SolaRISE Portland - Welcome to An Evening for Sustainability!

Hello everyone and welcome to an evening for sustainability. My name is Thea and I'm the president of the Portland High School environmental club. >> Hello, my name is Ada and I've been a member of the environmental club for three years. Solarized Portland was founded in 2019 by Casco Bay High School students who advocated for Portland for solar panels on Portland public schools roofs. Now years after the Solarized Portland founders have graduated, we have assumed the name Solarized Portland to continue their advocacy. We have worked with representatives from local organizations over the past year gathering momentum for a sustainability plan by adopted by the Portland public schools district as well as solar solar panel installations to power the schools. We invite you all here today to learn about some of the great work that's being done in our community. Not only will you be viewing Solarized Portland's video premiere, you'll hear about some of the efforts that inspire us with hope for local climate activism. We're passing around baskets for cash donations or you can donate to the GoFundMe using this QR code. Um we're also setting selling $50 gift cards that were at the well they're here uh they're they were don generously donated by Sinful Kitchen. Uh buy them for a minimum of of $25. First come first serve. We'd also like to ask you to please spread the word about our advocacy and follow our Instagram. Lastly, we'd like to thank the Portland Media Center for generously hosting us in their space and for recording the event. Stay past the speeches to enjoy food generously donated by local businesses and to take part in conversations surrounding local sustainability efforts. We're very fortunate to have representatives from many local organizations, including from Hannah Pingri's campaign. Thank you all for joining us. >> Hello everyone. I'm Alexa and I'm Blake and we are your MC's for tonight. >> Lucia Darnney was a student at Casco Bay High School during the founding of Solarized Portland. Tonight you will hear from her about her experience as a young climate activist in Portland and then we will screen the original Solarized Portland video. Thank you. Hi everybody. My name is Lucia Donnie and I am so unbelievably grateful to be here with all of you tonight. I want to start by thanking the amazing group of high school students who have put so much work into not only this event but into restarting the idea of solarized Portland. It's really inspiring to see how an idea that came out of a green club meeting in 2017 can still be felt throughout the school district and is being carried out by other young people who feel just as passionate about seeking change and changing our city for the better. I'm a seventh generation Portlander who grew up on Peaks Island. I went through Peaks Island Elementary School, King Middle School, and then Casco Bay High School. Growing up, learning in Portland public schools shaped the person that I am today. And I'm so thankful to have received the education that I did here and to grow up in the city and call it home. I grew up with teachers who taught me to trust in what we believed in, to challenge what we don't, and to study so that we know better about the world around us. They taught me to ask questions, be curious, and make real change when I feel motivated to do so. I'm so thankful for not only my teachers but all the teachers in the district and what they do for the students here. I was also part of the original cohort of students who came together with the goal of encouraging our school board and city council to move forward with more renewable energy. The group was made up of peers and friends at Casco Bay High School who all felt that as a district and as a city we could do more than we were doing in that moment. The city had put in place a goal of being totally reliant on renewable energy by 2024 and we as a students living in the place felt as though the work needed to start right now. Our contribution to this goal started with an idea that felt pretty lofty. We thought, hey, we have roofs and fields and there's sunlight that comes onto our school. What if we put some solar panels out there? We started with the idea of a bus stop and then decided to dream a little bigger and put them on the roofs and everywhere we could. We started asking questions like what would happen if we were powered by solar panels? What would that look like? Who would that inspire? And what changes would that bring? We had a whole lot of questions. Luckily, we also had teachers and mentors in the community who didn't just listen to those questions, but helped us turn them into action plans. We went from asking questions about what it would feel like to be in a school district powered by solar energy to talking to solar companies, brainstorming fundraising ideas, and collaborating with community members to get the work done. I was shocked at 17 and 18 year olds how much power our words could have when we had people who were willing to listen to them and take our needs seriously. We started fundraising with the goal of raising $25,000 to contribute to solar arrays in Portland public schools. At 17, I had never had a goal that large or ever even thought about that much money. It was daunting the idea of staging a project and setting a goal with that big of a goal for fundraising. Thankfully, my co-leader and good friend Siri Pierce was and still is one of the most fearless and motivated leaders that I have ever known. And with Siri and the rest of Solariz by my side, I knew that we could get the work done if we put our heads down and did it. We partnered with Reverb at Thompson's Point fundraising through waterball sales at concerts. We sent out so manyformational pamphlets to parents and community members. We started a GoFundMe and slowly we started getting closer to our goal. All while this was happening, we were also working on pitching ourselves and this idea to both the city and school board. We learned that in order for the public to take us as seriously as our community members and teachers did, we needed to study, to plan, to educate ourselves, and then to take action. In my head, this task was very exciting. it was going to be this big action-packed adventure. In reality, it was a lot of board meetings. Every month for over a year, we went to both the city and c city council and schoolboard meetings to make a case for why we should be taken seriously and why solariz would be a smart investment in the school district and city at large. We were met with a lot of that's cute and on to bigger and better ideas or more pressing topics. It was discouraging to say the least. I remember after one of these meetings talking to my mom and saying that it felt like they were just waiting for us to graduate so that they could move past this idea. That was until we expanded past our school and out into the district and started asking students K through 12 what they thought about the idea of Solarize and why they thought it would be an important one to think about. We conducted interviews and invited other schools and students to join the movement. It was amazing. We were met with after being met with so much doubt from others in the in the city and school wards. We were met with such excitement and energy by the students who were learning and living in the district. We decided that this energy needed to be felt on the streets of Portland. And so we planned a march. I remember the nerves building up to that day. We had worked so hard behind the scenes to show the city and schoolboard that our ideas and goals were well thought out and that we were well educated and knew what we were talking about. But now we wanted to show the emotion behind it, which felt a lot more personal. We wanted to show also the people who were in support of it and the other amazing youth who were inspired by the movement. So, we crafted emails and Instagram posts and talked to everyone we knew asking our community to get out and speak up for what they thought was important and for Solarize. The day absolutely blew our expectations out of the water. More than a thousand people marched with us, showing up with banners and signs and the same energy that we had felt in those classrooms at the school while interviewing students across the district. It was unbelievable. Later that year, the school board passed a resolution to make 80 to 90% of Portland school's energy come from solar. We graduated and moved away and continued on with other goals and missions. And then about four months ago, I got a text from Siri excited to tell me about a new group of students in Portland public schools who wanted to continue the mission of Solarize. We texted