- Capacity Building for Communities: Leveraging FEMA and State Grants to Increase Resilience
- Climate Action Mapping Project (CAMP), Climate Action Now
- Climate Action Planning 101
- Grassroots Climate Action & Advocacy 101: Inclusive Movement Building for Change
- Climate, watersheds, and coasts: optimizing healthy Wisconsin waters
- Connecting Climate and Local Transportation
- Construction is HOW Big of a Climate Action Opportunity?! How your community can tackle the “other” building decarbonization–embodied (upfront) carbon
- Crafting Impactful Climate Change Communications
- Empowering Clean Energy Futures: Collaborative Workshop on Financing Solutions with the Green Innovation Fund
- Empowering Communities: Democratizing Investment in Renewable Energy through Cooperatives
- Grant Writing Strategies and Tips
- How to Build Sustainability at a Grassroots Level and Beyond
- How to Navigate -and Be Effective at- the PSC
- Natural Climate Solutions
- Relationships 101: Ethical Engagement with Tribal Nations in Wisconsin
- Systems Thinking Made Simple
- Exploring Community Adaptation, Resilience, and Storytelling with the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts
Capacity Building for Communities: Leveraging FEMA and State Grants to Increase Resilience
Communities that have identified projects to mitigate natural hazards and increase resilience can apply for federal grants. This session shared resources available to communities to implement projects, including building code enhancements, and promoted new funding opportunities.
Led by Katie Sommers, Wisconsin Emergency Management and Chad Atkinson, Wisconsin Emergency Management
Climate Action Planning 101
A growing number of local governments in Wisconsin are adopting plans and policies to address climate change. A climate action plan is a community-based framework document for measuring, tracking, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adopting climate adaptation measures and building resilience in the face of change. This workshop - lead by climate action planning experts, communities leaders who have completed their own climate action plan and WI’s Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy - provided practical “how to” information to help you and your community create a climate action.
Led by Katelynn Samuelsen, Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy
Climate Action Mapping Project (CAMP), Climate Action Now
In this workshop, participants became acquainted with the CAMP directory for climate action, why it exists and how to get involved. They briefly covered the history of the working group, followed by an interactive run-through of the website meant to coordinate and synergize climate-aligned organizations, events, and communication. They concluded by joining smaller groups and discussing components of the directory, what works, what can be improved, and an opportunity to be guided step-by-step into getting signed up!
Led by Matthew Ploeger (with help from additional CAMP volunteers), Climate Action Mapping Project, a working group of 350 WI
Grassroots Climate Action & Advocacy 101: Inclusive Movement Building for Change
We all know about actions we can take to reduce our carbon footprint and climate impact in our daily lives and in our local communities… but how do we, as individuals and communities, come together to build an inclusive movement for systems-wide change? If you’re not a climate or policy expert or employed in a related field, it can feel impossible to know where to start. 350 Wisconsin's Co-Executive Director Emily Park talked about opportunities for accessible grassroots engagement and how we can lower barriers to participation so that everyone can have a meaningful part in the movement in a way that meets their needs!
Led by Nikki Darga, 350 Wisconsin
Climate, watersheds, and coasts: optimizing healthy Wisconsin waters
This workshop explored various approaches to watershed and coastal management to provide building blocks and actionable recommendations to state and federal governments. The goal was to develop a more cohesive Wisconsin-wide strategy to safeguard water and the human and ecological communities that depend on it in the face of climate disruption.
Led by Jane Elder, Jane Elder Strategies, Bill Davis, and Matt Hudson
Connecting Climate and Local Transportation
”Connecting Climate and Local Transportation” was a workshop focused on public engagement, opportunity for community education, and building capacity for addressing climate and equity through local transportation plans and infrastructure. Though Wisconsin lacks a statewide vision for meaningfully reducing emissions in the transportation sector, local governments have a number of tools and resources available to them to address this issue. In this workshop, attendees learned about a unique model for public engagement and generated ideas for making better connections between local transportation planning and climate action.
Led by Susan Gaeddert 1000 Friends of Wisconsin and Becky Roberts, UW Stevens Point Center for Land Use Education, and Trevor Roark, transport equity advocate and owner of curbwise LLC.
Construction is HOW Big of a Climate Action Opportunity?! How your community can tackle the “other” building decarbonization–embodied (upfront) carbon
While building energy use has long been front and center for climate action, embodied (upfront) carbon related to construction represents a huge portion of the climate impact of the built environment. Continuous innovation, recent policy, and federal funding are rapidly changing the construction dialogue, offering opportunities, challenges, and there are an ever-increasing range of high-impact strategies for reducing embodied carbon. Attendees of this session came away with a familiarity with embodied carbon climate action opportunities, tools, and resources, an understanding of who needs to be at the table, and a map of next steps for their community or business.
