Using NCEC to expand sustainability into communities

You can do outreach to other colleges and high schools not yet involved in NCEC to either get involved or simply replicate energy saving initiatives. Local churches, businesses, community service organizations, municipal governments, neighborhood associations, labor unions, youth organizations, and primary educational institutions are all great places to find people interested in saving energy, carbon, and money. By establishing communication between NCEC campuses and communities, we can promote sustainability initiatives across the nation.

Some specific ideas for ways community members can get involved:

1. Talk to your mayor – Mayors Climate Protection Agreement: http://usmayors.org/climateprotection/
2. Sierra Club Cool Cities Program: http://coolcities.us/
3. Check out New Energy For Cities: http://www.apolloalliance.org/docUploads/new_energy_cities.pdf
4. Check out innovative community energy saving examples like the MN Energy Challenge: http://www.mnenergychallenge.org
5. Invite local businesses to support your campus effort with donations, and work with them to promote cost-effective strategies for saving energy in their business.
6. Invite the general public to campus events.
7. Organize events (like sutstainability fairs, etc.) in the community.
8. Get the student volunteer groups at your school to make community sustainability part of their agenda.