Focusing on Solutions: Mount Desert Island’s ‘A Climate to Thrive’
By Kaitlin Cough
Wildfires in Australia. Floods in Idaho. Spindly corpses of polar bears in the arctic and whole hives of small dead bumble bees.
The effects of climate change are local and global; discouraging and infuriating. They are also overwhelming.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have a sustainability coordinator built into your life,鈥 said Johannah Blackman, a founding member of the Mount Desert Island (MDI) nonprofit A Climate To Thrive (ACTT).
鈥淵ou get up, you feed your kids breakfast, you go to work, you come home, you eat dinner, you鈥檙e exhausted. You don鈥檛 have time to be researching 鈥楬ow can I make my home more efficient? How can I afford solar panels? How can I afford an electric vehicle?鈥 For someone to come in and offer the opportunity to implement solutions and a toolkit of sorts,鈥 said Blackman, 鈥淧eople are psyched.鈥
Blackman has been involved in climate activism for more than a decade. Much of that early work was focused on marches and protests, which she still wholeheartedly endorses (鈥淲e absolutely need national and international systemic change鈥) but in 2015, pregnant with her first child and living on MDI, 鈥淚 really wanted to start actually making solutions happen on the ground. I wanted to be able to look at my kids and say I did everything I could.鈥
The group that became ACTT began as the MDI Climate Solutions Group, 鈥淏ecause we wanted to focus on implementing solutions,鈥 said Blackman.
And so they have. With a goal of making MDI energy independent within the next decade, ACTT has racked up a number of successes: solar panels on the high school (the largest array on a public school anywhere in the state), new electric vehicle charging stations around Hancock and Washington counties, increasing solar on MDI by 450%, pledges from local businesses to replace single-use plastics and polystyrene containers, and a lot of involvement from local students, including a thriving intern program. The list (which is extensive) can be found on the group鈥檚 website, .
鈥淲e wanted it to be an ambitious goal,鈥 said Blackman. Translating ambitious goals into action, she conceded, 鈥淚s difficult for national and international bodies. But it鈥檚 a lot easier at the local level.鈥
So how did they do it?
By involving as many community members as possible, by staying focused on solutions, and by listening: to experts, to local officials, to school board members and teachers. And, of course, to their neighbors.
The group began in the summer of 2015 with monthly potlucks for anyone who wanted to come. The idea was to start a conversation, 鈥渢o get people together to talk about what we could do and how people were feeling.鈥
Organizers, including Blackman and her husband Dennis Kiley, along with residents John Craigo and Gary and Glennon Friedmann, who first began discussing the plans, pooled their contact lists and invited everyone they knew.
鈥淢ost of the people that we鈥檝e approached have been so eager to find solutions and to have the opportunity to think about climate change in a hopeful way,鈥 said Blackman. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e just overwhelmed in their daily lives.鈥
鈥淢ost of the people that we鈥檝e approached have been so eager to find solutions and to have the opportunity to think about climate change in a hopeful way鈥
As the group continued meeting, focus areas began to emerge: alternative energy, zero waste, building efficiency, transportation, food systems and public policy.
鈥淲e wanted to bring the community together as early as possible around this so that the whole island would own the project,鈥 said Blackman. 鈥淚t was really important very early on that we had a public event that anybody could come to.鈥
On a Sunday afternoon in January 2016 they did just that: instead of watching the Denver Broncos beat the Patriots in the American Football Conference championships, more than 200 residents gathered at the Neighborhood House in Northeast Harbor to talk about what they and their communities were going to do about climate change. Venu Rao, the day鈥檚 keynote speaker, gave a speech on Hollis, N.H., a largely conservative town that鈥檚 become a leader in energy efficiency.
鈥淥ur message is 鈥 we鈥檙e not trying to save the world,鈥 Rao told the group, to a 海角社区 Public Radio report. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to save the money and we鈥檙e also appealing to them that we need to live sustainably, that you don鈥檛 have to be conservative or Democrat to do that, you know?鈥
After the speech, residents broke into groups based on the six focus areas. They could join any area that grabbed their interest. Each table had a scribe, a moderator and an expert on the topic.
