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. Join us to help make sure our communities aren’t left behind!

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!

You can help CCST help local governments and educational institutions fulfill their climate commitments in three ways:

1. Join one of our growing number of Community Working Groups. Use your research, analysis, and planning skills to identify optimal ways that citizens can support the officials working to achieve climate goals. To join, sign up here or contact one of our CCST leaders, Susan Millar, Kermit Hovey, or Julia DePalma.
2. Sign up for the CCST Action Participation List. When you sign up for this list, you’ll receive occasional requests from one of our Community Working Groups to contact an alder, attend a local government meeting, or take other similar actions. Just a few minutes of your time can have a big impact. Sign up here.
3. Share your ideas with us! Do you have good ideas for how to support your local government or educational institution? Send them to one of our CCST leaders, Susan Millar, Kermit Hovey, or Julia DePalma.

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, contact one of our CCST leaders, Susan Millar, Kermit Hovey, or Julia DePalma.

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! Click here to get involved!

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