Hey All! Welcome to our blog!
I wanted to let you all know what I have been working on so far, so that hopefully there are some opportunities for collaboration or advice sharing, or at least to feel like we know what others are doing.
Energy Action Coalition
So far I have done a lot of work as a liaison between Clean Air-Cool Planet and Energy Action Coalition (the huge youth climate organization of which CA-CP is a partner). CA-CP (specifically Anne, and now me too) is on EAC’s Green Jobs working group. The working group is developing a Green Jobs Toolkit that focuses on ways that youth can work to create green jobs, especially through their campus campaigns. For the toolkit, I wrote (and Anne helped me revise) on the ways in which Greenhouse Gas Inventories (like those done through CA-CP’s Campus Carbon Calculator) and Energy Efficiency campaigns on campus can create green jobs for the broader community. I also wrote about how higher education curriculum can promote green jobs.
Planning Tool Outreach
Also, I have begun my primary focus for the summer, which is to help Jenn and Anne with outreach for the new Planning Tool that is part of the latest version of the Campus Carbon Calculator. Basically, the calculator helps schools enter data about their campus emissions and does the calculations on how many tonnes of emissions they are releasing. The calculator, therefore, helps schools understand the largest sources of their emissions. The new Planning Tool, which is my focus, helps schools consider the options they have available to them to reduce their emissions. For each reduction option (i.e. purchasing higher capacity buses) the Planning Tool indicates the cost of the reduction and the amount of emissions that will be reduced.
To think about outreach for the Planning Tool, Anne and I worked together to create a matrix describing vital groups to outreach to, messaging, and venues for reaching these audiences. I then created a 15 slide powerpoint presentation, with a student activist focus, on the value of the Planning Tool. Jenn will likely use this powerpoint in presentations that she often gives at schools and conferences. We will also be creating a video of me giving this presentation (and perhaps of Claire talking about the actual calculator), which will be embedded on the CA-CP website, facebook, YouTube, etc. I also created basic text advocating for the Planning Tool, and text focusing on each of our specific audiences, so that we can effectively communicate the value of the tool. This text will be used in various venues (journals, e-mails, articles, CA-CP website) going forward.
The Climate Fellows Blog
After this initial post saying what we’ve been doing for the last few weeks, I guess it sounded like the idea was a quick weekly post to update us all on what you’ve been doing for CA-CP.
I can’t wait to hear what you all are working on!
Hi everyone. Just testing the blogging waters for now. Will post an update soon. Hope you all are having a great summer so far.
Greg
Comment by gregorywilliams — July 1, 2008 @ 6:31 pm
Greg, glad to see you testing the waters; Casey, thanks for getting us started! Just want to invite everyone not only to update – but to muse, conjecture, or posit new ideas about the intricacies, value or just-plain-old fun involved in the work you are doing.
Comment by jsandrews — July 3, 2008 @ 8:07 pm
Hello All – So far here in Portland things have been moving along – sometimes steadily other times not. However, overall, it has been a great experience. Primarily I’ve been busy working with the city in collecting usage data on roughly 35 municipal facilities, buildings, and schools in preparation for sending out a Request for Proposals (RFP) in mid-August. In sending out this RFP, the city is seeking the best company (or ESCO) to conduct an industrial grade energy audit on these buildings. The ultimate goal, of course, is to make them more energy and cost efficient. Another part of my job this summer has been to put this data (water, oil, natural gas, electricity) into the US EPA Portfolio Manager program, which will enable the city to organize and track performance and savings over time. There is a great deal of political support for this project (the City Manager has called it his top priority for the year), so it feels good to put the effort into a project that you know will go somewhere and have tangible benefits for the city. I hope all of you are having a good summer as well!
Best,
Greg
Comment by gregorywilliams — July 7, 2008 @ 3:13 pm
Hi All! I’m based out of Portsmouth and have been steadily working on Community Toolkit-related issues. To date, I’ve checked on the existing case studies for dead links, etc., as well as compiling a list of additional material/information which would help to illustrate these cases even more. I’ve also worked on several new case studies, including the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative (which is a very interesting volunteer-based residential energy program) and an assessment of inventory tools useful for homeowners and municipalities interested in estimating their carbon footprint. My current projects include a case study on energy codes. Looking forward to hearing more about the rest of your projects (and hopefully meeting some of you as well)!
Comment by dllevine — July 7, 2008 @ 3:58 pm
Hi everyone,
It’s great to hear what you’ve all been up to! I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend. I’ve been working in Boston on developing case studies regarding successful climate change action in a number of organizations in Massachusetts. So far I have focused on two businesses, Shaw’s Supermarkets and Staples, and drafted reports of their best practices based on research and interviews. They should both serve as great examples for other businesses interested in going green. Shaw’s in particular has had a long partnership with Clean Air – Cool Planet, and hopefully both CA-CP and Shaw’s will get a lot of use out of the new case study going forward. It was great to get up to the CA-CP office this morning to discuss the Shaw’s case and other plans for the reports. In the coming weeks I’ll be working on several other case studies: publicly owned wind turbines in Hull, MA; renewable energy job training at the IBEW electrical union, and green education at Cape Cod Community College.
Ryan, as a Brown student I would recommend that you reach out to emPOWER if you are looking to involve Brown undergrads — it’s a quickly growing climate action group on campus. Also don’t miss Coffee Exchange on Wickenden Street in your coffee tour of Providence.
Talk to you soon,
Hillary
Comment by hillaryhh — July 7, 2008 @ 10:01 pm