Making the Transition: Meeting the Criteria of the Massachusetts Green Communities Program

Participants of this workshop will receive an overview of the Department of Energy’s Green Communities Program and information about what is required for municipalities to meet the criteria for becoming a Green Community. Workshop leaders will share tools and resources to help your community/energy committee move forward with specific clean energy actions. , Training will be provided to help communities with the public participatory process necessary to confront changes in their community related to becoming a Green Community, such as siting renewable facilities. This training will help participants plan for and understand reactions to transition and some points of likely resistance that they might meet duringthe process. A combination of presentations and breakout sessions will help participants learn strategies to help speed the adoption and implementation of clean energy actions that will qualify communities for potential grant funding from the Green Communities Program.

Catherine Miller

Principal Planner, Land use / Environment section of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, works on sustainability--focusing most recently on facilitating creation of the Pioneer Valley Sustainability Network and the promotion of clean energy, energy use reduction, conservation and efficiency to address climate change. She has expertise in participatory planning, smart growth, sustainability, clean energy, adult education and training of trainers, and the intersection of land use and transportation planning.
Catherine’s been with the PVPC for more than 10 years. She has also worked for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, the United States Peace Corps in Cameroon and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She earned Master’s degrees in urban and regional planning and social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has an undergraduate degree in Literature and Society from Brown University.

Melissa Adams

FRCOG Land Use Program Manager. B.S. Management, Syracuse University, M.S. Regional Planning, University of Massachusetts-Amherst. 10 years planning experience specializing in agricultural protection and policy, open space planning, Cost of Community Services and other economic research, and scenic byways corridor management. Co-coordinator of the Pioneer Valley Clean Energy Collaborative; Clean energy training including wind technology & biomass.

Dr. Kenneth Downes

As an expert in transition management and collaborative community planning, Ken works with organizations and individuals to help them better understand the emotional impact of change and strategies for bringing together diverse stakeholder groups to achieve high-level agreement on shared goals. During the past year, Ken has been using this collaborative approach and his expertise with transition to assist Co-op Power in creating a more just and sustainable energy future.

Meg Lusardi

Meg is the Deputy Director for the newly formed Green Communities Division. Since this past August, she has been working on the development of the Green Communities Program established by the Green Communities Act. Meg has been with the Department of Energy Resources for more than 3 years previously working primarily on renewable energy development, including: development of a Strategic Plan for biomass energy, implementing the renewable portfolio standards, reviewing MEPA applications in relation to the Commonwealth’s greenhouse gas protocol, eliminating barriers to distributed generation, participating on the Zero Net Energy Buildings task force and working with an interagency team to bring more renewable energy to state facilities, including 1 MW of solar to 12 state facilities awarded federal Clean Renewable Energy Bonds.

Prior to joining DOER, Meg was the Director of Operations for Project Hope, a non-profit serving homeless and low-income families in Dorchester. She previously spent seven years with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission working on issues related to dry cask storage and transportation of spent nuclear fuel. She has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Notre Dame.

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