鈥淲e opened it up to talk about possible projects in each focus area,鈥 said Blackman. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so wonderful to have a large group because you have people with expertise and knowledge and talent in different areas, people who show up with different strengths.鈥
The launch not only gave ACTT visibility and allowed them to hear what kinds of projects their neighbors thought were important, it also gave them emails, and lots of them.
鈥淲e left each of those breakout sessions with an email list of people who were interested in that particular area and some key plans and connections to start with and we followed that up with monthly meetings with each of those committees,鈥 said Blackman.
The committee structure lasted 鈥渁bout a year and a half,鈥 she said, until 鈥淚t just became evident that we had enough projects going at that point.鈥 They wanted to make sure that good ideas, said Blackman, didn鈥檛 鈥済et bogged down in just the planning phase.鈥
In the meantime, the organization鈥檚 structure began to formalize: they brought on a board, applied for nonprofit status and hired their first staff member.
鈥淲hen you start as a grassroots organization and you keep going and become this project-focused, much more organized effort, you have to go through this metamorphism process,鈥 said Blackman, 鈥渟hifting from that grassroots energy of 鈥榞o get em鈥 to 鈥榦kay, how do we go get em?鈥 and putting structure in place.鈥
鈥淲hen you start as a grassroots organization and you keep going and become this project-focused, much more organized effort, you have to go through this metamorphism process, shifting from that grassroots energy of 鈥榞o get em鈥 to 鈥榦kay, how do we go get em?鈥”
The members on ACTT鈥檚 board, said Blackman, have been key to that. 鈥淲e made sure to bring people onto our board that had lots of experience in nonprofit organizations,鈥 which helped the group envision what its structure might look like.
鈥淲e have a really good balance of people involved who have that entrepreneurial whatever it takes spirit, and people who are like 鈥極kay, but we also need to really think about this,鈥欌 said Blackman. 鈥淗aving that balance of energies and making sure those energies are communicating well is really key.鈥
The group also made a conscious choice not to spend much energy trying to convince residents that climate change is happening.
That was in part, said Blackman, because 鈥淚t鈥檚 becoming more and more self-evident 鈥 the world is unfortunately doing that work for us. And the people who are really resisting that, we鈥檙e not going to convince them.鈥
Instead, they put their energy into listening, as non-judgmentally as possible.
鈥淲hat we have tried to do is really be conscious of how we鈥檙e talking about this challenge to different people,鈥 said Blackman.
鈥淲hat really drew us in was not only how dedicated ACTT is to these issues, but how accessible they are trying to make it for everyone in the community,鈥 said Nicole Cuff, co-owner of Sweet Pea鈥檚 Cafe.
鈥淚t鈥檚 extremely important to be as inclusive and reinforcing as possible when dealing with such a wide spectrum of businesses. The last thing anyone needs is to feel inadequate or too far behind the curve to get involved, and ACTT does an incredible job making the information and process attainable.鈥
鈥淭here are so many different reasons why people care,鈥 said Blackman. Fishermen may be worried about their livelihood moving to colder waters; businesses might be worried about what climate change will cost them.
ACTT鈥檚 members, said Blackman, 鈥淎re really trying to think about what those reasons are and adjusting accordingly.鈥
ACTT, said Stacey Gatcomb, who manages The Looking Glass Restaurant, 鈥渉as helped to make the sustainability pledge easier to achieve and maintain by listening to local businesses’ struggles in pursuing sustainability and working to find a solution.鈥
The group has helped the restaurant find sustainable options for dealing with food waste, energy audits and sustainable products, said Gatcomb, 鈥渁nd makes that information easily accessible.鈥
The Looking Glass is one of the 85 local food and lodging businesses that have taken ACTT鈥檚 鈥淪ustainability Pledge,鈥 in which businesses agree to opt for things like more sustainable food containers, using reusable containers for sit-down customers, and putting in water refill stations instead of providing bottled water.
