There is tremendous power in collective action on sustainability, including climate and energy, across communities of all sizes. The Sustainable States Network brings together state-level sustainability, clean energy, and climate programs to share strategies, resources, and best practices. We foster the success of local initiatives and collaborate on projects.

Our Mission

The purpose of the Network is to connect and align state-wide sustainability programs, enable its members to share resources and best practices, foster the success of local sustainability initiatives, and collaborate on projects that advance our shared goals.

Our Vision

The long-term vision of the network is to build a future where sustainability is the norm for every community. We focus on local governments as change agents that make progress on sustainable development. Smaller units of government are flexible and can move toward action at a pace that often isn’t possible at the state or federal level. This allows communities to make real progress on sustainability, climate, and clean energy goals at the speed necessary to meaningfully impact the health of their residents, economy, and environment.

Our commitment to equity

• Adopt an equity plan

• Post SSN Equity Statement on website

• Leverage storytelling

• Utilize an annual survey to investigate barriers and opportunities 

• Identify, pursue, and share funding sources 

• Facilitate equity-focused, peer-driven training, learning, and sharing

• Catalogue and build relationships 

• Track and assess progress towards SSN equity metrics 

• Curate resources to help state programs participate in high-impact equity actions through: 

  • Annual reporting

  • Developing and tracking equity metrics for state programs

  • Implementing actions

2021-2022 Sustainable States Annual Report

To date, the Network has been generously supported by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, Janet and Gerald Carrus Foundation, Johnson Foundation, New York Community Trust, and the Surdna Foundation.

Leadership and Staff

The Network is managed by the Great Plains Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization with a mission to transform the energy system to benefit the economy and environment. Great Plains Institute acts as the Network’s fiscal sponsor.

Lola leads GPI’s communities’ work and provides strategic direction, overall program management, new project development, fundraising, and facilitation. She is a seasoned professional with over 35 years of experience in community energy planning and project implementation, energy policy, renewable energy, and energy efficiency. She has extensive background in bringing diverse groups of people together to craft energy policy and implement projects in networks, coalitions, and working teams.

Network Coordinator: Lola Schoenrich, vice president of communities, Great Plains Institute

Contact Lola: lschoenrich@gpisd.net

Ava is a program associate at the Great Plains Institute. Ava provides administrative and technical support to the Sustainable States Network and helps facilitate Minnesota local government networks. Prior to her role at GPI, Ava interned at the City of Minneapolis’s Community Planning and Economic Development department after earning her bachelor’s degree in 2022. Ava majored in political science and urban studies at the University of Minnesota. During her time there, she was a journalist for the Minnesota Daily News.

Contact Ava: athompson@gpisd.net

Steering committee

The Network is governed by a Steering Committee with co-chairs elected by the membership.

Co-Chair: Kristin Mroz, Minnesota GreenStep Cities

Co-Chair: Joanne Bissetta, Massachusetts Green Communities

Kelly Tyler, New York Clean Energy Communities Program (NYSERDA)

Lynn Stoddard, Sustainable CT

Brandy Espinola, Green Cities California & Sustainable Maryland

Randy Solomon, Sustainable Jersey

Danielle Beard, Michigan Green Communities

Working Groups

Equity: Ensuring that social equity is front and center in state-level programs

Co-Chair: Mel McDermott, Sustainable Jersey

Communication: Guiding communication efforts and outreach to partners 

Chair: Mike Hunninghake Sustainable Maryland

Climate Action: Sharing best practices on successful local engagement around climate mitigation and resilience 

Chair: Brandy Espinola, Green Cities California and Sustainable Maryland

Annual Meeting Planning: Ensuring an engaging annual meeting

Chair: Kelly Tyler, New York Clean Energy Communities Program (NYSERDA)

Connecting Communities to Federal Funding: Sharing information and resources on how members and Affiliates are connecting communities to project funding. The group will also explore collaborative multi-state projects.

