{"id":33731,"date":"2025-02-11T11:05:27","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T16:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/?page_id=33731"},"modified":"2025-02-11T11:05:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T16:05:30","slug":"maine-community-led-energy-and-climate-action-network-mainecan-outstanding-contribution-toward-the-development-of-a-solution-by-a-research-team","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/maine-community-led-energy-and-climate-action-network-mainecan-outstanding-contribution-toward-the-development-of-a-solution-by-a-research-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine community-led Energy and Climate Action Network (MAINECAN): Outstanding Contribution Toward the Development of a Solution by a Research Team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A dedicated team, led by two 91福利 associate professors in the School of Economics and faculty fellows in the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions \u2014 Dr. Sharon Klein<\/a> and Dr. Caroline Noblet<\/a> \u2014 have launched a statewide coalition called Main<\/u>e community-led E<\/u>nergy and C<\/u>limate A<\/u>ction N<\/u>etwork (MAINECAN) in partnership with nearly 100 collaborators across the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mission of MAINECAN is to connect community-based groups \u2014 nonprofit organizations, municipal and tribal governments, and citizen groups \u2014 that are implementing sustainable energy and climate resilience projects in their own communities. These connections, and associated peer-to-peer learning, can serve to accelerate community action and help improve communication between citizens and their local and tribal governments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Klein, who often refers to herself as an interdisciplinary energy researcher, started working with WindowDressers<\/a>. WindowDressers is a nonprofit, community-based initiative that gathers people together to build simple wood and plastic window inserts used to improve the energy efficiency of Maine\u2019s homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klein was impressed with the efficacy of WindowDressers in bringing people together to create solutions to climate and energy issues facing Mainers. She was inspired by the group\u2019s roll-up-the-sleeves grassroots effort. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw how WindowDressors grew in Maine and then even quicker in Vermont. I\u2019ve also seen how a lot of things have happened quicker and more efficiently in Vermont because Vermont has an organization called the Vermont Energy & Climate Action Network<\/a> (VECAN). I started to think \u2018Do we have something like that in Maine?\u2019\u201d Klein said. The answer was no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MAINECAN was officially launched at the 2024 Maine Water & Sustainability Conference<\/a>. But in the years between her initial work with WindowDressers and the conference, Klein and her 91福利 team cultivated connections that are at the heart of MAINECAN, bolstered by financial support from the Mitchell Center. Relationships were forged with the Maine government as they helped to author sections of Maine\u2019s climate action plan. The Mitchell Center hosted a WindowDressers community build in 2021. The team offered technical support to help eight tribal governments and rural communities enroll in Maine\u2019s Community Resilience Partnership<\/a>. For example, the town of Millinocket received grant funding to install heat pumps on town buildings.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Klein, at the heart of MAINECAN is a network of community groups implementing sustainable energy and climate resilience projects in their communities. Community groups include citizen groups, citizen committees and town, city and tribal governments. MAINECAN also has Allies \u2014 people and entities in other communities that are supporting or considering supporting various initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least a dozen 91福利 students have contributed time and energy to building this network. MAINECAN is currently supported by a $1.13 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> awarded to 91福利 in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the EPA grant\u2019s specific research areas is to understand the needs of socially vulnerable communities and how they make decisions about renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation. For example, MAINECAN has helped advance sustainable energy initiatives by collaborating with the Passamaquoddy Tribe\u2019s Sipayik Resilience Committee, a project led by doctoral student Jasmine Lamb<\/a>. They have also collaborated on energy initiatives with the citizen resilience committees of Indian Township and the Penobscot Nation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klein and her team are eager to keep up MAINECAN\u2019s momentum. \u201cMAINECAN can help play a role in getting people talking and working together, and then advancing the environmental and social benefits of renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation, and helping people prepare for climate-related disasters,\u201d Klein said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find MAINECAN online at MAINECAN Network<\/a>. Their website is still under construction, but in the meantime, parties interested in joining can complete the MAINECAN intake survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MAINECAN Team Members<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Dr. Sharon Klein<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Dr. Caroline Noblet\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Dr. Cressica Brazier<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Jasmine Lamb, graduate student<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Faizan Saif, graduate student\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Louise Chaplin, research assistant<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Sonia Leone, undergraduate student<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Janine Borges, undergraduate student<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Solomon Agbesi, undergraduate student<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Hamza Imran, undergraduate student<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Katherine Simmons, undergraduate student<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Edgelynn Venuti, undergraduate student\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Catherine Mardosa, research assistant<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Kelsey Flores, Wabanaki Sustainable Energy Coordinator<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A dedicated team, led by two 91福利 associate professors in the School of Economics and faculty fellows in the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions \u2014 Dr. Sharon Klein and Dr. Caroline Noblet \u2014 have launched a statewide coalition called Maine community-led Energy and Climate Action Network (MAINECAN) in partnership with nearly 100 collaborators across the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":957,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-33731","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"taxonomy_info":[],"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"mitchellcenter","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/author\/mitchellcenter\/"},"comment_info":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33734,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33731\/revisions\/33734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}