Creating a Sea Change in State Greenhouse Gas Emissions Regulations
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- February 21st, 2008
Six Midwestern state Governors and one Canadian premier recently signed a break-through accord to support the dramatic capping of greenhouse gas emissions in their states, thanks in part to the collaboration of RE-AMP and The Grove. This accord represents a sea change of progress since December 2004 when The Grove began working with the RE-AMP consortium, a seven-state network of nonprofits and foundations striving for Midwest leadership in 21st century clean energy by reducing electricity sector global warming pollutants 80 percent by 2030.
In late 2004, RE-AMP consortium needed to create a revolutionary new model of collaboration between foundations and NGOs to plan and manage a multi-year process to achieve their lofty goal of reducing electricity sector global warming pollutants 80 percent by 2030 among Mid-western states.
The Grove solution was to partner with RE-AMP’s Steering Committee to use collaborative processes and visual communications to align diverse stakeholders around a common objective. This included planning and facilitating a series of meetings among key committees and constituents to facilitate critical dialogue and collaboration, and designing and producing a series of large murals and publications to support important dialogue and decision-making throughout the process.
When our collaboration with RE-AMP began, the Garfield Foundation and its program officers, Jennie Curtis and Rick Reed, believed that if the Midwest could shift its politics and support work against global warming, the whole country might follow their lead. At the time there were many environmental groups working on various critical problems, but they were not coordinated for maximum impact, and the politics weren’t favorable in any of the states (Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota).
RE-AMP’s slogan is Think Systemically, Act Collaboratively. It was an unprecedented effort to get philanthropists and environmentalists to work side by side to set priorities. Moreover, it took a whole systems approach to cleaning up the electric energy sector. After a year of analysis, the mission was clear to the initial steering group. They realized they needed to simultaneously stop new coal, clean up old coal, increase energy efficiency, and support the development of new renewable energy sources.