Ideas of Projects Communities, Churches, and Schools Can Undertake Needed

I've really appreciated hearing about the various projects people are working on in their communities and reading the case studies on the CBSM websites. Does anyone know if there are lists of ideas of projects schools, churches, civic organizations, and communities can undertake around the issues of renewable energy and energy efficiency and where I could find them? I'm not at all creative, don't want to reinvent the wheel, and don't have a lot of time to do the needed research right now. The SE Minnesota Clean Energy Resource Team I'm volunteering with is about to launch an outreach campaign in the 15 counties we cover. We want to talk about the findings of our report, which found that we have the renewable energy resources in our area to provide for our needs for energy in various forms, etc.. We found that 51% of energy use in MN is in the 2 sectors of residential and transportation, so we are using that as a theme -- the individual choices we made in our homes and transportation modes can have a huge impact on our energy future. We have a list of personal actions people can take in their homes and transportation methods using renewables and efficiency that will make a difference -- but we don't have a list of projects that groups and communities can undertake. As part of our outreach meetings, we planned to find out what information people who come to the meeting need to undertake renewable energy/efficiency projects in their homes and communities and what they are interested in doing. On the basis of Doug's workshop I attended last week, we will try to get commitments from everyone who comes to the meeting to do 5 things in their homes and commit to working on 1 community project which participants will hopefully select at the meeting . After the meeting, we will provide the information people said they needed and see if they need any help on fulfilling their 6 commitments. Is that a good way to go about this? We'll figure out something for prompts, prizes, recognition, etc. I haven't finished reading all the materials I have about CBSM yet. I'm a policy wonk, so outreach and getting people to act are not my area of knowledge or expertise -- so any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. We don't have the time or resources to do literature searches, observation, focus groups, or surveys at this point -- critical as they are. Doug mentioned in his workshop last week that there is a need for white papers to be developed that will help groups like ours that don't have the resources to go through these 4 important steps for the projects we are working on. To have white papers developed that would include literature searches, behavior observation, focus group results, and survey results in the areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency, for example, would be a HUGE help for those of us in the grassroots trenches to have as we try to develop and launch effective campaigns. If any of you or your organizations have the resources to help develop these white papers, it would be great!

Thanks for knowing about these things and being willing to share your knowledge and expertise with one who sadly doesn't but is willing and interested in learning more about it..

Nancy Adams