excitedly about how cool it was to see others care about the cause and wondered how many meetings it had taken for them to put it put all these things together, impressed with how efficient they were at getting things done. It was and still is deeply inspiring to see the students in Portland public schools and how much they care about the place that we live and the place that we've get we are lucky enough to call home. The video that is about to play is from 2019 and was created from the interviews that we constru conducted across the district. I hope that you all will take away the energy and excitement of the youth of Portland in that moment. Change in their eyes is not only possible but necessary. I hope that seeing this will motivate the students in the room to keep pushing for change even when it feels daunting to do so. And I hope that it will remind the older generations in the room the importance of stepping back, listening, and supporting young people when they ask you to do more. Thank you and enjoy. So the first question is, can you tell us like one place that you love and put on your name that you want to protect or it can be a thing? >> Standard Bakery Company on Commercial Street because like it might get flooded. trails, >> our ski mountains, >> Fort Gorgeous, >> oceans, forests, >> back bay, >> the harbor, old port. >> I like everywhere that's outside. >> And why do you think it's important that kids speak up about this issue? It's good for kids to speak up about it because like when um when like it's like sort of like maybe when they're grown-ups they might like it might get like really flooded and like so they have to speak up about it when they're younger so when they're grown up it doesn't happen. >> Why do you think the city of Portland should support solar energy and solarize our schools? Well, if we want to like keep if we want to survive on this planet, I mean, everyone is going to have to eventually turn to new renewable energy. And like, why not start now to get a head start to start? I mean, we're going to have to switch eventually. If we don't do anything now, then like the people who are really going to suffer is the people who are younger now. So we got to unless we do something then we're going to have a very different life than our parents. >> We stop it now it would stop but if we don't stop it now it'll just getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and we'll like have to move to Mars. >> Um it's not really their generation that's getting impacted. It's us. And if they don't listen to us, then we're just not going to have very good lives. Fossil fuels will probably run out eventually, but the sun will never run out as far as we know. Um, so >> yeah, you never know. It might. >> How does this project make you feel? >> EMPOWERED. >> OPTIMISTIC. We want change. We want solar energy. >> SOLARIZ PORTLAND. >> Solariz Portland. >> Let's do this. Hello, my name is Ka and I'm a junior at Portland High School. And my name is Bua and I'm a senior at Portland High School. When I was in third grade, people from the old Solarized video came and interviewed me and other people. It was a really cool experience and I carried it with me until high school when we decided we wanted to start fighting for solar panels on schools again. We wanted to make a new video to show that the new generation is still passionate about this and we won't give up the fight. We will carry it on through generations to come. For the new video, we went to Presumpska and Een elementary schools to interview fifth graders, King Middle School to interview middle schoolers, and Portland High School to interview our peers. And um what we heard from them was overwhelming support for putting solar panels on Portland public schools. It was a great chance to speak with students directly about decisions that impact them and us. And we hope that this video continues to spread awareness throughout the community about our movement and show that students care about the environment and protecting it. Thank you to Mary Fujiwara for editing and making the video. And thank you to all the teachers who welcomed us into your classrooms and the students who are so brave to be in our video. When I was here, I learned that the sign language for sea turtle is this. >> Really? >> Yeah. >> I don't know. >> I think the sign language for turtle is like >> this or something. >> Okay. might be slightly different. >> Rescue. >> Um, I know. um that climate change can make the waters warmer and like change how warm it is and hot. >> Making the world warmer and might like be so if you think it might be cold tomorrow, it might end up being warm when the weather says that there might be this tomorrow but then it might change. Um that's something that I know about climate change, >> right? Uh, and the sun is slowly heating up our planet, making it hotter and hotter and harder to live on in some places. >> It's not that good for like an animals that migrate cuz it it could get warmer where they like stay before they migrate. And when and if they don't migrate, they just kind of stay there. >> We are doing all that by not taking care of the planet. and it happens too fast for like things to adapt to it. >> Uh, it's definitely going to make life more difficult by melting a lot of the ice and kind of just being bad. >> It's really affecting the oceans and could they could make lobsters go extinct >> cuz some like plants need like certain temperatures and animals that we use to like survive. if there's like climate change, I won't be able to do any of like the activities I really like to do and like it won't be fun. >> And I know that it can affect um animals habitats and uh their way of life and like their environment. >> Might not affect like generations now, but it's going to affect somebody someday. So if people care about other people, they should probably try to make it better. >> Climate change could affect what I love to do in nature because it could like it could make it so that we have less snow. And I really like playing in the snow and being out there. >> Some things that I like to do outside is go play and in the summer I like to go swimming. So, >> uh, it's definitely going to ruin some of like the natural habitats and where the animals live. >> Um, polar bears and penguins and stuff that lives in the water and me and us. >> It's true. >> Very true. like the old port and the ocean is definitely be affected because of the rising temperatures. The wararf cuz like the ocean and everything and like businesses down there too can be affected because of because of the ocean. >> Fields might get dry and it might be like getting really like hard and you won't be able to do stuff. >> Yeah. >> Animals and trees. >> I kind of like like everything. Y >> the animals probably. Um I like how they're all kind of just different but are all also kind of the same. My favorite part of nature is pretty much all of it. >> Swimming, flower picking, anything. I think they should like take more action than they are taking and like put like solar panels on schools and help help educate the younger generations. >> It's kind of hard because you can't really control the weather, but there's things that you can do to like help, but you have to like kind of speak up about it. to try to like prevent climate change and yeah, put solar panels up. I just do it um try to do more solar panels like this and just try to be more mindful >> cuz a lot of stuff in our world we can't do stuff right now to change it. But climate change is one of the things that we can act now and change it right now. >> We should try to slow down climate change as much as we can until we can find a way to to at least to either completely stop it or even better reverse it. >> Listen to what kids say and let them do more. >> I think you guys should like actually listen to us because it's our generation that's going to be affected more and like not really you guys. So >> emitting the gas that's bad for the environment. Um then if you put solar panels on then it would just not emit the gas that makes it bad for the environment. I guess >> well they should definitely take more action because just saying that you want to change doesn't make it change and you have to like put in the work. >> The adults in charge don't do something then they are going to be affected. We're going to be affected. Everyone's going to be affected and it's not going to be good. >> Solariz Portland. >> Solarize Portland. Take action now. >> SAVE OUR PLANET. >> We hope you guys enjoyed those videos. Um, next we have Bill Coupe, the Revision Energy Co-founder. Maine exports $4 billion a year from the local economy to import fossil fuels, which makes us more vulnerable to extreme energy price