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COMMUNITY RESILIENCE CHAT: Power from the People – Webinar

By Marissa Mommaerts, originally published by Transition US, Post-Carbon Institute, and Chelsea Green Publishing

August 26, 2013

NOTE: Images in this archived article have been removed.

Image RemovedWant to move away from Big Energy to community clean power but don’t know where to start?

In this webinar two community clean power visionaries, Lynn Benander of Co-op Power, a 450-member owned renewable energy cooperative in New York and New England, and Lyle Estill, founder of Piedmont Biofuels, a community scale biodiesel producer, talk about how it is done and answer questions. These are just two of the inspiring projects covered in the Community Resilience Guide Power From the People.
 
Co-op Power is a 450-member owned renewable energy cooperative in New York and New England, with an emphasis on local and regional organizing to build a multi-class, multi-racial movement for a sustainable and just energy future. Piedmont Biofuels is a community scale biodiesel producer which collects fats, oils, and greases from its region, converts them into biodiesel fuel which it then provides to its 400 member cooperative.  Piedmont is a certified B Corporation,  is accredited by the National Biodiesel Board as a BQ9000 producer, and is certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials out of Switzerland.
 
About the speakers:
Image RemovedLyle Estill is an expert on small-scale biofuels as well as a leading thinker and writer on the new economy. A founder of Piedmont Biofuels and the Biofuels Center of North Carolina, Lyle is also author of Biodiesel Power; the passion, people, and politics of the next renewable fuel, Small is Possible; Life in a Local Economy, and Industrial Evolution; local solutions for a low carbon future; and publisher of Energy Blog.
 
Image RemovedLynn Benander is a community entrepreneur and President and CEO of Co-op Power. She has worked since 1996 with membership groups in New England and New York representing more than two million people to develop sustainable energy resources in the Northeast based on a community-ownership model. As Manager of Co-op Power, Lynn has supported the development of five solar installation businesses, a multi-family/commercial building energy services company, and the  development of affordable, sustainable energy products and services for Co-op Power’s members and supporters.
 

Watch our previous Community Resilience Chat with Rebuilding the Foodshed author Phillip Ackerman-Leist.

 

 

Marissa Mommaerts

Marissa Mommaerts is an activist, organizer, grower, maker, entrepreneur & mother. After a brief career in international sustainable development policy, Marissa left Washington DC and began searching for systemic approaches to healing our ecological, economic, social and political systems – and that’s when she found Transition. She joined the Transition US team in 2013 and has served in various roles supporting all aspects of the organization. Currently she serves as National Network Organizer and focuses on strengthening relationships and organizing systems at all levels of the US Transition Movement. Marissa lives in rural Western Colorado, where she and her partner co-founded Cultivating Botanical Dreams, a regenerative family farm business specializing in handcrafted hemp and herbal wellness products. Marissa has a Master’s degree in International Public Affairs from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Tags: alternative energy, Community Resilience Chats, Renewable Energy, web chat

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