TCCPI has just released its 2010 Report on Member Accomplishments. Find out more here.

The TCCPI coalition has been busy pursuing new ways to expand and strengthen energy innovation in the Ithaca area.

TCCPI has worked closely with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County to launch the Tompkins Energy Conservation Corps (TECC), consisting primarily of students from Cornell, Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community College. Energy Corps members carry out energy assessments on the homes of local leaders to help them understand the importance of energy conservation and its impact on the local economy. In addition, TECC conducts outreach efforts through community blower-door workshops, youth activities, employer brown bag lunch events and an evolving marketing campaign. TECC is now recruiting students for this summer. For more information about this opportunity, click here.

  

Another working group, including four members of the TCCPI Steering Committee, has been meeting regularly to discuss how to develop a $5 million revolving loan fund for financing residential energy efficiency upgrades in the county. These discussions are following up on an event co-sponsored by TCCPI at the Finger Lakes Bioneers Conference last fall examining how to finance clean energy projects and create green jobs.

 

These are just a few of the ways that TCCPI members have been collaborating on moving our community into a low-carbon future. We will be featuring other efforts in the months ahead. Stay tuned!

Thanks to the good work of TCCPI members Gary Stewart, director of community relations at Cornell University, and Sharon Anderson, environment program leader at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, TCCPI has raised its profile significantly in the local media over the last several months, with articles in the Syracuse Post-Standard, Ithaca Journal, and Tompkins Weekly. There is now an ongoing op-ed series, with an article each month, in the Ithaca Journal highlighting different aspects of the work carried out by TCCPI members on energy and climate issues.

In addition, TCCPI members have been appearing regularly on WHCU's popular radio broadcast "All Things Equal."  For links to these radio interviews and newspaper articles, click here.