Do you want to make a difference on climate issues?
If so, thanks for thinking globally. Now, join us to act locally!

The Community Climate Solutions Team focuses on making change happen at local levels across the area. Our primary mission is to help area municipal- and county-level governments and educational institutions achieve their climate goals on time or ahead of schedule. A second mission is to broaden and deepen citizen climate awareness and action across the region. The Wisconsin Clean Energy Toolkit is a resource for achieving both of these missions.

We’re already achieving significant results — see CCST Action Highlights for an overview — and with your help, we can do much more. Fill out the form below to join us and help make sure our communities aren’t left behind!

Let the sun power us! (Art by Richard Jones)

Fulfilling Climate Commitments

350 Madison and other local groups have successfully encouraged multiple local governments and educational institutions to make ambitious climate commitments. So far, Dane County and the cities of Fitchburg, Madison, Middleton, and Monona have pledged to reduce emissions, as have some local institutions of higher education and school districts.

Now that commitments have been made, we want to help the officials leading these organizations fulfill them. They need citizens to support their efforts to change existing practices, shift budget priorities, and look at all operations through a climate lens. And that’s where our Community Climate Solutions Team (CCST) comes in. Our team is organized into locally focused Community Working Groups that actively encourage and help officials meet their stated climate solution commitments. In addition, CCST is encouraging municipalities that have not yet made climate commitments to take that step.

Each of our Community Working Groups strategically identifies optimal actions that local citizens can take to help their local officials. These are actions that may take citizens less than an hour per month, yet will have a major impact on officials’ decision making. Citizens’ voices matter!

Being the Change

Our communities are smart, action-focused, and solutions-oriented — it’s no surprise others take notice! For example, Tesla executives point to Madison when they talk about communities with a good electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

While we’ve got a lot going for us, there’s room for improvement. Achieving ambitious climate goals requires that all of us use a climate lens in making decisions—both big and small—about how we live. To foster change at individual as well as systems levels, CCST collaborates with other local groups working to increase awareness and action around climate. We seek to encourage our communities to be the savvy problem solvers that we say we are. This involves extensive outreach to all kinds of stakeholder groups. If you enjoy this kind of dialogue, fill out the form below to join us!

Remember—without you, we’re always one person short of who we need to make change happen right here in our community. Join us in fighting for a livable climate and a clean energy future!