Community Global Warming Roundtables

Multi-stakeholder processes on global warming have occurred at the state level in several northeast states, but not, until now, at the local level. Clean Air-Cool Planet (CA-CP) has worked together with the City of Portland, Maine, to initiate and co-sponsor a climate planning process based on multi-stakeholder planning initiatives. Two meetings, Global Warming Roundtables, have been held, and we are in the process of completing a third meeting. CA-CP plans to roll-out this exciting and potentially very effective new model to other targeted communities in the Northeast.

These Global Warming Roundtables establish a lasting network of leaders from different sectors in a community which will continue to communicate and meet and work together after Roundtable workshops are over.

This project aims to prove a local model for establishing a dialogue between those with a stake in solutions to global warming. Involving local government, businesses, community organizations, colleges, schools, houses of worship, and individual citizens, the community global warming roundtables result in a prioritized local climate plan with stakeholder buy-in, and ultimately in significant greenhouse gas emission reductions. This project is the first of its kind to formally bring together all sectors to jointly develop and implement a global warming action plan at the local level through the leadership of a municipality in the Northeast.

Building on the ICLEI model.

Clean Air Cool Planet has a formal partnership with ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability – and works very closely with their Cities for Climate Protection Program (CCP) through the Northeast Regional Office. We have helped recruit several cities to CCP and have provided assistance and support to many existing members.  ICLEI has been very successful in engaging municipalities to take action and helping them create local action plans to address climate change. One of the recommendations of ICLEI’s climate protection program is to form a steering committee in order to create the climate action plan. A significant problem with many of these plans is that they do not have sufficient stakeholder buy-in to enable implementation. CA-CP is uniquely placed to undertake the initial work of putting together an effective stakeholder group as we are the only regional organization working directly with multiple sectors. Through its core programs, CA-CP is continuously establishing strong relationships with businesses, campuses, and other community organizations. Many of these are in communities that ICLEI is operating in. It is imperative for these various stakeholders to be involved from the beginning of the process in order to ensure the creation of a climate action plan that is supported and implemented by the community. 

Establishing a model project in Portland

The City of Portland, home to 64,000 residents, is Maine’s business, financial and retail capital and the largest city in the state. About 1/3 of Portland businesses are service related; less than 10% are manufacturing, 20% retail, and 10% government. There are at least 57 places of worship, 128 community organizations, and dozens of neighborhood groups serving this growing and diverse New England city. Portland is a member of the ICLEI climate protection program. However, after completing an initial greenhouse gas inventory, the city never convened a stakeholder group or produced a climate action plan. Here is a prime example where stakeholders were not involved in the beginning of the process in order to move the city forward in their goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Co-sponsored by the Mayor’s office of the City of Portland and CA-CP, the Portland Global Warming Roundtable has met twice, in October 2005 and February 2006. Its first two meetings were very successful in bringing 20-25 representatives of most of Portland’s relevant sectors to the table to discuss their own projects and the potential for collaboration and joint initiatives on global warming. Participants included the Mayor of Portland, the Maine DEP commissioner, environmental and community leaders, representatives from several of the areas largest employers (e.g. Fairchild Semiconductor, Oakhurst Dairies and TD Banknorth) as well as from the University of Southern Maine. Just beginning the conversation across sectors was an important step- and the objective now is to begin leveraging resources and building capacity so that the cross-sector partnerships will continue and grow after the initial project period.  CA-CP is coordinating the organization of the roundtables, providing assistance in enlisting participants, engaging the public and in tracking and evaluating progress.

Using Community Based Social Marketing to support climate action

Clean Air-Cool Planet will work in partnership with the City Of Portland on the implementation of the ideas and recommendations resulting from the Roundtable meetings, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Pilot projects will be developed utilizing proven community based social marketing models. Successful community-based social marketing involves four steps:

1) Identifying the barriers and benefits to an activity;

2) Developing a strategy that utilizes “tools” that have been shown to be effective in changing behavior;

3) Piloting the strategy, and;

4) Evaluating the strategy once it has been implemented across a community.

Anticipated Outcomes from a Global Warming Roundtable:

There are a variety of outcomes this project achieves:

• Significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the community
• A proven new model for local climate planning that can be adopted throughout New England
• New relationships among key community area stakeholders, resulting in joint projects and ongoing partnerships to implement climate solutions
• Increased business involvement in energy and climate planning in the community and other cities.
• Greater public awareness of climate issues and new constituencies for energy solutions in the community .