Groundswell – Matthew Scallet – 2013

Goals

Matthew Scallet was hired as an EDF Climate Corps fellow to support Groundswell through research targeting opportunities for alterations to its methodology for purchasing renewable energy through the Community Power Program.

Solutions

Groundswell’s Community Power Program follows a framework for social change called civic consumption. In this model, communities use their collective economic purchasing power to achieve a desired social and environmental impact. By purchasing goods and services that they need together, communities can shift business practices toward local investment, sustainability and better social benefits. Scallet interviewed past participants and key stakeholders to create a foundation for the feasibility and attractiveness of various options to maximize local economic and environmental impact. Organizational cost, staff capacity and customer demand were limiting factors that invoked common challenges and roadblocks that face the renewable energy industry.