From Me to We: Take Your Climate Action to the Next Level

For an early Friday morning in June, I was thrilled to see the standing-room-only crowd of 60 people last month at CitySpace for Cville Tomorrow’s Coffee Conversations on Climate Action, ready to dive into the topic.

If you’re reading this, chances are you fall into the “urgent” or “concerned” category when it comes to your feelings about climate change (on the scale of Yale’s 2016 study “the Six Americas”). So you might have been the first among your family and friends to this climate action party – going vegetarian, composting, biking to work. You may have already made big lifestyle changes back in the 70’s and feel that many of the actions we are advocating for today are a bit déjà vu. Others of you may have amped up your action in the last couple of years as we are seeing the effects of climate change closer to home like the flash flooding in D.C. that happened two weeks ago.

What Else Can I Do?

Whichever category you fit into, it seems many of you are asking “What else can I do?” Last month I had the pleasure of being a part of Cville Tomorrow’s Coffee Conversation on local climate action that addressed this very question. Jesse Warren, Sustainability Program Manager – Buildings & Operations of the University of Virginia; Michelle Amt, Director of Sustainability for VMDO architects; and myself spoke about how we can further amplify our efforts around climate change.

We discussed what UVA is doing, what the architecture field is doing with the 2030 initiative, and the programs C3 offers in terms of 4 scales of action.

Moving from Me to We

The highlight for me (and thus the reason for writing the blog), was that Michelle’s framework for this talk elegantly lays out a path to get involved.  Her slide deck is accessible and shock full of great information— starting from personal actions at home, then the workplace, then the community, and then beyond to the larger world. If you weren’t able to join us, download her presentation. It won’t be the leftover food scraps of picked over goodies, but a beautifully wrapped gift of resources for you to feast your climate action on! 

Click on this image to see the Coffee Conversation powerpoint on Climate Action

Ways to Get Involved with C3

Summer Sprint

Check out our summer sprint six weeks of climate action that started last week (It’s okay – it’s not too late to catch up). Fill out this summer-themed scavenger hunt bingo card by completing one action per week and post your photos and hashtags. 

Home Energy Challenge

Maybe you’re thinking of bigger actions --this fall by starting your own team to participate in the Home Energy Challenge by hosting a fun “Power Party.” This kicks off six months of inspiring your teammates to complete action ranging from lifestyle choices to home improvements to citizen engagement (e.g. weighing in on the local climate action plan).  

Better Business Challenge

Later this fall/winter, we’ll be launching the fourth Better Business Challenge.  This friendly program will be open to all congregations, schools, businesses, and nonprofits in the area. Providing the necessary tools and tracking for organizations to save energy, demonstrate leadership, and innovate.

With a little help and a lot of hope, we can get from Me to We and make bold change for the benefit of all!

—Teri

p.s. Can’t view the whole slide deck right now? Here’s the image of the final slide. Click on 1 or 2 of the great links Michelle provided to find a myriad of ways to tap in, turn on, and take your climate action to the next level