The Community Climate Solutions Team (CCST) began actively operating in January 2020. We hold monthly meetings to which our 100+ members are invited, where they can learn about the work of our various Community Working Groups and help plan new initiatives. Learn more about how our Community Working Groups are achieving their goals below!
We organize our members (including high school and college students, young professionals, parents, and many older citizens) into project groups that build relationships with our city’s alders and foster local action designed to reduce the threats of climate warming. Prior to taking action, each of these groups seeks advice from key climate leaders in the community on how to proceed strategically.
In June 2020, the Madison Community Working Group completed our first project — helping the city pass its tougher stormwater ordinance. Then in October 2020, we garnered citizen support to help pass Madison’s Electric Vehicle Readiness Ordinance.
In January 2021, we formed the Alder Elections team, which interviewed nearly every alder candidate in the City of Madison about their plans for helping the city meet its stated climate goals. This team worked with the WORT radio station to include climate-focused questions during on-air radio debates, thus helping both citizens and candidates become more aware of and engaged with the critically important climate issues in Madison.
In April 2021, we presented the City of Madison’s Mayor’s Office with two research-based memos to help the office act on the city’s stated goal of encouraging the owners of large buildings to benchmark their energy use, with the understanding that this would lead these building owners to reduce emissions.
In May 2021, one of our interns created a Green Certified Buildings in Wisconsin map and guide and shared it with the City of Madison Plan Commission. Did you know that Madison doesn’t even rank in the top five cities in the state with regard to green buildings per capita? The city needs to improve, and we are committed to shining a light on the areas that need improvement.
In August 2021, we published our case study–based report, “Green Building Incentive Programs: Progress in Selected Cities.” The goal of this report is to spur the planning departments in Madison and surrounding communities to use incentives to reward developers who use green building practices, during a time when our state legislature has made it illegal for municipalities to exceed the state’s outdated building codes.
In January 2022, we released “Potential Financial Strategies for a Madison Version of the Portland Clean Energy Fund,” intended to help spur action in support of local climate justice action.
In fall 2021, we launched both our Alder Liaison and Green Buildings project groups, both of which are continuing to pursue our goals in light of lessons learned in our work during the last two years.
If you are a Madison resident who wants to help with these projects, please complete the CCST interest form here and join our community of climate-concerned citizens who are making a difference at the local level.
The Middleton Community Working Group has engaged in multiple initiatives to help our city’s officials advance policies and decisions that reduce climate change. We frequently provide public comment at city council and other municipal meetings, publish articles in local media, and meet individually with the mayor, mayoral candidates, alders, and city staff. Our alder engagement project assigns volunteers to specific elected officials to sustain communication about climate issues. We also participated in the Middleton Sustainability Committee to propose revisions for the energy and greenhouse gas chapters of our city’s Sustainability Plan.Our greener golf course and fleet electrification projects made initial inroads with staff. However, these efforts must continue in order to overcome concerns about new technology, capital budget limits, and planning cycle constraints. With additional volunteers, these and other projects focused on idling, bike advocacy, and solar energy will build on our promising initial discussions with city staff. If you are a resident of Middleton who would like to help with these projects, please complete the CCST interest form here.
In close collaboration with other groups across 350 Wisconsin, CCST has been advocating hard at the state level for policy change designed to reduce climate-warming emissions. We participate because state-level energy production and efficiency policies are hampering local government efforts to achieve climate goals. Our work includes an extensive set of recommendations, submitted in summer 2020 on behalf 350 Madison (now 350 Wisconsin), to the Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change; recommendations submitted to the Public Service Commission (PSC) in summer 2020 for improving its draft Strategic Energy Assessment; and participation as of spring 2021 as an intervenor in the PSC’s “Roadmap to Zero Carbon Investigation” docket. In addition, our group routinely submits comments to state representatives and senators and the PSC in support of policies that move the state toward reducing emissions from the energy sector. We are engaging officials who are considering adopting an updated state-level building code and interacting with state leaders as we plan a campaign intended to get the State of Wisconsin Investment Board to divest their extensive holdings in fossil fuel industries.
If you are interested in influencing state policy in ways that reduce carbon emissions, please complete the CCST interest form here.