shocks and supply uncertainty. Technologies such as heat pumps, electric vehicles, and battery storage, which can which can be powered with local abundant renewable energy are now enabling Maine schools, businesses, and homeowners to save money and energy. But does Maine really have enough renewable resources to drastically reduce our reliance on these limited and polluting fuels like gas and oil? And is it actually cost effective to replace the majority of our combustion technology with electrote? For answers to these important questions, please welcome Revision Energy co-founder Phil Coupe for perspective on what he is witnessing firsthand with the acceleration of an electrottech revolution that is disrupting the fossil fuel industry and showing a path to a carbon-f free economy economy by 2050. Wow, that was an awesome video. So inspiring. Um, congratulations and thank you to everybody on the Solarized team now and and from past editions. So although tonight's focus is sustainable energy, I want to acknowledge the intense emotions many of us are feeling about extreme political attacks on people, institutions, and the environment we all depend upon. Staying effectively functional amidst this chaos requires extraordinary resilience. And I want to share one of my deepest reservoirs of resilience in the form of Sergeant Travis Mills. Here looking like a real life Superman during his first tour of duty in Afghanistan. In 2012 on his third tour of duty, Travis set his backpack down on a landmine and became one of just five US soldiers to survive such extreme injuries. Today, Travis is a profiling courage as the founder of the Travis Mills Foundation up near Augusta, where he and his incredible team help wounded warriors from all over the United States. I'm invoking Travis tonight because he is a hero who has overcome extreme adversity to achieve seemingly impossible goals. What Solarize is trying to do is also heroic. Seeking to cut carbon pollution in a society where 150 years of burning coal, oil, and gas has created a multi-trillion dollar fossil fuel industry that wants to extinguish the clean energy industry. For this reason, we had Travis speak at Revision Energy's 2023 annual meeting as part of our resilience strategy in advance of the 2024 election. 12 months later, Taco became president, forcing us to lay off 100 revision co-owners. The 400 of us remaining are strengthened by the truth that however hard our path might be, others are bearing even heavier loads in pursuit of the better future that we know is possible. I find that science is another powerful source of resilience and and an antidote to today's negative forces. scientific facts like that the sun continuously bathes earth with 10,000 times more energy than what is needed for total glo to meet total global demand. And even though photosynthesis is the most energyintensive activity on Earth, it's a it's um kind of extraordinary that it's only 3% efficient. While the modern solar pan panel is nine times more efficient at converting sunlight into energy. This is why a 1acre solar array can generate enough electricity to power my Ford Lightning for about 750,000 m of driving, while 31 acres of corn converted to ethanol can only power about 25,000 miles in a gas truck. From a resource standpoint, it's hard to comprehend the volume of solar energy being delivered from 93 million miles away. But modern scientific measurements show us that 5 days of sunshine contain as much energy as is um in all the known reserves of fossil fuels in Earth's crust. I I just have a hard time wrapping my head around that. It's it's so extraordinary. And also the fact that in one hour of sun hitting the earth, it delivers enough energy to power all human energy demand for an entire year. So when we pe hear people saying that we can't get it done with renewables and electrote, I think we have some really good data to push back. At the local level, it's very good news that our latitude is identical to famously sunny Monaco on the French Riviera. And this helps explain why a solar array installed here in Portland will generate roughly the same amount of solar electricity per year as an array in Houston, Texas. And that's also um a result of the fact that solar panels are more efficient when it's colder outside and it's much colder here than it is in Houston. Teaching decision makers about main solar resource is how we reassure clients like Bifford High School that they will derive a strong economic and environmental return on their solar investment. This recently installed project is expected to save Bifford taxpayers more than $2 million over the 25-year warranty life of the solar panels now cranking out electricity on their roof. Yet, it's al it's also true that the sun doesn't always shine, which means we still burn fossil fuels when solar power is unavailable. But the tide is starting to turn in favor of energy storage. One example is the 1200 megawatt pumped hydro facility at Northfield Mountain in Massachusetts, currently the largest in New England, capable of powering 1 million homes for up to 7 and a half hours per day. if the grid goes down. I'm heartened by the fact that Maine is getting in on the pumped hydro bandwagon with Chinro's 500 megawatt facility in Dicksfield targeted to come online in 2030. And Form Energy has an 85 megawatt iron air battery scheduled to be um installed in the Lincoln in the former paper mill in Lincoln capable of powering 65,000 homes for up to 3 days and expected to come online in 2028. And while these storage projects are future oriented, others are already plugged to into our local grid like the 175 megawatt cross town project in in Gorum. Strategically connected to one of Maine's most con congested substations, Cross Town is designed to alleviate the grid bottleneck and avoid more costly transmission infrastructure. The battery earns revenue by reducing peak load and by serving as a shock absorber when intermittent renewables suddenly drop off and we need to fall back on something, ideally not fossil fuels. However, enemies of the clean energy transition will claim that will tell you and claim that electrote waste is going to pollute our landscape when it reaches end of life. In reality, today's batteries and solar panels are 95% recyclable, enabling a circular product life cycle that is impossible with those singleuse fossil fuels. This stark contrast in sustainability is highlighted by the fact that fossil energy requires 50 times as much of Earth's resources as electrote. On the right, we see that every year the world mines 9 billion metric tons of coal while drilling and fracking 8.4 billion metric tonses of oil and gas. But on the left, we see that we only need 25 years of mining of metals and rare earths that are needed for electrote to completely replace fossil fuels. These insights are relevant to Maine because we have highly valuable mineral and metal deposits that have been environmentally contentious in the state legislature. My perspective is that if the mining can be done responsibly without befouling our air and water, I think Maine has an opportunity to strengthen our long-term economic and energy security by becoming a raw materials supplier to the electrottech uh manufacturing sector. For example, the lithium deposit that we have up in Nuri, which is some of the purest on the face of earth of the earth. That lithium deposit could provide materials for the batteries being used by Burlington Vermont-based Beta Technologies, which has already flown its first generation electric airplane across the United States, stopping about every 200 miles at its um expanding airport charging network. And that network now includes a high-speed electric plane charger right here at at the Portland Jetport. And I sincerely apologize for that awful vehicle we had to use because because there wasn't a Beta plane around to uh to commission our charger. But how cool is that? I mean, the fact that we've already got high-speed electric plane charging right here um adjacent to us. Yeah. Well, that's a good guess. That's where it belongs. And by the way, did you hear that Electrote is also coming for the marine sector? I almost fell overboard off my boat last summer when I first saw this massive electric ferry charger at the main state pier on Commercial Street where we'll soon be charging the battery steel, the city's new electric ferry. It'll charge it for its hourly runs out to Peak Peaks Island. Yeah. Unfortunately, um we see that the ferry has been uh built and it's it's floating in the ocean. It has not yet been delivered, but when it gets here, um that massive charger, it is so powerful, it's going to be able to refill the battery in the 20 to 30 minutes that it takes to disembark the passengers and reload