2024 has been a year of dynamic growth for CEBE, and one that will lead to profound changes for our future and that of the climate movement in general. This year has seen us leveraging funding from the U.S. EPA to welcome Richy Ainsworth to our team as Associate Director, and more than five million dollars from the U.S. DOE to finally incorporate Maine Community Power Cooperative after years in development. The consumer cooperative is now subscribing member owners and will begin producing power in 2025 from over a megawatt of dual-axis solar trackers at six sites. While receiving this highly competitive grant funding will propel MCPC forward, it was long-term support from CEBE supporters like you that got us here.
2024 also saw our first formal collaboration with our friends at A Climate to Thrive. Funded by a SOLVE IT (Solutions for Lasting, Viable Energy Infrastructure Technologies) prize from the U.S. DOE, we ran a series of community engagement sessions with folks from three local towns to build energy literacy and planning capacity for renewable energy projects.
On the state level, CEBE’s continuing work as a Service Provider with Maine’s Community Resilience Partnership (CRP) has now engaged 21 area municipalities and has brought well over a million dollars of much-needed funding to the region, increasing energy efficiency and resilience while reducing costs for towns. To support this work, we welcomed Gianluca Yornet de Rosas, a Maine Service Fellow with Volunteer Maine.
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Additionally, our Communications Coordinator, Renee Igo, was recently elected to the steering committee of Maine’s Environmental Priorities Coalition, and we remain active as a core member of Maine Climate Action NOW. While our CRP work is supported through contracts with the state, most of our organizing work—like the Norway Equitable Housing Cooperative project, which you so generously supported last year—is not. Without donors like you, we wouldn’t be here to leverage opportunities for our community when they arise.
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Stepping outside of our political boundaries, we expanded our focus to the Forests of the Northeast bioregion when Roberta Hill joined our team this year as Bioregional Coordinator. She has built relationships with networks of regenerative practitioners from the Connecticut River Valley to the Canadian Maritimes that are attracting the attention of public and private philanthropy alike. Your donations support this foundational organizing.
 Electric bus test ride at our Solar & EV Expo |  CEBE's staff enjoying an evening of inspiration and laughs with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson |  Living on Earth's Steve Curwood delivers the Saturday keynote at our annual 2030 Vision Climate Convergence |
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 Board Steward Craig at a food forest workshop |  CEBE's board and staff at our annual retreat |  ACTT's energy solutions board game for the SOLVE IT prize |
Looking ahead, exciting changes are afoot at CEBE that we hope will set us up for success in the uncertain times ahead. In September, I announced to our board that in 2025, I will be stepping down as Executive Director after twelve rewarding years of guiding CEBE from a volunteer organization starting a public conversation about climate in rural Maine, to a respected and impactful voice at the state and federal level with a staff of seven. At our recent board retreat, we also learned that Claire Emrick will be leaving CEBE in 2025 to be closer to her family in PA. Claire’s role as our Community Resilience Coordinator has led to invaluable relationships across the region and with state government that have been instrumental to our success with the CRP.
While a lot of institutional knowledge will be leaving with Claire and I, we are both committed to working with our existing staff to guide this leadership transition and provide plenty of overlap with new hires to help embed them in our culture and networks. Our staff and board are also seizing this opportunity to codify what has been an informal shared leadership model where I have served as “executive” director to support the amazing group of people that have built CEBE into what it is today. When the dust settles, we’re confident that with your continued support, CEBE will emerge more resilient and impactful than ever.
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With enduring gratitude and solidarity,
Scott Vlaun, Executive Director
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Rosemary Bunn
CEBE represents the best of the progressive ideas of Western Maine! Thanks for all you do for all of us.
2030 Vision Attendee
It was so great to be out in the sunshine, making connections with other climate-caring people and learning so much from the various speakers and workshops. [It] was a great reminder of why I do what I do and I walked away feeling more hopeful and empowered!
Elena Laughton
There is no better work to be done for the Earth than that which can be done locally.