ENERGIZE Clinton County

THE GREEN ECONOMY

Before you start promoting specific green development policies and initiatives in your community, its very important to understand what is encompassed by the green economy, and what makes sense in your community. One of the most important things that we remind ourselves is that our ultimate goal is sustainability, not just green. It is therefore essential for us to constantly ask what will work in our community, and what is economically sustainable. While it is often tempting to talk a lot about solar panels or wind turbines, we always have to ask ourselves “what is possible?” That can be a tough question to answer, but what we always remind ourselves is that increasing energy and material efficiency has less to do with new technologies and more to do with the way we live our lives and the decisions we make. Creating change in these areas requires individual creativity and initiative, things every community has.

There are many new economic opportunities in becoming more energy efficient beyond solar panels and wind turbines, and its essential to understand the extent of these opportunities to identify what will work in your community. This begins by a lot of reading and research. Then it means going out into your community and talking to public officials, businesses, and community members to identify the assets in your community and leverage them to promote green development.

Here are some of the resources we’ve found to be very helpful:

• Center for American Progress’ Green Recovery Report: Provides a broad analysis of the green economy with state-by-state reports.
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory: This incredible resources comes from the joint efforts of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Alliance for Sustainable Energy. We highly recommend looking at it resources for Local & State Project Assistance, especially its recent paper on Renewable Energy Communities. NREL also provides the best starting point for looking at what natural resources available to your community. It offers geographic data and maps for wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal.
• Database for State Incentives for Renwables & Efficiency (DSIRE): Make sure your up-to-date on the incentives offered by your state.
• Weatherization: Without a doubt, weatherization is easiest and most cost effective way for almost every community across the country to create jobs and increase energy efficiency. In fact, before we even begin thinking about solar panels or wind turbines, we should make sure every home and building has been weatherized. Its not sexiest or most appreciated green strategy (even our spell checker doesn’t like it), but its unquestionably the most cost effective. Here is what we’ve found to be really useful:
  –The Ohio Home Weatherization Assistance Program: We are very lucky to be operating in a state which has a proven history and model for weatherization. The Ohio Department of Development published an extensive reports analyzing the program, including: an impact report, process evaluation, training evaluation, and program standards
  –Weatherize Clinton County: ECC’s proposal for a large scale weatherization program in Clinton County using data from the Ohio HWAP impact report.
  –U.S. Department of Energy Weatherization Assistance Program: DOE is the primary funding source for weatherization assistance program across the county. They also have some good impact reports on wetherization.
  –Milwaukee Energy Efficiency (Me2): This model–developed by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy–offers an innovative approach to distributing weatherization services that insures immediate savings by providing up-front financing which is paid off in installments through utility bills. Without a doubt one of the most interesting and potentially sustainable models we’ve encountered for providing weatherization, and perhaps renewable energy technologies as well.
• Energize America (no relation): Energize America is a great example of citizen activism. It was the first comprehensive energy plan developed through citizen collaboration and aims at wean America off of foreign oil by 2020. Check out their 20 point plan.

Green Enterprise Zone

One of the first thing we encountered when we started working on a model Green Enterprise Zones is that there aren’t really any tested models for an effective Green Enterprise Zone. So that means we all have the opportunity to define what a GEZ could be. At ECC, we believe the ultimate vision is that a Green Enterprise Zone will provide incentives for all businesses that contribute to the increase of material and energy efficiency, from a company that manufactures solar panels, to a contractor that installs high efficiency furnaces, to a law firm that uses 25% less energy then its competitors. The key to this model is defining the benchmarks and process of categorization for “Green Enterprises.”

To learn more about defining green enterprises, we recommend this paper by Ernst & Young LP prepared for the United Kingdom Department of Business, Enterprise, and Regulatory Reform (which we’ve summarized here)

Just because we don’t have a definition doesn’t mean there aren’t other things we can do. The first step to take towards a Green Enterprise Zone is to work with local officials to develop a commitment to utilizing sustainable strategies in the process of economic and community development. A great example of this is the Green For All “Local Government Green Jobs Pledge.” You’ll have to decide whether the Green For All pledge will work for you, or you may want to develop one specific for your community. Getting your local government to adopt such a pledge will guarantee much needed common ground to discuss sustainable policies that you bring forward in the future.

Developing local incentives for green enterprises will take a lot of work and facilitation. The easiest way to get started is to start talking to businesses to find out what incentives they would find useful to help them become more energy efficient. Then share this input with your local officials and find out what policies could be enacted to offer these incentives. It will also be crucial to become educated on the economic assets of your community that can be leveraged to attract new businesses. Your local government, business leaders, and chamber of commerce can usually help you answer questions about your community’s economic strengths.

A very effective first step to take on a local level towards developing a Green Enterprise Zone is to adopt local incentives for green buildings. To learn more about these types of incentives, check out the American Institute of Architects which has compiled a report on local green building incentives.

Sustainable Communities

One of the most important lessons we’ve been taught by the economic challenges in Clinton County is that sustainability is more than green businesses. 10,000 green collar jobs at one company makes our community no more sustainable than 10,000 jobs at DHL. Thinking about sustainability has pushed us far beyond thinking about just the economy and green collar jobs, and has led us to ask questions about our culture, our decision making, and our philosophy. What we’ve found working in this crisis situation is that sustainability begins with community. It can only be achieved through collaboration between citizens, governments, and businesses to grow a sustainable prosperity for all.

Here are some of the resources that have helped us expand our thinking, and have given us inspiration for creating initiatives that promote community and sustainable living:

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) Sustainable Communities: RMI–one of the world’s leading “think and do tanks” –develops and implements solutions that promote the efficient and responsible use of resources. Michael Kinsley is RMI’s Senior Consultant for Sustinable Communities and works with communities to develop strategies related to sustainability, green economic development, and climate. He generously contributed these resources to our work, and agreed to let us share them with you:

• Building Prosperity Through Natural Capitalism
• Framework for Community Sustainability: Ten Ingredients for Long-term Success
• Sustainable Development: Finding Jobs and Business Where None Seem to Exist
• Collaborating for Healthy Communities
• Environmental Restoration and City Success

Sustainable Communities Network: Tons a resources on sustainability, and a wealth of case studies about sustainability work across the country. A great way to find out if there is anyone else in your area working towards similar goals.

The 10% Shift: Sustainable communities are built on thriving, diverse, locally owned economies. 10% Shift is a New England based campaign that advocates for consumers to shift 10% of their annual budget from non-local businesses to to locally owned businesses. If you need convincing that buying local can stimulate economic activity, check out this study on Western Michigan.

Other cool sustainable community initiatives:

–Green Streets Initiative: Encourge people to walk or ride to work the last Friday of the month and get businesses to reward them
–Community Garden Start-up Guide
–Earth Hour: International event to get people to turn off lights for an hour. While the actual Earth Hour event is on a specific day each year, there is no reason why you can’t hold a similar event in your community any day of the year.