for the for the next trip out to peak. So, I think that's super cool. But full disclosure, um the battery steel does have diesel backup. People thought that that was a, you know, safety valve that we needed. But that's not the case with what I call the sea lightning. My 100 horsepower electric boat that I'm using to help decarbonize Casco Bay and protect the sensitive marine habitat that, you know, um, nurtures all of our uh, our seafood and and all the critters out there in the ocean. And thanks to the Gulf of Ma Maine Research Institute, there's now a high-speed electric boat charger on their wararf in Portland Harbor. The point of all these slides is to help people understand that the electro revolution is going faster than most folks realize and accelerating in ways that were unimaginable when I got into the clean energy industry about 20 years ago. I think it's extraordinary and inspiring to know that a single containership of solar panels can generate as much energy as a 100 containerships of coal and 50 ships containerships of liqufied natural gas over the life of those solar panels. This helps us grasp the truth that inefficiently burning finite polluting fossil fuels will not be necessary in the near future as hyperefficient electrote paired with renewable energy evolves into solutions that are cheaper, cleaner, and better than any combustion technology. At Revision Energy, we're doing everything we can to accelerate the clean energy transition. And we look forward to working with Solarize to help Portland public schools save money and reduce emissions. And I want to say to the uh to the Solariz team here tonight, if any of you would like to go out for a ride on the Sea Lightning at some point, um whether it's during the school year or over a vacation or even next summer, I'm your guy. I would love to take uh a group out and I can take up to eight passengers at one time. So, that's just an offer that I'd like to make. And I also let you know all of my slides that you see here are available to you and I have a whole bunch more um that didn't fit into my my 10-minute window. So, thanks for all you're doing. I really love your work. Thank you so much, Phil Coupe. Um, that's a pretty good offer, guys. So, >> I know we should go on the boat. Thank you. >> Um, now we'll be introducing Glenn Cummings. >> Glenn Cummings is a former member of the main House of Representatives as well as a former president of the University of Southern Maine. He currently works for the main department of education and is known as the director of green schools. Mr. Cummings is here to tell us about how he helps schools develop sustainability plans and what that could look like in the Portland schools district. Please welcome Glenn Cummings. Uh thank you. Um um Phil, I'm going to do the rest of your slides. Whoa, Phil. >> That's pretty cool. Do you want to talk about that? That's >> No, tell tell them what this means. So, you know, >> so, uh, I spend a lot of time thinking about, um, American resilience and the fact that we all need to come together to be stronger, especially at this really awful, uh, time of deep division. And I'm I'm kind of worried about the future um, if we continue on this path. And what worries me um is first requires a look backwards. So, we're looking at a couple hundred years of history. the the dates are on along the bottom and what the graphic is expressing is which superpower has kind of dominated and led the global economy and and and the world society over various uh eras. You know, we got um we got the industrial revolution, the age of steel and rail when Great Britain was the colonial superpower. The US rises up in the early 1900s when Thomas Edison and other geniuses were started to invent and and help us become the manufacturing kind of nexus of the entire world. And we've held that pole position as the kind of the most powerful nation on earth through the age of oil and mass production and the information age. But what um kind of really strikes me from my position in the clean energy industry is back in in about 1982, President Reagan came in after Jimmy Carter had put solar on the White House. And Reagan literally pulled the solar panels off the roof of the White House and he announced to the to the American public that we were going to double down on coal, oil, and gas. This was for this was 45 years ago. In doing so, Reagan literally pulled the the plug on what was at the at that time a clean energy industry that was in its infancy and he completely just cut it off at the knees and it it went dormant for quite a few years. China in its everlong struggle to be the major superpower that it wants to be and probably has the capability to be looked at what Reagan kind of threw on the ground and said to itself, "Gee, you know, fossil fuels, they're finite. They're dreadfully polluting and eventually humanity is going to have to figure out a way to to get by without them. And in the ensuing 45 years, China has invested so heavily in the clean energy uh transition, they now control about 85% of the global manufacturing capa capacity for solar panels, wind turbines, battery storage, electric vehicles, and a whole bunch of other electrote. And so what my big worry is is that if America fails to get its act together, we're going to find ourselves um becoming the the second chair to China as the global superpower. And I'm not all all hung up on who's the best superpower, but I am hung up on who's the most sustainable. And I think that China in its 5,000year history has learned that um when you can see a you know you see a hundred years in the future and you realize that fossil fuels aren't going to be around for that time it's come to the conclusion that the country that first gets to complete energy independence without burning coal oil and gas will by default become the strongest s strongest nation on the planet. That's what that means. >> Yeah. Um so um first of all that um that that my number one calling card is that my wife teaches at Casco Bay High School and so my wife now has a picture of Lucia up here and um and she's very impressed by the way um because these are the projects and I want to just say thank you. The research is really clear that schools and organizations don't move unless students engage. And it sounds strange, but it's really true. So, thank you for doing this. Thank you for continuing the work that Siri and and Lucia and others did. Thank you for Solariz. Let me just start off first of all saying that um what is green schools? Not every state has them. Uh there Maine has invested about two years ago. The legislature passed, governmentals passed and u and Hannah Pingry was a major player in making this happen. Where is Molly Shen with the Hannah? So where is she? Hey, Hannah. Yeah. All right. Good. Thank you, Molly. So, uh about two years ago, two and a half years ago, Hannah called me and we had a discussion and she said, you know, we just started this new position. I'd like you to think about um you know, whether that's something you might be interested in. And so what is the purpose of green schools? So I'm I'm going to give away a little bit by telling you that next to the military, schools are the biggest polluters in the public sector in this country. Before you even have one student fully in the door at Portland High School across America, you will have literally burned millions of tons of carbon into the world just from the huge bus lines that bring students into schools every single day. Then you get into the schools in a place like Maine, 65% of all of the all of the energy used to heat and cool the building is fossil fuels. And that goes in Maine through the shoulder seasons all the way through. And so we have a lot of work to do in cleaning up schools. But the most important reason why you want to focus on schools is the fact that what we have is an opportunity to create as we're doing right now the next Lucia the next Siri so that these guys will be passing it on to the next group and that's really the crucial thing about why green schools matter. So what are we doing here? We also know that mental and physical health is tremendously expanded when you spend time connected to nature. And when we also know that from a from a health point of view that when you have high levels of carbon in your room or particulates in your room, student achievement goes down significantly. Uh other things is that it is important for us and crucial for us to have students just like what you're seeing tonight be at the center of the movement to make the change for our survival as we heard earlier. So I'm just going to give you a quick quiz. I'm a high school teacher by trade. So I'm going to ask you to just talk to the person next to you here. Let me read you the first question. All right. I already just gave you away. So you got the first question already. The most the second next to the military. We are the second greatest poller. Let's go to number two. What percentage improvement in your physical health and your mental health at maximum can occur with just 45 minutes in nature every day? So if you're recovering from an injury, what is how much would you increase? Would it be a 10% increase in your recovery time or would it be 25% 40% or 100% increase? So just talk among yourself just for like 30 seconds. What do you think the answer to that might be? >> Okay. Anybody want to guess an answer? 