Create Your Low Carbon Community
Be the Catalyst
Many groups are working tirelessly to impact climate and have been frustrated with the pace of change. Successfully transitioning a community to become greener has been difficult, but doesn’t need to be.
With 8 years of experience testing methods for community impact, Green Community Catalysts has developed a comprehensive MODEL THAT ACCELERATES CHANGE.
With this model, we train leaders, one community at a time, to ACHIEVE MORE IMPACT… FASTER AND EASIER.
∽ Learn the best practices to ∽
Energize Residents
Create an organization that attracts equitable participation and makes it easy for residents to act
Attract Resources
Volunteers, staff and donors are excited to support the organization
Measure Impact
Design initiatives that are measurable and fuel future activity
Foster Collaboration
Amplify your efforts by partnering with other community organizations
∽ Our Program is designed for ∽
Executive Directors
of Nonprofits
Seeking help to:
Increase attendance at events
Reach more diverse people
Attract volunteers and staff
Increase funding
Founders of Local Groups
Seeking help to:
Increase awareness in the community
Be recognized by leaders in the community
Define the next phase for their group
Passionate Individuals
Seeking help to:
Have a greener hometown
Start a movement
Rally others
Municipal Sustainability Directors
Seeking help to:
Create a community engagement plan
Attract talent and other resources to implement initiatives
Collaborate with other community partners
Design initiatives for a diverse constituency
Ultimately we need people to shift behavior
and they need leaders (like you) to show them the way
People’s daily actions account for 65%-85% of our Greenhouse gasses*
*Environmental Impact Assessment of Household Consumption, Carbon footprint of nations: a global, trade-linked analysis, This is how your personal consumption affects the climate
How to Create a Low Carbon Community
Our Philosophy
To succeed, every community needs a central ‘Green Hub’, an organization or department that is a recognized resource on sustainability actions specific for their community.
Our goal is to train leaders to create these hubs,
Quickly and easily, one community at a time, to accelerate our global climate transition.
Green Hub Characteristics
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In order to maximize the results in your community, it needs to be easy for the residents to understand not only what they can do, but how they can do it - in their local community. They need to know what the local policies are, what the local services are, which local businesses are participating, and what local resources are available to them.
They need hyper local guidance.
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Most of the transition to a low carbon community revolves around the fact that we’re going to be asking people to shift their behaviors and their habits. The study of shifting behaviors is well understood and well documented. For the Green Transition Model, we’ve adopted the MINDSPACE framework as a guide to shifting behaviors.
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Most people (there are a few exceptions), will engage in FUN activities and messages versus ‘gloom and doom’ activities/messages. Although this is a key component in the MINDSPACE framework, it is worth calling out separately as it is critical to realizing widespread engagement.
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Depending on your community, you already have 5-20% of the population that believes in and practices sustainable activities. This portion of your community is important in so many ways, but our goal is to engage the remaining 80-95%. We need EVERYONE to shift behaviors independent of their beliefs, their socioeconomic status, their age, their neighborhood, etc. Finding the motivators and the enablers that engage everyone is critical.
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Innovation requires collaboration and collaboration requires strong partnerships and relationships with other groups within the community - from local government to local businesses to local educational systems to other organizations and industry partners (i.e. utilities). Building and maintaining these relationships will allow you to expand your community engagement efforts tenfold
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Many communities already have a number of great organizations that support various sustainable activities. The challenge in most communities is that these organizations are focused on one aspect of sustainability and they act alone. The purpose of the Green Transition Model is not to recreate the wheel or to compete with any existing organization, but rather to ‘connect’ the various organizations.
From the resident’s perspective, they want one point of contact for any sustainability question that they have. Be that one point of contact - Be the ‘Hub’!
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Of course none of this is possible without a solid foundation of an organization that can sustain itself long term. By creating an organization with solid governance, a strong team, and a sustainable funding strategy, the organization can be effective for the next 2-3 decades - the time required to create a low-carbon community.
A Turn-Key Teaching Approach
To equip leaders to ‘hit the ground running’, we share our model in a comprehensive Incubator: a course along with ongoing mentorship, and networking.
It’s a turn-key implementation approach that takes the guesswork out of your community engagement strategy.
Graduates of the Green Transition Incubator will learn how to successfully create, run and sustain a ‘Green Hub’ in their own community.
Our Model
After years of research, collaboration and testing in the EU and US, we’ve designed a replicable model that builds momentum and accelerates lifestyle change in communities.
It’s a systematic approach that deploys key components in ways that are unique to YOUR community.
Personalized Consulting
Should the Incubator not fit into your schedule, we can assess your needs and develop a customized implementation plan based on our Philosophy and Model.
How our Training Can Help You
Strengthen an Existing Organization
You already have most of the model components in place and you simply need to enhance some areas or aspects of your existing nonprofit.
ASSESS what you already have against the Green Transition Model to determine what is working and what is not working - what parts of your organization are strong and what parts need assistance.
ENHANCE & STRENGTHEN the components that are weak or lacking.
SHIFT your operations to include the newly enhanced components to better engage your community.
How we can help you achieve your goals include our 1-hour Introductory Classes, Skill Building Courses and 12-week Incubator. One-on-one consulting is also an option.
Create a New Organization
You have the opportunity to start from a clean slate to create the organization in an accelerated fashion.
DESIGN your custom playbook using the Green Transition Model.
BUILD your own, hyper local ‘Green Hub’.
ENGAGE your community with the entire organization.
How we can help you best achieve your goals is the 12-week Incubator.
Enhance Municipal Community Engagement
You have the opportunity to build a sustainability department that is focused on community engagement.
ASSESS the current support structure that you have within your local government and your community against the Green Transition Model.
DESIGN & BUILD the approach to the missing or weak components.
ENGAGE your community with a team built for success.
How we can help you achieve your goals includes our 1-hour Introductory Classes, Skill Building Courses and One-on-one consulting.
The Green Transition
Incubator
12-week Course + 12-month Membership
We’ve learned from experience that funding for community initiatives can be difficult so we’ve created a cost effective mechanism to deliver the program via an Incubator.
A 12-week Course
We walk you, step by step, through the creation of a ‘Green Hub’; your community’s transition organization.
Alumni Membership
After the course, you'll receive 12-months of mentorship and networking support as you implement your ‘Green Hub’.
Take the guesswork out of your community engagement strategy
Not sure if the Incubator is for you?
Enroll in a Free Class Today
Five Tips for Funding Success
Free 60-minute Class
Funding is an essential component for any climate action organization and a common challenge. Without it the ability to make significant impact in your community is impossible.
We will share strategies that you can implement immediately.
What’s Needed to Succeed?
Key Elements to Inspire Local Climate Action
Free 60-minute Class
Hyperlocal climate organizations can play an important role in motivating their communities to act. It’s critical to start with an understanding of why people don’t take action and how your organization can change that. How well your organization can do that is dependent on how it is structured.
We’ll share the key components of a successful organization's structure and how they interrelate. A self-assessment exercise will be included.
Three Strategies to Increase Resident Engagement
(Coming soon)
Free 60-minute Class
Excite and engage your residents to learn about and act more sustainably. We’ll share 3 strategies from our Model that have proven successful.
Join our free Community Leaders Forum: Green Impact Project (GIP)
Successes, challenges and ideas shared among community leaders around specific topics. Monthly virtual discussion.