we do and they reuse it in other systems. It was some of the most intuitive things I've learned,” Motle said.

Although the young college graduate found this work extremely rewarding, she ultimately decided she could make a bigger difference back in the United States.

“Obviously there are big issues down there – deforestation, extinction of species – things that need attention,” Motle said. “But I felt like a hypocrite down there. Even though they may be the ones cutting down the trees – we are the ones demanding the products.”
This spring Motl became car-free. She rides her bike or takes the bus - and admittedly has friends willing to give her a ride when she needs it.

Motl is also learning how to garden, and is spreading what's she's learned to others through workshops at HomeWORD and beyond.

Although being an Energy Corps member has many benefits, a big paycheck isn't one of them.

Motl's had to learn how to incorporate sustainable ways of living without spending a lot of cash.

“When you start off without a lot of money forces you to be creative in some ways,” she said.

She's tried to simplify where she can, including the decision to sell her car. She's also been creative in reusing and recycling materials, and deciding where there's wiggle room to spend a little money.

“With gardening right now, it's cheaper for me to buy from the store rather than growing my own, but knowing I'm learning and getting the skills for the future makes it worth it,” she said.

For as much as Motl's managed to accomplish so far, the future is bound to hold many more opportunities for the young twenty-something. She's contemplating going to grad school and can see herself getting into the environmental law or teaching fields.
Her Dad is an environmental lawyer who has worked with Ralph Nader

“His stories have always been an inspiration to me,” she said.

Teaching experiences in environmental education at the Montana Natural History Center, have also sparked Motl's interest.

“It made me understand complex science concepts better when I broke it down to a first grader,” she said. “I also liked getting kids to leave the TV and internet and X-box and getting them excited about catching snakes or fish and identifying plants.”