45 minutes a day. You're starting to recover from a major surgery or you're sick. the impact on your recovery time. Any guesses? How about you, sir? >> 100%. >> 100%. Not quite. It is 40%. So 40%. So that's not bad. So you those of us who have had to recover from surgery, we really appreciate that even a 40% increase in time that you can spend out outdoors makes a huge difference. Uh number three, what percentage improvement in student academic scores can occur by improving indoor air quality? Again, talk amongselves. The first is 20%, 25%, 20% or 60%. Oh, it should should be 30%, sorry, or 60%. So, take a minute and just uh see what you think. Just by improving air quality, what kind of impact can that have on student achievement? Okay. Anybody want to venture a guess? >> 25. Nope. >> Nope. >> You got it. 60%. This is a Harvard chance. uh school of of health that air quality. Now, what is going on in air quality? The most important thing is, and you'll notice this in your classroom, if you're in a with lots of people around, as that as the particulates increase per milliliter, you will start to see people get sleepy. And when people sleepy, they're not functioning as well as they can. So there can be a 60% difference with you either outside or in a room that's relatively clean and fresh. You you're 60% more productive cognitively if you can um if you are are free from those particulates that might might make you more sleepy. And then finally how many days this is Maine specific. Is there a difference in ice out? Now, if you're from Maine, you should know this, but ice out means the lakes and ponds have completely melted when the rivers have discharged all of their their melt. Uh, since 1980, about the time I graduated from high school, A, is it 20 days earlier in the year? B, is it 15 days earlier in the year? Is it C the same as it was in 1980? or 10 or D 10 days later in the year. So, it's actually colder. So, anybody take a take a quick guess at where we are today? What's the difference between today in terms of ice out? >> 15 to 20 days. Actually, if you It's right in that right in that zone. Actually, some some some research says that it's around 15, others say it could be up to 20. So, think about that. in a half a lifetime the we would usually have the ice out closer to the third or fourth week in April and now it's around April 1. So it's a significant impact that we're seeing here in Maine and the implications for this are tremendous right because we are moving we're depending on frozen tundra frozen soil to be able to get machines in to do wood cutting etc. So it's impacting significantly both recreational and commercial impact. So let's take a quick look here. What does the green schools do? Leadership is one of the major things that we try to promote. We're trying to work on youth leadership where educator leadership and school uh leaders and particularly school administrators but also uh school committee members and uh help them understand where we're going. Just some of the things that you've already heard tonight in terms of climate change. Number two is facilities. As I said, we have about 65 to 66% of our schools still on fossil fuels. So just moving towards different alternatives, moving towards solar, moving towards geothermal that's funded, you know, that's that's fueled by solar has a major impact not only on the environment but also on the wallets of schools and that is a major and important thing for a lot of school districts. And then embedding climate change into the curriculum. the learning main learning results are tied very tightly have a lot of correlation to climate change and so that allows teachers really permission to use climate change as a major component and then finally we're working on careers both outdoor careers and careers focused specifically on clean energy and clean tech or electrotech as Phil was talking about. Uh so what have we been doing right now we are doing free energy audits. We have 14 school districts already in the program and we are our energy engineers are working with them free of charge. Any school district that would like it. We're trying to get energy information data to um to the school districts to start thinking about what could you do to improve the efficiency of those schools. New standards for school construction. So we have moved completely away from any fossil fuels as the primary source. Backup still there in Maine. Uh but we're moving away from all school construction that's done by the state, not necessarily by the locals. Uh we just had the the green schools network build out. So we just passed a piece of legislation to formally establish a network so that educators and youth and facility directors and superintendents can talk to each other um etc. And then we had our first green school symposium. Several of you were there. Phil spoke at that event. Um and we had um over 400 registers right from the beginning. So, lots of work. And I also want to bring you down to the last one, the seal of climate literacy. We started a seal of climate literacy. So, every student in the state can now have if they do 20 hours of a project plus two science courses that include either indigenous knowledge, climate change, sustainability. In those two science courses, you can actually put this on your diploma as a seal of climate literacy. Kind of a similar to the seal of biiteracy many of our students, particularly here in Portland, have. So keep going, keep moving on that. It's a fantastic opportunity. And then finally, um just so you know, we're starting to work on early childhood education. We're doing interdisciplinary instruction, working with teachers, uh safety and well-being, transportation, nutrition, etc. So we're connecting with a number of other agencies throughout state government to try to work on this project. And then finally, steps ahead, uh we are having three major one here in the Portland area, uh set for November, um that we'll have our first regional gathering of youth in this area specifically to do training and staff development for educators. Um and so we're also working with facility directors, superintendent trainings on how to develop the capital stack to do these projects. It's gotten tighter as Phil has talked about. Uh and then finally, we're looking at kind of giving an overview or getting it a an assessment of where every school district, all 200 plus districts are in terms of moving towards uh climate change, healthier environments, better cleaner facilities, and and engaging students through our curriculum. So, that's really what we're up to and I'll stop there, but uh the the whole purpose of the green schools is really to make sure that these students here are successful. Thanks, Thank you so much, Glenn Cummings. Our next speaker for tonight is Jason Shedlock. Jason Shedlock is the president of the main building trades council and is an organizer with the regional labors union local 327. These are both a part of the main labor climate council. The main labor climate council is a group of labor unions across Maine that have joined together to fight local climate change. Please welcome Jason Shedlock. >> Uh thank you very much and uh you know thanks for the opportunity to be here. Um you know when when I got the call uh when I first learned about uh about this effort of course I knew above the solariz effort. My daughter is a um uh goes to Portland High School. Um and you know, I'm very proud of the work that our students are doing. And you know, we're not just here because it's a student project. Uh we're here uh and I think I can speak on everyone's behalf because we know um that it's you that are is going to push us and help lead the way in what we need to do to reverse climate change. We we know that, right? Um, you know, the benefit of of hearing some speakers go first is I was able to take some notes. Um, and uh, and certainly appreciate um, the the the chats. You know, we talk about we have to do something. Uh, we need to build more capacity. We want to put solar on roofs. Uh, we want to talk about geothermal in schools. Um, those don't just