Starting A Town Energy Committee

Town energy committees are making real, positive, clean energy action happen in communities across Vermont. Increasingly, legislators and state officials are also looking to the experience and perspective of these all-volunteer grassroots groups to inform state policy making too.

Now, more than ever, there is a real need and opportunity to grow proactive, forward-looking, solutions-oriented grassroots power. Join or start an energy committee – with the help of the Vermont Energy & Climate Action Network partners!

For new groups, ensure you check out our guide to starting an energy committee. Also, start first with getting a baseline of your community’s energy consumption, ideas for strategic projects and powerful success stories of investing in Vermont’s clean energy transition. Check out the Vermont Community Energy Dashboard as a great place to start. Also the Energy Action Toolkit put together by VECAN partners  is a great step-by-step overview of how to prioritize potential projects.

Vermont’s Comprehensive Energy Plan sets key goals in place and a direction – across the heating, transportation and electricity sectors – for how Vermont can become 90 percent renewably powered by 2050. Be sure to check out this important guidance document.

For more information about starting an energy committee – or focusing your group – contact Johanna Miller at [email protected] or 802-223-2328 ext. 112 for more information.

• The Town Energy and Climate Action Guide
  This is our guide to starting, strengthening, and maintaining an effective committee.
• Town Energy Committees: Community Powered Energy and Climate Change Solutions
  This is a distilled version of our guide, which also includes action steps and ways to get involved.
• Waterbury LEAP: Starting a Town Energy Committee
  This is a practical guide to starting and maintaining an effective committee from the Waterbury LEAP energy committee.
• Energy Planning & Implementation Guidebook for Vermont Communities
  We also recommend reading our guidebook for instructions on local energy planning.
• Communities Tackling Vermont’s Energy Challenge
  This also has great examples and case studies on energy and climate action projects from around the state.
• Strategic Energy Action Toolkit
  Local Energy Solutions based in New Hampshire has produced this to help volunteer groups get more done by planning actions before jumping in.