Collaborating with Community-Based Organizations: An Energy Justice Primer for States

Partnerships between state energy agencies and community-based organizations (CBOs) are a key component of advancing energy justice. Solar development in under-resourced communities will be most effective and equitable when trusted community organizations are involved. Community engagement can lead to innovative, equitable, and inclusive solar projects by connecting the concerns of communities to the decisions that allocate public funds.

The Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) together with the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources (OER) has authored a new guide for states on collaborating with CBOs. The guide covers the preliminary steps and training state agencies can undertake prior to pursuing collaboration with CBOs, how to structure community engagement, and how to build long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships. Case studies highlight successful state/CBO collaborations. The guide provides a helpful primer and additional learning resources on environmental and energy justice, as well as an appendix on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion.

In this webinar, speakers from CESA and OER provided an overview of the guide and discussed case studies and best practices.

Speakers:
• Shauna Beland, Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources
• Yasmin Yacoby, Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources
• Abbe Ramanan, Clean Energy States Alliance
• Nate Hausman, Clean Energy States Alliance (moderator)

This webinar was presented by CESA as part of the multi-state State Strategies to Bring Solar to Low- and Moderate-Income Communities project, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office and led by CESA.