happen. There are human beings uh that are responsible uh for making sure that the promise of of renewable energy uh making sure that your hopes for the next generation uh and my hopes for the next generation are actualized. So, you know, again, my name is Jason Shedlock. I I'm a labor union guy, right? I have the privilege of representing uh with all the hats that I wear tens of thousands of workers across the state. And what I can tell you uh is that clean energy can never be truly clean in my estimation if it's built on the backs of exploited labor. >> And you know that because I'm here, right? Um, and it's important, it's important as we move forward to think about the fact that we have one real chance. You know, we talked about um, you know, when President Reagan pulled the plug on the progress at such a crucial time and set us back. You know, Mayors are a skeptical bunch. Uh, and I appreciate I I'm not a mayor. Um, but I certainly appreciate it. And and so if we are going to convince people that these solar panels or geothermal or hydro or wind both onshore and off uh is something that is good for them. It's good for our environment. It's good for their kids. It's good for their well-being. It's good for the teachers in the schools. by the way, union members at the main education association. Appreciate all those teachers as well. Um, we have one chance to get it right. That's why it's so important and I appreciate so much our partnership with the environmental community, with policy makers around the state because they know that union labor, trained, safe, efficient, effective labor is the only way that we're going to be able to build once, build the right way, and reach the goals that we need to reach and not have to redo work that's not done well. We know that, right? That's why we're here. That's why we're in these conversations. That's why I want to make sure that your parents, your caregivers, your neighbors, your family, our friends don't have to leave the state to go to a construction job in Massachusetts and leave their families to make a family sustaining wage right here, right? That they could be making right here. It's you shouldn't have to leave your family to support your family. And what we're trying to say is that especially when taxpayer dollars are used to help support these projects. That's why we're saying when we are asking the public to trust us that this is the right thing to do. Uh and I absolutely know it is. Um, we're saying we have the opportunity and we shouldn't miss out on the opportunity to lead by example to make sure that our main values and the values of every single one of you that are here and every single person that knows that this is far bigger than themselves. We have an opportunity to demonstrate those values by making sure that when you drive by a school, when you go by a public building, you could say, you know, my uncle built that, my aunt made sure that the electricity was hooked up well in that or put the solar panels on top. You know, this is a source of pride and oh by the way, uh it's the only way that we're going to guarantee safe, effective, and efficient work, right? You know, my members like to build things. It's what we do. Um and we like to build them right the first time. I think you know what I often hear in the in the policy discussions is uh no. No. No is my least favorite word, right? No is not a strategy. No is not a policy. and no is not acceptable especially when it comes to something as important as protecting the uh Maine's environment uh and making sure that you know human beings and animals and living things can thrive here right we make decisions now you know we we we heard the videos and I'm so proud you know I love the video of uh the group uh that was interviewed in 2019 and and uh today and I'm I'm I'm certainly um I'm certainly proud of those individuals. Um we can do something decisions today that impact us today and that's making sure that the workers that we're entrusting to carry through and operationalize this technology um are making a family sustaining wage with benefits that we can be proud of. We can do that right now for people right as part of this. It shouldn't be an add-on, right? We should think of it one and the same. Um, as I said, no is not a strategy. Not yet is fine as long as we're working towards the yet, right? Um, if you don't have a better idea and you're not willing to put in the work to figure one out, we're going to move forward, right? Don't take no for an answer. Just don't. Don't take we don't have time for an answer. Make time. Right? These are policy makers and these are elected officials that they run for office because they want to do right by their communities. Some of them I'm not so sure about to be honest with you, right? Um but the ones I know around here absolutely feel that way. But we need to push. They need to hear these voices, right? They need to hear the voices of of you to also say, "And I want the workers to be treated well. Uh, I want the workers to be able to benefit from this green economy now and then when they retire they can see their grandkids and kids uh benefit from the environment and that and turning the tide um you know that um that Phil and Glenn talked about. Um you know I often say that I'm only the smartest person in the room when I'm alone. Um sometimes even 50/50 right with that. Uh it's going to take all of our ideas. It's there's no stupid or bad ideas. What I don't appreciate is um well, we agree in principle, but that's not the way to do it. Okay, that's fine, but let's work on how to do it. Let's work on how to start. And it can't just be a start. It can't just be, well, we'll do a little bit of something. We'll put some solar panels on a building and they'll shut up for a little while. Don't shut up. Don't ever shut up. By the way, I'm a union guy. I carry a bullhorn in my car. I don't shut up and neither should you. And I appreciate everything that you've done to bring awareness. I appreciate all these leaders in this room um to support you. Uh because it's going to take all of us. We all have a seat on the bus, right? We know that our work in the uh fossil fuel economy pays really well. workers make a a a good living for the most part. And we we need to make sure that as we transition into our green economy and as we do it at an accelerated pace, and we need to that we're not sort of saying, well, you're it's you shouldn't make those wages. It's we can't afford it. It's it's because you're devaluing the technology. You're devaluing what we're asking for, right? you're devaluing the very human beings you're relying on to operationalize our our vision. So, you know, I appreciate the opportunity to chat here today. I appreciate um not saying no, right? Don't let them say no. Um I look forward to putting uh women and men to work. Um I also look forward to putting pre-apprentices and apprentices and young people. We're the oldest state in the country. Uh the construction industry is pretty old. People look like me and certainly I would say less hair, but that's not really possible. But it's gray the ones that they have, right? Um it's important that we also use this as a teaching opportunity, especially when we work on schools. Why not teach apprenticeship, registered apprentichip in our trades while we're working on institutions of education? I think we can get there. I'm excited about it. I'm excited about the work that Glenn does. I'm excited about uh the work of of revision as they grow and expand and I know we'll be working together uh on many a project. Thank you very much and you let me know whenever you need that bullhorn. I'll be there for you. Thank you Jason Shedlock. Our last guest speaker for an evening for sustainability is Troy Moon. >> Troy Moon is the sustainability director for the city of Portland. The sustainability the sustainability office is leading the effort to implement oneclimate future, our city's climate action plan. To learn more, please visit www.wclimatefuture.org. And we are very excited to have him join us tonight. So, please give a warm welcome to Troy Moon. Great. Thank you very much for that introduction and thanks um to our speakers before sharing such wonderful information. And I'd say it's it's a real privilege tonight to uh be here to uh talk to our solarized students and to the community at large. Um just a little bit about our sustainability office. We are part of the city government. We are technically part of the city manager's office. We have a team of three people, myself and two other full-time employees. And we often have an Americanore student um not a student, a volunteer um who works with us. We've actually been fortunate to have six Americanore um resilience core members really helping