Greetings Community!

Although we are now nearly two months in, the “happy new year” and “happy lunar new year” wishes continue as we settle into 2023–I hope things are off to a beautiful start. As February winds down, I hope you were able to enjoy and celebrate Black History Month (more than a month of course) and find ways to honor the rich history, legacy and ongoing contributions Black people are making toward our liberation and in the world overall; we definitely did! Climate Innovation has many exciting things in store for this year, so we are manifesting continued abundance and success on all fronts for ourselves and for all extensions of our community as we all continue delving into the ever-important work that is climate justice. 

We’ve already been quite busy moving work forward and the next several months are packed with events and opportunities to connect, build power and support community-driven leaders and their solutions. In January alone, our team presented at the Residential Retrofits for Energy Equity (R2E2) virtual summit, an initiative where we serve as the strategic advisor. We also hosted two convenings in Oakland, CA to officially kick off the inaugural cohorts of our Young Climate Leaders of Color (YCLC) program and the National Association of Climate Resilience Planners (NACRP) Credentialing program. You can find recaps of and highlights from those events further down; for now, read on for details about some of the exciting things in store for the next several months. 

1. The Funders’ Network Annual Conference: Our Director of Programs Jaime Love and I will be in New Orleans March 20-22 for Ignite Action, TFN’s 2023 annual conference where we’ll present and look forward to sharing any learnings in an upcoming newsletter!
2. CCHE Annual Convening: In April, several members of the team will travel to San Diego for The Kresge Foundation’s Climate Change, Health & Equity (CCHE) Initiative Spring convening, Centering Racial Justice and Health Equity: The Power of Communities to Drive Climate Policy. Last year, Climate Innovation was awarded funds from The Kresge Foundation to serve as the peer-learning coordinator for CCHE, managing peer-learning activities and in-person convenings for the cohort through June 2024. The April convening will bring together grantees and partners from across the initiative to reconnect with one another and to share more about the powerful work taking place across the initiative at the intersection of climate change, health, and equity. This is the first CCHE in-person meeting in over two years so, in our new role, we are looking forward to engaging and connecting with the cohort and celebrating the amazing work of the CCHE community. We know that our work is interconnected and better served outside siloes, with real change happening when we find ways to collaborate and work alongside other sectors to ensure we advance community-driven solutions. Stay tuned for more details about this convening in our next newsletter! 
3. Sounding the Call: Community Climate Shift: In May 2023, Sounding the Call: Community Climate Shift will reconvene its aligned collaboration of partners and practitioners planning and implementing equitable emissions reduction strategies across the country supported by philanthropic investment to leverage federal opportunities that really put public dollars in people’s hands. Community Climate Shift (CCS), is a national collaboration we co-lead alongside the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) and national community and equitable decarbonization partners calling for an investment of $100 million in philanthropic support to further develop, enact and evolve an aligned strategy to ensure frontline organizations and coalitions have the capacity to lead partnerships with government to reduce emissions while advancing BIPOC community priorities for climate equity and justice. CCS was launched as a community-led response to the White Houses’ National Building Performance Standards (BPS) Coalition, and the clear need to ensure that community voice is present and central to governmental policy making processes. This gathering will allow us to continue building upon the frameworks, strategies and processes we’ve built in this last year while continuing to grow and expand community-driven solutions that center the priorities of frontline communities. To date, and we still have a long way to go, we are proud to share that we are starting to reinvest millions raised into this work and 3-5 place-based community-led efforts via the Community Climate Shift (CCS) Fund!  

As you can see, we are busy and beyond grateful that it’s to contribute to such critical work. This is only the beginning! With many exciting things in store in just the next few months, I’m eager to see the advancement and impact we will have in 2023. For now, enjoy the highlights from our first few weeks of 2023 and look forward to more news and updates from Climate Innovation really soon. 

In solidarity,
Corrine and the Climate Innovation Team 

On January 20, People’s Climate Innovation Center’s Director, Corrine Van Hook-Turner, and Director of Programs, Jaime Love, presented virtually at the Residential Retrofits for Energy Equity (R2E2) Summit hosted by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). The duo presented an introduction to community-driven planning to over 400 attendees using the Community-Driven Climate Resilience Planning framework (CDCRP) co-developed by Climate Innovation in 2013. The R2E2 initiative, launched late last year, and including ACEEE, Elevate, Emerald Cities Collaborative, and H&RA Advisors, Inc., will provide training to state, local, and tribal governments as well as community-based organizations to jumpstart energy upgrades for affordable housing that will lower utility bills, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve residents’ health, create good-paying local jobs, and help advance racial equity. Climate Innovation supports the initiative as a strategic advisor. Learn more here.