Why We Need Our Non-Profit Community to Reach Our Climate Action Goals

There are 758 tax exempt, non-profit organizations within the City of Evanston that, collectively, have over $14 billion dollars in total assets.

What if they all joined in our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 13% by 2012?

Over the course of the next year, we will be asking Evanston’s non-profit community to formally join our efforts to reduce Evanston’s carbon footprint. Increasing community awareness will play a critical role in meeting the reduction goals of our Climate Action Plan. Therefore, we will need to recruit and mobilize those who touch the heart and soul of our community.

Our non-profit communities represent a significant untapped resource in the fight to manage the changing effects of our global climate. In Evanston, our non-profits have the deepest reach into the passions and energy of our citizens…as membership organizations, employers, and service providers.

Working with Larry Marks, Hal Sprague and others with Citizens for a Greener Evanston, we are setting out to extend an invitation and help our non-profits evolve their thinking and practices. Our task will be to create tools that help our non-profit organizations join the cause.

We could use your help.

The daily pressures on our non-profits are enormous. We must work creatively and arrive at new solutions in order to build an efficient pathway for non-profit involvement. Here’s how you can get involved:

1. Join our Task Group at the first meeting on Tuesday, June 30^th, 7:00 pm at the Civic Center. We plan on convening the group monthly to work toward our goals for non-profit engagement. Let us know you are interested and I will send along the details.

2. Express your interest in staying informed of our work and progress. We anticipate needs arising along the road and would like to create a network of interested people who may want to tackle a specific task or issue.

3. Connect us to your non-profit. Let us know if there are contacts or affiliations that you think we should call upon.

4. Share your thoughts on the ways in which you think we could best engage the non-profit community. 

Christopher Hart

chris@hartofthe6thward.com