us um expand our capacity. But we do a lot of different things. Um we work on a lot of things to do with renewable energy. So, we have um four different solar arrays that we have inside the city of Portland on the Ocean Avenue landfill, which I think you saw in some of the pictures before, and many students have have visited those over the years. Um we have a big array on the Portland Jetport. So, when you're parking your car in the Jetport, there's a large array up on top and that's powering a lot of parts of the Jetport. Um, if you happen to be a golfer, all of the golf carts are powered by solar energy um, with an array built by Phil Coupe and Revision Energy. So, solar powered golf carts and we also have our newest city building, the homeless service center has 110 kilowatts of solar on the roof. So, we're definitely wanting to do more solar in inside the city, but we've been um doing a lot of work with working on projects and developments around the state. So we have um the city and the school department actually gets solar energy from 21 solar projects that are in in the CMP service area. So they places like Unity Maine and Hartland Maine in Bristol and Bethl have solar arrays that um energy comes to city buildings and school buildings from. And so we are working on solar. I know I've had conversations with um the superintendent and the team at the school department is working really hard on um upgrading energy services in the city in the in the school department as we speak. So we can talk more about that later. But um one client future is our city's climate action plan. It was adopted by the city council in 2020. Um, after a lot of public engagement, we actually went out and we did over 100 different public engagement opportunities because one climate future is a a plan for for the future. It's for the future of Portland and and what do we imagine Portland will look like in 2050 in 2100 and we know that climate change is is happening as we speak. So, what actions do we need to work on? So, the plan has 68 strategies built into these buckets. So we want to improve energy performance in our buildings and reuse renewable energy. We have to reduce waste. Um waste um is a huge upstream generator of carbon emissions. So if people are throwing things away and and wasting them that causes emissions. Transportation is a huge huge issue both in in the state and in Portland. And as like like it or not, we are already being impacted by by the by climate change. We're seeing rising seas. um we're experiencing damage um on the shoreline. Uh we're experiencing more and more hot days with urban heat island impacts. So these are the four buckets of things that we're really working on. So we call that we're trying to mitigate emissions. We want to reduce um reduce the greenhouse gases that are going into the atmosphere, but we also need to prepare for the impact. So on the left hand side with a piraphph that shows where carbon emissions are coming from in Portland. Um we just updated this this is brand new information. Uh we did our our first um greenhouse gas inventory with 2017 data. Um and so we did find out um we've made a little bit of progress. So in the building sector um which which if you add up um residential buildings, commercial buildings and industrial buildings that's about 60% of our carbon emissions. And so this is where we really need to work on things like add having more and more solar power. We want to try to u we have a motto called electrify everything. Um what Phil was talking about electrottech. We need uh we need more heat pumps. We need um you know more electric technology and solar projects to reduce that u you know reduce the carbon emissions and get off fossil fuels. We want to be one you want to be 100% renewable in Portland in you know both public schools and the city operations. So we're working on that and so residential buildings that's our homes right. So, we want to see we've seen some good progress there. More, you know, fewer and fewer people in Portland are using fuel oil, which is great. More and more people are using heat pumps. Um, but there's still a lot of work to do there. Um, we have commercial buildings, which also probably includes schools and city buildings. 31% of emissions from there and industrial buildings. So, factories are a big impact. So, we're working on those areas. Um, also another, you know, huge factor. So if you look at the kind of big orange chart there, that's transportation. So um that's actually where we're seeing some, you know, you know, a lot of impacts. We want part of one client future is we want Portland to we want people to get out of their cars. We want them to be able to walk, ride their bikes, um take the transit. Um and so we have a lot of work to do there. We actually saw, believe it or not, um emissions from transportation went up between 2017 and 2023, which kind of brought our performance down. So, we need to do a lot of work and I know our city council is really focused on safer streets um making making it easier for people and safer for people to uh you know to get out and do you know walk and ride their bikes. Um so I would hope that I would ask students to stay really close to that because again it's a huge it's a huge part of emissions in state in the state 60% of emissions come from transportation. And so because we're more urban, we have lower but still a huge problem. But over the years, I've been really fortunate to work with Portland High Environmental Club and and from students. And so I hope um I hope this is just the beginning of our opportunity to work more together. So on the left hand side, uh there was um the Portland High Environmental Club helped us launch our single stream recycling program and this was actually quite a launch. This was probably back in 2007 or 2008. and the and the club was really engaged and helped promote recycling around um around the whole the whole um whole city. They helped us make a video we shared with the public and on on the cable TV station and it was a really great experience and the leadership that the students showed was just tremendous. And then actually solar eyes and the honorable club had a part to play in passing one climate future. So in the picture on the right um um there's Amy Ashimu and Siri Pierce who were at our one climate future launch event that kicked off all the planning um that brought us the plan. So again, I really appreciate appreciate the leadership that the students have shown over the years and hope to continue doing that. And this is, you know, kind of where, you know, where can we make the most impact and you have shown um the students have shown great tenacity in being great advocates. Um just so this might be kind of a summary for people but you know the policy what policies are enacted by our by the various levels of government make a really big difference on what we can do and how quickly we can do it. So a lot of the you know a lot of federal policy is super important to how quickly we can adopt renewable energy and unfortunately there's a lot of bad news on the at the federal level recently. So, you know, one of the things that helped make renewable energy um and solar and you know, and geothermal and batteries like, you know, tax incentives are really important because a lot of these projects, you know, we had to find a way to pay for them. So, tax incentives are great. Unfortunately, um the big beautiful bill did away with many of those. So, that's kind of creating a you know, it's a it slows things down as we have to find new ways to to fund a lot of projects. So um the live United States has had really leading um policy leading um you know research foundations the national renewable energy lab and others were really advancing technology unfortunately a lot of those are cut now too and funding for energy efficiency is also um you know been cut out um by the current administration. So again, as uh you know, as as young voters and and older voters think about um you know, the policy actions they want to have happen, like consider that as you get ready to cast votes, which you know, which of the candidates are most apt to support the policies you want? And that goes for the state um as well. A lot of um really important things. And this is where news is a lot better. uh Maine really does have some great um environmental policies and good climate policies uh due to the leadership of of you know elected officials across the state. So, um, we have in Maine by law, um, all of electricity that we purchase off the grid has to be 100% clean energy by 2040, which is really remarkable. And that's kind of pushing our, you know, our goal to electrify everything because we want to take advantage of the grid as more renewable energy