Want to help make renewable energy projects happen in your
community, but don't know where to start? Not sure how to use your limited free
time to make a positive environmental impact on your community? NRDC wants to help.
NRDC is building a new generation of organizing tools to
help like-minded parents and students make renewable energy projects happen in
their community. Using best practices
from recent political campaigns, NRDC is building a social organizing platform to help parents and students connect, organize and win approval
of school renewable energy projects.
It’s a fun and empowering project and we hope you will join us!
THE CHALLENGE
Even as an increasing number of schools nationwide are adopting solar, many schools and communities still struggle to figure out how they can jump-start solar development on their campus.
While solar projects can provide many benefits to schools, they require time and effort to evaluate, approve, and manage. While many school administrators have an interest in going solar, they do not always have the time or resources to explore solar development.
Something is needed to help organize enthusiastic community members who are interested in exploring solar development on their local school, and to expand the people-hours and resources available to school administrators to forward solar project exploration and development. That's where the Solar Schools platform comes in.
THE SOLAR SCHOOLS PLATFORM
The Solar Schools platform will help parents and students connect and organize themselves around development of specific solar projects that increase renewable energy infrastructure in their community. We are building a bridge that connects local enthusiasm for renewable energy with the experts and resources they need to build the communities they desire.
A dynamic social organizing tool ...
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An interactive, step-by-step guide ...
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A personal dashboard ...
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A forum for Q&A with experts and peers ...
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PILOT PROJECTS
We aim to launch the alpha phase of a pilot program in the first 3-5 school communities as early as January 2014 and to roll out the beta to qualifying communities 6-12 weeks later.
Through pilot projects, we hope to prove that our new social organizing tool and dynamic guide will help communities:
Build their solar volunteer teams quickly through friend-to-friend connections.
Organize and track project momentum by creating a "hub" and guide for activism.
Empower more parents, students and teachers as leaders - creating more project "ownership" opportunities and higher levels of volunteer engagement.
For school communities participating in the alpha phase, we will provide organizational training and ongoing support in addition to the online platform. Throughout this phase, we will be testing and refining our organizer training and tools. With your help, we can develop the country's most effective platform for bringing clean solar energy to our classrooms ... and equally as important, spark the interest of many young minds in science, technology, engineering and math.
Many thanks!
The Solar Schools Team
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PARTNERING ORGANIZATIONS
There are many stellar organizations helping communities bring solar to schools and we are are excited to connect them with the schools that need their help. Their expertise, matched with the enthusiasm of communities across the country, is a driving force behind Solar Schools.
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THE SOLAR SCHOOLS TEAM
We didn't have many solar schools when we were growing up, but we're out to fix that for present and future generations.
Nathanael
Greene directs NRDC’s work on renewable energy, which advocates for more wind, solar and other forms of energy that will never run out—and helps ensure that those clean energy projects are built where they’ll have the least impact on our wildlife and wild places. He's the father of two beautiful girls, a happy husband and a native New Yorker.
Jay Orfield helps NRDC develop innovative financing and deployment strategies for energy efficiency and renewable energy. Jay is a civil engineer with expertise in real estate development and financing, and explores opportunities at NRDC for environmental innovation. With Southern roots, he believes there is a conservationist inside of every American, and he's committed to creating opportunities for them to show it.
Rob Friedman runs NRDC’s youth engagement work, bridging the gap between policy campaigns and young people on issues like climate change, extreme energy extraction and renewables. Much of what he's learned about environmental campaigning has come through his experience exploring this planet we all call home, from Patagonia, Chile to the Catskill Mountains of New York.
Paul Davis helps NRDC incubate and promote innovative solutions aimed at accelerating the adoption of sustainable urban infrastructure. Over the years, his work as a community organizer and
environmental educator has taken him from southwest Missouri to Cochabamba,
Bolivia—and proven to him time and again that there is no work more
rewarding than organizing communities around investments in their future.
JOIN THE SOLAR SCHOOLS MOVEMENT
Note: each perk includes a "vote" for your preferred pilot project location.
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