85 local food and lodging businesses have taken ACTT鈥檚 鈥淪ustainability Pledge鈥
鈥淭he sustainability pledge has encouraged us to push ourselves on this front and be an example not only in our community, but also a leader in our corporate family (Lafayette Hotels),鈥 said Gatcomb.
鈥淲hat drew me into the way ACTT is approaching problems is their focus on the end result, the empathy and trying to find solutions, and their support for businesses. ACTT touches the entire community,鈥 said Gatcomb, 鈥渁nd I love the youth involvement.鈥
The restaurant was already looking to become more sustainable, said Gatcomb, but 鈥淓ach year we are able to do more because of the work ACTT has done. Options that have not been possible in the past are now available because of the collective desire for a better product.鈥
That push for better products and spillover to other communities is something ACTT鈥檚 leaders have long been hoping for.
鈥淚t鈥檚 always been the hope that this would be an inspiration for others,鈥 said Blackman, 鈥淲hich is why we鈥檙e putting resources into spreading this model to other communities.鈥 Work at the local level is vital and necessary, said Blackman, 鈥淏ut if just MDI does this, we鈥檙e screwed.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 always been the hope that this would be an inspiration for others, which is why we鈥檙e putting resources into spreading this model to other communities.鈥
That鈥檚 part of the plan for the group鈥檚 next phase, the Climate Resilience Partnership (CRP).
鈥淚t takes the experience that we鈥檝e gained over the past four years and formalizes it into an island-wide initiative, which is what we鈥檝e always wanted to do,鈥 said Blackman. The partnership, in turn, will be shared with other communities.
Since ACTT began, 鈥渨e鈥檝e jumped at every low-hanging fruit that鈥檚 presented itself,鈥 she continued. 鈥淎nywhere that we鈥檝e perceived interest, we鈥檝e cultivated it, we鈥檝e gone in and acted as a catalyst to make projects happen.鈥 That鈥檚 been helpful in understanding what the community needs and building relationships with schools, businesses, residents and local governments.
And hopefully it will help them take it a step further.
The group recently started in on round one of the CRP, in which ACTT members are approaching community groups, businesses, organizations, schools and towns and 鈥渨orking with each partner to develop their own plan for energy optimization, renewable energy and sustainable resource management,鈥 said Blackman. That means understanding 鈥淗ow they manage their waste, what kind of products they鈥檙e using, are they composting?鈥 ACTT is holding information-gathering meetings, said Blackman, and will then work with each partner on a sustainability plan.
鈥淲here we listen to them, talk about what goals might look like for them, what incentives they hold, what challenges they might be facing that we鈥檙e not aware of 鈥 because we have no idea of how an entity like the local hospital works,鈥 for instance.
Once the group has a better idea of each member鈥檚 needs, said Blackman, they will draw up a 鈥渇irst look鈥 at options to make their work more sustainable and give them resources to support the plan.
鈥淭his project is our key project for the next few years,鈥 said Blackman. 鈥淎t the same time we鈥檙e documenting the process. We鈥檙e getting a lot of requests from other communities, so we鈥檙e going to formalize the process of delivering that toolkit, whether it鈥檚 through consultation or workshops.鈥
The nonprofit continues to grow, said Blackman, and offers a model for other communities. But it remains focused on solutions aimed at mitigating the very real impacts of climate change close to home: warmer, shorter winters and wetter springs, the flooding of low-lying roads during storm surges, increasingly unpredictable growing seasons, the lobsters moving increasingly northward to colder waters. As the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould noted, 鈥淲e will not fight to save what we do not love.鈥
鈥淲e鈥檙e more focusing on what is happening to us on a day-to-day level and what might the future look like in the areas we care most about,鈥 said Blackman. 鈥淲hat are some of the things that might mitigate that?鈥
For more information, or to get involved with Mount Desert Island’s A Climate to Thrive, visit . For resources on how to start a climate action group in your own town, visit their “Climate Action Starter Kit” at
Kaitlin Cough is a writer and photographer at The Ellsworth American.