The first step toward starting up a RePower Alberta campaign in your community is to find a core group of people to organize with. All you need is at least one other person, but of course the more the merrier!
1. Check out www.REPOWERALBERTA.ca a useful website empowering Albertans for a sustainable future, to see if there are activists already organized in your community as well as any upcoming activities or new updates.
2. Set up an information and outreach table in a high visibility area like an environmental festival, a public square, or your local community centre. Use a sign-up sheet to collect contact info from interested people.
3. Talk to friends and family and convince them to join your campaign.
4. Hold a kick-off meeting to get people engaged, be sure to have information available to help answer any questions or address concerns.
5. Make a campaign plan, come up with goals and how to achieve them (e.g. create a petition for a green jobs strategy to develop green jobs, assign designated areas to collect signatures, identify the political figures that need to be contacted, etc.)
Potential Actions for Your RePower Alberta Campaign:
1. Send out information to your friends, family and co-workers to let them know about the potential of investing in energy efficiency, transit and high speed rail, and renewable energy development, as well as other areas for green jobs development (you can use the information you’ve read here!)
2. Get friends and family to send out emails, faxes and letters (see the Samples and Materials section below!) to Premier Ed Stelmach and Environment Minister Rob Renner at:
The Honourable Ed Stelmach
Premier of Alberta
Office of the Premier
307 Legislature Building
10800 – 97 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta T5K 2B6
(Email Ed Stelmach)
The Honourable Rob Renner
Minister of Environment, Alberta
Office of the Minister
425 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta T5K 2B6
(Email Rob Renner)
3. Sign the petition urging the government of Alberta to create a green jobs strategy to develop new green jobs. Get together a bunch of people, some clipboards and pens, and head out to busy areas to start collecting signatures. Send completed petitions to Premier Ed Stelmach and Environment Minister Rob Renner.
4. Create and put up simple posters to engage people and to educate them about the potential of investing in green jobs. Postering is easy to organize, a good way to build group cohesion, and can help build for upcoming events or attract new members. Download the sample poster (coming soon)
5. Set up an information station at high visibility events like environment festivals, music concerts, public squares and community centers to spread the word and educate others. Be sure to have a sign-up sheet (see Samples and Materials) to collect contact information of interested people and invite them to future events.
6. Get involved with your local media, such as campus or community radio stations, newspapers, or cable TV stations, and talk about Alberta’s renewable energy sectors’ potential to put hundreds of thousands of Albertans to work over the next several years. Write a letter to the editor or op-ed. A letter to the editor of your local community paper can really raise the profile of the campaign for the Alberta government to invest in a green jobs strategy to develop new green jobs. You’ll have greater success getting your letter published if a) the letter references a specific article by the newspaper – try linking this campaign to a story on an environmental or business issue recently covered in the paper; OR b) the letter is subtle enough to slip under the editor’s irony radar. Try to keep your letter to the point and under 200 words. (See Samples and Material for a sample letter to the editor.) An opinion editorial (op-ed) is typically longer than a letter to the editor.
7. Talk to your local government - what is your town, county, band council, or communities doing to promote and bring forth renewable energy, energy efficiency and green jobs in your area? Find out what the potential is for renewable energy growth and promote your ideas to council! There is a lot of momentum on the local level already moving towards these intitiatives. See where you can help!
8. Involve younger generations. They will have the most to lose if the government of Alberta fails to implement a green jobs strategy or chooses not to invest in energy efficiency, transit and high speed rail, and renewable energy development. Ask local high school teachers and administrators if you can give presentations on the potential of investing in the different areas for green jobs development. Urge students to voice concerns about their future job security to Premier Ed Stelmach and Environment Minister Rob Renner.
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