comes online that we and we hopefully will meet that 100% by 2040 target. But one of the challenges about that is, you know, back to the federal policy, a lot of um, you know, meeting that goal is going to count really depend on things like offshore wind, which is unfortunately, you know, been curtailed by the current um, you know, federal administration. So, as we move into the future, hopefully we can get the offshore wind industry back online and bring that amazing resource of renewable energy that's off the shore and bring that into uh, into the city. But the state also does some great work on funding a renewable energy efficiency. Maine is a great resource um for homeowners and others um to help pay for heat pumps and they have programs that actually can help support um investments in city buildings and school buildings. Um and so I know that the facilities director is is looking really closely at those as a way to advance um clean energy in the schools. And then the state also is doing a great job of supporting local communities with adaptation efforts and providing funds to help us prepare for the impacts of climate change that we're that we're going to be experiencing and already are experiencing. And then at the local level certainly um candidates um decide you know our school board and our city councilors defied on where to allocate funds. So consider that certainly um and make where are we going to be making investments in infrastructure and you know environmental protection. So those are all important things. I know that our students here are really knowledgeable and savvy about those things. Um but you know I want to talk a little bit too about some of the um the said mentioned we're talking about some of the programs and some of the action that's happening across the community. And one of the things I want to highlight and this is an area that kind of really focuses on a lot of it's on resilience. How do we build resilience and and adapt um to get ready for the impacts of climate change? So, um, one of the programs we have in in our office is our sustainable neighborhoods program, which we want to partner with community members, um, to help build, um, thriving, resilient, lowcarbon communities. And this is one of the strategies in our oneclimate future plan. We want to support, um, community-led initiatives however we can in order to build social resilience. We want to encourage community members to work together at the, you know, even at the street and street level to get to know neighbors better, to work on projects that are meaningful to people in the neighborhood, you know, that make the quality of life higher and advance um some of our um some of our um you know, an environmental goal. So on the top you see on Peaks Island there's some really amazing volunteers who are working really hard to promote our composting program and and so they help us you know literally the Peaks compost team you know collects the compost and helps you know bring it to the mainland and actually they're just started with our support is to uh do composting on the island so they don't even have to bring it over. So which is really amazing project. Um you can see on the the folks on the top right there building community gardens. So uh we needed to have raised beds for all of the community gardens. And so literally hundreds of volunteers came out um to help build new raised beds for all the city community gardens which was tremendous. And another program that um I think is tremendous is window dressers. So window dressers. So they volunteers, community volunteers come together to build energy efficient window inserts for um for their neighbors. It's a really tremendous project and it really saves it helps uh people save money and of course with energy bills being as high as they are, having uh you know warm, comfortable homes um that are affordable is more important than ever. So window dressers is a huge shout out. So we want to you know again we want to do what we can to support um neighborhood leaders. So uh keep an eye out um in the spring. We're going to offer another round of community mini grants. So last year we did this. We had 30 neighborhood organizations uh received grants and they did everything from you know having planting pollinator gardens in Parkside um with they did they've done murals as cleanups. Um on the bottom left there's a group that came together to start doing mending with neighbors mending fabrics and doing repair fairs. Um so you know we're excited to offer that program again. Um, we want to help. We're able to provide some support and resources to help folks organize in initiatives. So, currently we're working with neighbors on Peaks Island to develop the Peaks Island resilience conference that will be in a few weeks that um, everyone on the Peaks is going to come together and we'll talk about how to work on adaptation on the island. and you know will help support community convenings and there's so there's a ton of things going on and you know our whole the one client future plan is it's a peoplebased plan you know the sustainab the sustainability office cannot make the city sustainable the community needs to do that and we're we'll do what we can to help that and we want to encourage young people particularly to be involved because as we've heard um and and as we know the future belongs to to this young people not to us older people and so we really do want listen to uh what youth have to say. And um I would say there's a number of really important opportunities for youth engagement coming up. So right now the city is working on updating its comprehensive plan which sounds really wonky but that's going to think about how are we going to develop the city for the next 10 years. What what action should we take? What things should we prioritize? And then I hope um you know please reach out to me and I can help connect um students with the right people and make sure we have youth participation in that conversation. And we're also doing a lot of work on adaptation um particularly around the waterfront next year again and you know I'd love to have more people involved. So I know they knows how to get hold of me. So I really encourage you to to um to to participate in those programs and I also will offer the the um opportunity I'd be happy to meet more often with um with our solarized team and we can explain kind of what we're working on and get more of your ideas directly. So >> great. Thanks. Hello, my name is Nell. I'm a senior at Portland and I am the vice president of Solarize Portland. And I'd like to thank you all for coming and supporting us. We are so grateful to have such a supportive audience for the premiere of our project and reminding us that none of us are in this alone. Um we are so lucky to have a supportive community that has congregated tonight in support of our advocacy. And this is a great opportunity to have conversations with and to learn from other people who also care as much as we all do about the environment. >> If you have questions for any of us or any of the speakers, please don't hesitate to approach us. With all the great work that's being done in Portland, we hope you leave tonight with hope and faith in environmental groups in our community. So, we're going to circulate the donation baskets again if you'd like to support our initiative or you can scan the QR code to donate online. We are also selling the gift cards by the welcome table that are generously donated by the Central Kitchen. It will be a minimum of $25 first come first serve. Spread the word about Solarized Portland and follow our Instagram to stay uptoate on our activities. In addition to all of you in attendance tonight, we have generous support from the organizations up on the next slide. Thank you especially to Portland Media Center for hosting us and to Kiero Cafe and Holy Donut for their food donations. We want to say a thank you to all the organizations that have supported us. We wouldn't be able to do this without your solidarity. Um, here are some of them. The Portland High School Women's Rights Club, the Portland High School Student Council, the Portland High School Working-Class Youth of Portland, the Portland High School Asian Student Union, WPG, Maine Labor Climate Council, Portland Maine Teachers Union, Portland Maine City Counselors, Revision Energy, Maine Democratic Socialists, Maine Independent Socialists, Portland Public School Students and Staff, representatives from the Hannah Pingri campaign, Foundation for Portland Public Schools, The Ballard, Carol Cafe, Holy Donut, Red Fern Properties, PECAT, Portland Climate Action Team, Jason Wentworth, Citizens Climate Lobby, Sinful Kitchen, and the Portland Public Library. >> Thank you. Thank you for coming.