Sierra Club Municipal Toolkit

This page is intended for municipal leaders and activists to find out more information about how their communities can make the switch to 100% renewable energy in a number of different ways in order to decrease their carbon footprints and fight back against climate change, while saving money for their residents. 

  • Part 1: List of Resources Available in NYS
    • These include programs under the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Many of these programs either come with funding or make a community eligible for funding.
    • List of resources (pdf)
  • Part 2: Municipal Toolkit: Booklet of 12 Stories Case Studies: New York Municipalities Moving Toward Clean, Renewable Energy
    • This booklet is designed to highlight just a few examples of proactive and forward-thinking New York municipal leaders utilizing existing state and federal programs to transform their communities toward a 21st century clean energy future. Each of the case studies includes a description of the programs used, the process from vision to fruition, and essential lessons learned. Through their visions, obstacles, and successes, these 12 case studies showcase the enormous opportunities at the local level to improve communities’ health, create jobs, reduce energy costs, and become statewide and national paragons in the fight against climate change.
    • Full Report: PDF Version (at 1.5 MB, this is a file that is easy to attach and send via email.)
    • High Resolution: shows one page of the report at a time. (Dropbox link) At about 46 MB, this is a high resolution version if you want to download the whole booklet for bringing on a flash drive to a printer, or you can send someone the link to this webpage so they can click on this section and download it themselves. 
    • High Resolution: shows two-pages of the report at a time. This version is about 26 MB and shows two pages at a time. 
  • Part 3: Individual Stories from these 12 municipalities with highlighted programs
  • Part 4: Pledge to Support 100% clean, renewable energy
    • Download this aspirational pledge for a municipal leader to sign and send back to Sierra Club. We hope to bring these pledges to state elected officials to show them how local communities are already supporting the switch to renewable energy, to help curb climate change and save money for their residents.
    • Download the pledge here (attached PDF)