Three Slide Script for Grow Smart Maine’s Panel Talk – Oct. ‘15

WHAT AM I DOING? (3 minutes)

(slide of people on roof) A year ago I came back from Denmark with a plan to bring more energy efficiency to both Peaks Island families and to the Island elementary school. I’m only going to talk about our school effort today.

PEAT, the Peaks Environmental Action Team, is our island environmental group. From the start, we had wanted to do a solar project as part of this plan. The gym roof of the Elementary School seemed like the perfect spot. A meeting of stakeholders discussed the idea last fall. Here we are on the school roof.

But common sense caused us to change our priorities. We had learned that the school’s ancient heating plant was burning 40 – 50 thousand dollars worth of heating oil annually. So we recruited two island volunteers, one an energy auditor and one an architectural designer to find out specifically why. They donated an inspection of the school. In short, the building was leaky and the massive oil boiler needed to be replaced.

NEXT! (first Prezi slide) As our project developed, I became the glue for an effort that had a lot of moving parts, and several constituencies. I found myself investing a lot of time, but gradually the lay of the land, the roadblocks and the opportunities became clearer.

By March, we had a vision, which we shared with the Island community at a public meeting. This is the overview slide of that vision. It describes the challenges we were facing, five goals for the building, how we could reach them, the groundwork that had been laid, the next steps that were needed, and why we should “get this done”. A solar emergency shelter was still in the picture, but now it would have to be the frosting, not the cake.

How far have we come? It looks like heating system replacement will be scheduled for next summer. We are grateful for those public servants on the School Board and City Council who will hopefully make this possible. Meanwhile, the Public Buildings Department has caulked windows, upgraded radiator valves and thermostats, sealed off un-needed vents, and has committed to spray foam the crawlspaces in both wings of the school by November 30th.

PEAT, on our side, has hired an engineer with grant money from the Island Institute. He has used his software to create an energy model of the building, which will help us select an appropriate heating system and prioritize other measures. PEAT also landed a $10,000 grant from the Peaks Island Fund. Our contractor will weather strip the school’s leaky doors, build a new insulated bulkhead door, a new insulated hatch to the attic, and patch holes where heated air escapes the building.

NEXT! (Slide of all the people who helped in one way or another) I believe we have gotten this far by framing our effort as a collaboration between the community, the school system and the City. It has felt increasingly true that this is the case. This slide identified the many Island, City and School folks who had helped us along. Now there are more. We are making progress, but we still have a long way to go. Would I like to be working on renewables? Yes. But first we have to deal with the realities on the ground. Thank you!

ONE PIECE OF ADVICE TO ANOTHER COMMUNITY OR GROUP: (1 minute)

Use the word “we”, not “I” in your communications. Frame your effort as a collaborative one. It may feel funny to do this when it feels like you are the one who is doing most of the work. But the energy revolution on Samsø Island in Denmark was framed as a community effort, and look what they accomplished!

I find that using the word “we” helps me focus on what others may be thinking and feeling about our effort, and that helps me communicate better with them. It also helps me ignore my ego when it whispers in my ear that I am the only local hero, and everybody should love me for what I am doing.

Using “we” helps me develop a more inclusive mindset and reminds me that shared ownership of a community effort is critical to its success.

Working alone feels daunting and lonely. Working together towards a common goal feels purposeful, fun and energizing. Use “we” in your communications, and your wish for collaboration may come true, even if you are doing most of the work!

ONE WAY TO BRING THIS KIND OF EFFORT TO SCALE IN MAINE: (2 minutes)

Maine’s communities are dealing with a lot of old public infrastructure. But finding the money to pay for energy retrofits is difficult. People often complain that taxes are too high, and complain that “politiicians” shouldn’t be trusted with more money. “Things are just fine as they are.” They make the serious mistake of thinking that penny pinching in the short term is more frugal than spending now for energy efficiency that will pay dividends for decades to come.

So even though building science is highly developed and energy auditors can point the way, it’s usually hard to find the needed money for energy efficiency upgrades. Since public institutions like schools are often constrained by tight budgets, too often we end up limping along and patching up old infrastructure with clarinet reeds and scotch tape. This has certainly been true of Peaks Elementary School until last year.

Tightening up old buildings and heating them efficiently makes so much good sense! Unlike many things our taxes go to, these measures pay for themselves, and often very quickly. This is not a new insight. Portland hired a company called Ameresco a few years ago to work on a bunch of buildings, and paid the company back with harvested energy savings. And Efficiency Maine already uses this strategy when it makes energy loans to homeowners. Why can’t we be creative and create a loan fund for public buildings as well?

So I think one way of bringing our school project to scale in Maine would be to have the legislature mandate development of a fund that loans money to towns and libraries and school systems for energy efficiency projects. These entities would of course be obligated to pay back their loans with the savings they harvest. Once the loans were paid off, the entities would own those savings, year in year out. And once the fund’s pot of money gets established, it could be self-sustaining, recycling cash from paid off loans into new projects. Could Efficiency Maine take this on? Is there another way to do this? Is there a legislator in the house?