Climate action teams from Bar Harbor to York show that volunteers can be a force for change

By Amy Paradysz

Visitors to Mount Desert Island find restaurants serving sit-down customers with reusable plates and utensils, to-go orders being served in compostable containers and condiments served from refillable containers. Seventy businesses on the 108-square-mile island have signed the Sustainable MDI pledge, committing to at least five out of 10 initiatives to reduce the island’s carbon footprint – everything from forgoing plastic straws to taking measures to source food sustainably.

“Cities, towns, and counties all over the world are setting goals and doing their part to combat climate change,” said Joe Blotnick, co-coordinator of the island’s climate action team, A Climate to Thrive. “We have about 10,000 residents, but 3.5 million visitors a year because of Acadia National Park, so the work we do serves as a model for many people.”

A Climate to Thrive started in January 2016 with a small group of concerned citizens meeting over potluck dinners to discuss ways they could reduce carbon emissions as a community. They convinced the island town of Tremont to put a solar array on a landfill that now provides all the electricity for the elementary school and municipal buildings, and they’re working on approvals to install 1,300 panels on the roof of the high school. This, Blotnick says, will save $1.3 million over 25 years compared to standard electricity.

“We serve as a catalyst,” Blotnick said. “The superintendent and the principal wanted to go solar, but they have other priorities. A Climate to Thrive writes a proposal, works with the school board and gets the work done, speeding the process of doing what people want to do but can’t because they’re too busy.”

A Climate to Thrive isn’t persuading just government folks to invest in clean energy; 76 private homeowners installed solar on the island in 2017, doubling the island’s solar capacity.

“Our secret is to recognize that most people want to see us move toward a clean energy future,” Blotnick said, adding that more than 10 percent of the island’s population subscribes to the nonprofit’s mailing list.

At least 17 other Maine cities, towns or regions have a climate action team (CAT), most of them including at least one member of Sierra Club Maine, which provides a toolkit on how to form a CAT, determine community needs and interests and take specific actions.

“Sierra Club is a grassroots organization, and we organize groups of people to get things done that matter to them,” said Alice Elliott, director of Sierra Club Maine. “In the past we’ve had a large number of people involved with getting Katahdin Woods and Waters named a national monument. But often there are little projects that individual communities can take on. It depends on the local team and their interests.”

CATs around the state have focused on various aspects of reducing carbon emissions: weatherization, renewable energy, alternative transportation, plastic and waste reduction, municipal use of LED lighting and campaigns against idling vehicles.

“The Climate Action Teams came out of the Climate March in New York in 2014,” said Freeport resident Joan Saxe, chair of Sierra Club Maine’s climate action advisory team. “We said we need to have towns and grassroots folks in communities putting together climate action teams that can do what they like and what they want to do.”

Several CATs, including the one in Buxton, have started with a hands-on effort that doesn’t involve bureaucracy: volunteering with WindowDressers, a nonprofit based in Rockland that makes insulating window inserts to lower heating costs and reduce carbon emissions. Freeport, a town known for shopping tourism, banned single-use plastic bags. Bath is working on recycling food waste through Garbage to Garden.

The Cumberland CAT’s biggest win has been a solar farm on a capped landfill, a $1.1 million installation completed by local solar company ReVision Energy.

“This two-acre project on five acres of land will generate energy sufficient to meet about 90 percent of the electrical needs of the town of Cumberland, including police, fire, town hall and a local golf course,” said Denny Gallaudet, a founding member of the Cumberland CAT. “We’re excited about it. It will save about $2 million over the 30-year project.”

Nationally, the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 initiative calls for 100 communities of any size to commit to 100 percent clean renewable energy by certain dates. The York CAT persuaded the town’s Board of Selectmen to commit to having 100 percent clean and renewable electricity by 2030 and 100 percent clean and renewable heating and transportation by 2050. Next, York CAT volunteers are working with the town on an action plan to reach those milestones.

“Most of us are retired,” said Mac McAbee. “We have children and grandchildren, and I think that’s the impetus. We’re in it for future generations.”

Largely because of the relentless efforts of the Portland CAT, the cities of Portland and South Portland were able to negotiate a deal for a solar array on a closed landfill off Ocean Avenue, which took five years to see to fruition.

“In the end, the [electricity produced by the] array is just enough to cover City Hall,” admitted Tica Douglas, an active member of the Portland CAT. “But we also try to get the City of Portland and its residents to take small measures toward curbing their consumption of carbon.”

For example, the Portland CAT had a recent victory in its no-idling campaign. The City and the Department of Transportation have put up signs at the bridge connecting Portland and South Portland asking motorists to turn off their engines while the bridge is up.

“We’re a small, ragtag group,” Douglas said. “But we’ve become a force to be reckoned with. Does that mean we get our way? No. But are they aware of us? Yes. Activism on the part of a handful of people getting involved in the process is a good thing. We all have to put in our oar on this.”

About the author: Amy Paradysz is a freelance writer from Scarborough, one of the towns in the initial stages of forming a climate action team.

This article first appeared in the Fall 2019/Winter 2020 edition of Green & Healthy Maine HOMES. Subscribe today!