Co-Chair: Ellie Kahn, New York Clean Energy Communities Program (NYSERDA)

Co-Chair: Kale Roberts, ICLEI

Equity Commitment

Over generations, local governments have perpetuated inequity, wittingly and unwittingly, through exclusionary policies and practices impacting Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. Through our actions, the members of the Sustainable States Network aim to undo this legacy. We will assist local governments in developing the capacity to identify and correct bias, and to create equal opportunity for all people regardless of their ethnicity, race, economic class, age, gender, sexual orientation, differing ability, religious belief, or other social characteristics. Our goal is to support practices that uncover and address unintentional bias, to root out explicit forms of discrimination, and to foster norms of inclusion and community solidarity.

Local governments have a responsibility to promote the well-being of all residents, especially those that are excluded from public decision-making and economic opportunity. This responsibility entails empowering their participation in public decision-making, and recognizing their presence and value in community life by addressing past and present harm. The Sustainable States Network recognizes that we can play a key role in helping municipalities move towards accountability, and by working with municipal leaders to ensure that racial and social equity becomes integral to our efforts to create truly sustainable communities. This means supporting our member programs to develop the capacity of municipalities in their states to address the impacts of systemic oppression on Black, Indigenous, and people of color as well as other marginalized and vulnerable people by removing barriers to meaningful participation, access, and opportunity.

By emphasizing accountability and change at the community level, supporting peer-to-peer learning, facilitating the sharing of resources and information, and developing multi-program collaboration that is explicitly focused on advancing racial and social equity and inclusion, we can help create a future where all members of the community receive a fair share in benefits, participate equitably in civic decision-making, and feel recognized and included in community life.

2023 Equity Commitments & Goals

SSN Commits to

1. Adopting an equity plan with a problem, vision and mission statement alongside equity commitments that is incorporated into the Network’s annual Action Plans.

2. Posting the Network’s equity statement and strategy on the SSN website and sharing the commitments with member programs, partners, and stakeholders.

3. Leveraging storytelling to showcase the efforts of state programs and individual communities working to make equity part of the sustainability norm by regularly updating the SSN website, highlighting success stories and initiatives in blogs and other communications, and by speaking at sustainability conferences/webinars and the Network’s annual meeting. 

4. Utilizing an annual survey to investigate barriers and opportunities for state programs to advance their equity commitments by cataloguing equity actions, assessing needs, and identifying strategic programming and funding priorities. 

5. Identifying, pursuing, and sharing funding sources to continue resourcing equity related programs, convenings, and consulting needs.

6. Facilitating regular opportunities for equity-focused, peer-driven training, learning and sharing via Working Group meetings, sessions at the annual gathering, learning circles, webinars, and convenings such as cross-state networking events. 

7. Expanding the breadth and reach of SSN’s equity commitments by cataloging and building relationships with national and regional partners, community based organizations, equity coaches, consultants, and prospective state programs that share our equity vision. 

8. Supporting the SSN Equity Working Group to track and assess progress towards the Network’s equity metrics by providing annual reports and recommending course adjustments as needed.

9. Curating resources to help state programs participate in our high-impact equity actions by hosting a platform for state programs to access racial and social equity tools, coordinating consulting and coaching resources, and developing model best practices and equity actions. The high-impact equity actions we encourage our members to participate in as part of the Network's commitment to equity include;

   • annual reporting on equity work to date,

   • developing and tracking equity metrics for your state program with respect to the participating cities, their income and racial diversity compared to the income and racial diversity of the state. (See SSN Commitment #4.)

   • completing at least one of the following five activities each year with the goal of implementing all over time: 

     • Host at least 4 hours of equity related programming for staff and/or municipalities annually. Programming could take the form of training sessions, presentations, roundtables, workshops, panel discussions, facilitated staff discussions or other opportunities for learning and engagement.

     • Adopt a program and/or an organizational equity statement that includes commitments for action and is shared publicly on program materials and with municipalities. 

     • Compile a demographic profile of participating municipalities by certification level to assess program impact and to identify potential barriers to participation

     • Ensure that your program has at least one action that directly advances racial and/or social equity.

     • Conduct an equity evaluation of your program by reviewing best practices from an equity perspective. Make adjustments as needed and/or a plan to update in the future.  

     • Add equity-related resources to your program.