Raissa Frenkel On Talking To Your City Council About Green Energy

As helpful as it is for individual citizens to choose greener lifestyles and switch from dirty fossil fuels to greener sources of energy, it’s even more effective if a whole city can take on greener initiatives and opt for better uses of energy. If you want to take your environmental activism to the next level, you need to take your research, passion, and silver tongue to your local city council meeting and convince the people in charge to enact changes that would reduce your city’s use of fossil fuels and encourage energy conservation and green energy use. Below are some tips on assembling your pitch to your councillors so that you can pack a punch. It will take some time, some massaging, and a lot of perseverance, but you can make lasting change happen if you follow the below steps.

Come Prepared: Your city councillors have a lot on their plates, from crime to education to festivals to countless other concerns. If your pitch for greener energy isn’t backed by lots of sound science from reputable researchers, models and examples of cities where initiatives proved successful, and demonstrable interest from other inhabitants, the councillors will likely dismiss you as an eager but misguided nut. Bring paper copies of studies and email your councillors the research you reference for their own explorations.

Be concise and accessible: Your time before all your councillors at standard city hall meetings will be brief, and you’re not delivering a TED talk or a graduate-level lecture. You’re talking to average people who are likely competent but not experts in the field of green and renewable energy. Imagine you’re speaking to high school students -- use words in their wheelhouse and try not to overwhelm them with unnecessary name-dropping or vocabulary lessons. Remember, you’re not at the meeting to demonstrate how “woke” you are -- you want to affect real change and make your city greener.

Anticipate Budget Questions: Money has always been the main impediment to implementing any major initiative, no matter how morally upright or widely supported it is. Naturally, the councillors will have to balance your proposal against the city’s allotted budget for energy and renovations. City budgets are usually accessible to the public, so spend some time in the nitty-gritty of what your proposal will cost both in the short-term and long-term, as well as the benefits and payoffs.

Meet with Councillors Individually: It can feel accusatory and intense to present a huge proposal in front of all your city councillors in front of all the attendees at city council meetings. Imaginably, your councillors are community members who would love the chance to talk more in-depth with their constituents. Schedule lunch or coffee with some of them one-on-one to talk through your visions of green energy for the city. There, you can answer more intense questions and address that councillor’s concerns.

About the Author: Raissa Frenkel is an entrepreneur and business veteran with years of experience in the education and energy sectors. She is dedicated to the cause of building a better world, working toward that goal through the Finker-Frenkel Legacy Foundation, an organization dedicated to building a community of like-minded philanthropists. Through the Foundation, Raissa, her family, and many others support causes such as education, religious development, and child welfare. She and her husband Lazar live in Jacksonville, Florida.