by Eric Richard

The following are notes taken from the MCAN 2007 presentation by Warren Leon who is the Director of the Renewable Energy Trust at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

For decades, I have been working in the environmental field and advocating activism and change and the individual and local level. And no matter where I go, someone always asks the question, “Isn’t what is really going to make a difference, big policy at the national and international level? How can you possibly make a difference for something as big as global warming at a local level?”

My response has been that if you care about things at the national level, then you had *better* be engaged in the individual actions.

For example, on fuel efficiency standards, we made trip after trip to the U.S. Congress to tell them to implement higher fuel efficiency standards and we presented all sorts of polls showing that the U.S. population was in support of increased fuel efficiency standards. But, they didn’t believe us. Why? Because real people in the real world weren’t taken the individual action of buying fuel efficient cars. So, the facts in the real world undercut our polls. If people are out buying gas guzzling SUVs then it is hard to make the point that they want more fuel efficient cars. They already have a choice and they are voting with their dollars.

As another example, the organic farming industry complained for years that all of the money for agriculture research would go to conventional agriculture. The point it changed is when individual consumers started putting their money toward organic foods. People noticed and then money started flowing toward organic agriculture.

One of the reasons why you see all of the action happening recently at the state level in Massachusetts is because you have all of the activists out there like you, convincing the legislators that this is an important issue.

So, how can you be an effective activist?

We are at the point where we are going outside of the converted and are trying to reach a mass audience. These people will be more critical and more cautious and will be more likely to turn off to the cause if they do not get good results. Because of this, we need to make sure that we are not over-hyping the products that we are selling or the results that we will achieve. We need to be scrupulously honest about the results we will achieve.

If we push new technologies, we need to make sure that they are reliable and that they work.

We to have high standards and be honest. We have to admit to ourselves that there is a tendency in the environmental movement to oversell things.

The real way to have maximum effectiveness is to be analytical. We should figure out what are all of the different things we can do in the community and figure out which could have the greatest impact and focus on that. We should know up front what we should expect to accomplish and how we can accomplish it.

One possible strategy is to focus on things that are highly visible. It gives a sense of progress. It shows that things aren’t hopeless and that it is possible to make change. It will make it much easier for you to succeed at your next project if you can get a visible success.

At the same time, just because something isn’t visible doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. If you do something that is not as visible, you should make sure you get as much impact out of it as possible.

With any project you do, you should look for educational opportunities associated with the project. Can you use the project to educate the public that there are other citizens who care? Can you use the project to educate policy makers that there is a signficant constiuency that cares about the issue? Are there other people in the community who can learn from your project to replicate it in their world? Is there an opportunity to educate youth about the technology involved or the possible economic impacts?

Can you disseminate out information about your projects to other people for them to learn from your work? For example, can you exchange information with your sister city about your projects so they can learn from them?

Figure out how to get out the message to developing countries that we in America release that the current model is not correct and that they shouldn’t follow our past mistakes, but our new tactics.
General Q&A

Q: Is there any advantage to moving the Renewable Energy Trust Fund over to the EOEA.

A: I think it would be a terrible idea. Obviously, that is self serving. We haven’t been perfect. But, we have learned an awful lot over the years. We know how to deliver the best results at the minimal cost. I think we’d lose a lot of momentum.

To the extent that the legislature gives us clearer guidance about the sorts of projects they would like to see us focusing on, that would be great.

Q: There are lots of things that we “know” we shouldn’t do, but we still do. We know we should exercise, but we don’t. We know we should eat healthy, but we don’t. Why do you put such great focus on education and how do you see that it makes a difference?

A: There are lots of things that we know we should do that we don’t do. But, the education that I was talking about was to educate people about the fact that a lot of people have woken up to this issue. What we should be focusing on are the things that people do once (e.g., buy a car, buy an appliance, build a new building) rather than focusing on the things that they do over and over again every day. Those things will have a bigger impact.