The Free Press honors Earth Day 2015 by saluting a local group with the goal to promote clean, sustainable energy. The Clintonville Energy Cooperative (CEC) currently takes on projects to make people’s homes more energy efficient using solar technology.
  Their mission is to build resilience and sustainability in the Clintonville area “by increasing household energy efficiency and increasing the number of households using affordable, renewable energy options.” Their methods are financially efficient as well, using a “time bank – where people provide their skills and gifts to bank hours of service and draw on these banked hours to receive the services they need.”
  The CEC is committed to “a cooperative environment” that “occurs when the users are the same people who produce the services. This ensures meaningful economic value through more widespread accessibility to resources. Social capital is the binding inner value created within a community, from sharing our resources such as time and effort. We believe that we are optimizing these values.”
  The CEC works toward:

   ·         Increasing energy efficiency and conservation in Clintonville

   ·         Lowering costs of solar installation

   ·         Increasing knowledge about energy and solar collection and learning together

   ·         Increasing the use of time banking – giving and getting services that benefit the community

   ·         Increasing connections with community members to increase energy resilience

 On Saturday, April 11, the CEC held their first educational event which included information about installing residential solar on one’s home.  About 25 local people new to CEC attended at the Whetstone Community Center, and those interested will attend a follow-up event to design their future home solar project.  CEC has installed solar on two homes, and is preparing to install the third of several planned projects this spring. To learn more, visit their website at http://cec-freedom.org/index.html.
  The Free Press hopes this initiative spreads all over the city. We salute you!