Led by Julia Pooler, Carbon Leadership Forum Wisconsin Hub
Crafting Impactful Climate Change Communications
This workshop focused on strategies for effectively communicating climate-related issues to the public, using successful case studies from across Wisconsin. Participants learned best practices for crafting impactful messaging, empowering communities to take action, and developing their own high-level communication strategies on climate change.
Led by Jodi Jean Amble, RENEW Wisconsin, Cass Bergemann, Mueller Communications, Ryan Billingham, Wisconsin Conservation Voters, and Marco Marquez, Action for the Climate Emergency
Empowering Clean Energy Futures: Collaborative Workshop on Financing Solutions with the Green Innovation Fund
WEDC and PRE Collective hosted a workshop to explore financing solutions for clean energy projects and businesses. The workshop focused on new financing opportunities to address capacity gaps and align project ideas with the goals of the Green Innovation Fund. Attendees engaged in exercises to refine project ideas, ensure projects are aligned with priorities and needs, and discuss how they fit within the broader efforts of the Green Innovation Fund.
Led by Francisco Sayu, Wisconsin Green Innovation Fund, Shalini Vajjhala, Wisconsin Green Innovation Fund, and Benjamin Shorofsky, Wisconsin Green Innovation Fund
Empowering Communities: Democratizing Investment in Renewable Energy through Cooperatives
This workshop explored how two WI cooperatives are working to democratize investment in renewable energy, enabling community ownership and control over local energy projects. Participants learned about the cooperative models in action, discussed headwinds and tailwinds of this model and worked together to help design ways to help this investment model grow in WI.
Led by Cory Neeley, SolarShare WI Cooperative and Elise Couillard, Couillard Solar Foundation
Grant Writing Strategies and Tips
Participants strengthened their grant writing skills through this interactive workshop that examines strategies and tips for all stages of grant development, from inception to submission. Through an interactive presentation, the facilitator walked through the grant writing phases, engagied with participants about effective tips and strategies, analyzed answers for their effectiveness, and discussed important tips for those looking to improve their grant writing capabilities. Participants interacted with each other in small groups to discuss ideas and analyze strategies.
Led by Nicholas Labinski, Public Service Commission of Wisconsin
How to Build Sustainability at a Grassroots Level and Beyond
This workshop explored practical strategies for integrating sustainability into our lives—environmentally, socially, and culturally—using real-world examples. Together, they learned how to build thriving, sustainable communities for a better future.
Led by Cassandra Flagg, Environmental Equity Solutions Consulting/Wisconsin Environmental Justice and Infrastructure Initiative, Pastor Teresa Thomas-Boyd, Wisconsin Environmental Justice and Infrastructure Initiative, and Montre Moore, Wisconsin Environmental Justice and Infrastructure Initiative
How to Navigate -and Be Effective at- the PSC
Learned how to effectively navigate the PSCW website, sign up for email alerts, and understand basic terminology. Understood more about how to draft written comments, and how to appropriately advocate for your issues.
Led by Sam Dunaiski, RENEW Wisconsin
Natural Climate Solutions
Our forests, wetlands, grasslands and farms can be tremendous carbon sinks. Natural Climate Solutions is about optimizing the management and restoration of these lands, which can contribute as much as 1/3 of the greenhouse gas reduction needed to hold global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius. In this workshop they explored Natural Climate Solutions and showcased examples of their application in forests, farms, and communities throughout Wisconsin and beyond.
Led by Fred Clark Wisconsin's Green Fire, Devon Brock-Montomery, Savanna Institute, and Nancy Turyk Wisconsin’s Green Fire
Relationships 101: Ethical Engagement with Tribal Nations in Wisconsin
This workshop provided an overview of the 12 Tribal Nations in Wisconsin, their historic and current relationships with settlers, and treaty rights. It also offered insights into Indigenous environmental perspectives and best practices for fostering respectful partnerships between non-Indigenous organizations and Tribal Nations.
Led by Rob Croll, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission
Systems Thinking Made Simple
Do you have a sticky issue that you’ve been wrestling with- something massively entangled that you feel paralyzed by? Maybe it’s personal, maybe it’s professional but no matter how messy it is, they have the tools to help you see, understand and take wise action. While they introduced methods, models, tools and practices, the workshop participants applied them to their own situation in real time.
Led by Sarah Shanahan, RE-AMP Network
Exploring Community Adaptation, Resilience, and Storytelling with the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts
In this three-part, interactive session, participants had the opportunity to (1) learn from representatives of the statewide Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI) about tools and resources available to them; (2) share feedback with WICCI that will help guide future work; and (3) share their own stories of how their communities are being impacted by climate change.
Led by Natalie Chin, Wisconsin Sea Grant and Dominic Holt, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
