RENEW Is…

… a diverse, grassroots group of Worcester residents who are committed to working for energy democracy in our community.

Copyright: © 2018 Fred Murphy License Details

Our Values

  • Community
  • Cooperation
  • Justice
  • Problem Solving
  • Activism

We believe that solutions come from the ground, from place-based lived experience. We work to include members of Worcester’s diverse communities in decision-making about the changing energy system.

We empower all members of our organization to share their ideas and decide on how the organization functions by operating with a democratic, consensus-based decision making process. We support the growing movement for a co-operative economy in Worcester and beyond.

Energy democracy is a framework for creating new structures of ownership and control, including structures of shared ownership and deeply democratic decision-making. We are committed to building such structures with members of historically disenfranchised communities at the helm. We aim to bring the economic, environmental, and social benefits of renewable energy to communities of color, low income residents, and non-English speaking communities that face barriers to moving off fossil fuels.

We learn through doing. We are tackling the intersectional problems associated with the current fossil fuel-based energy system and the challenges of transitioning to renewable energy.

We are engaged in system change and work with residents and our organizational partners to build an energy system that will be the basis of a more just and resilient economy.

We are a Community Energy Cooperative of Co-op Power, a regional energy co-op that operates through local chapters.

As a regional CEC of Co-op Power, we overcome historical barriers (such as financing; technical expertise, and trust) that have prevented low income individuals, nonprofits, and small businesses from going solar in order to plan, build, develop, and manage community-owned solar projects that benefit Worcester residents. We ensure that our solar energy projects include local living wage jobs.

We do this through:

  • Supporting local equitable workforce development for quality green jobs
  • Community engagement and storytelling around the extractive energy system and its alternatives
  • Being in the right relationship to all life and the planet that supports us
  • Partnering with organizations whose work intersects with energy justice (e.g., housing/environmental/economic/racial justice)
  • Connecting residents to resources such as community-owned energy systems and improved energy efficiency

RENEW Empowers Community…

As a grassroots group, RENEW organizes and participates in events and forums to engage our community in co-learning about our changing energy system.

Our goal is to empower community members with the skills and knowledge to be active participants and leaders in designing energy systems that provide real, tangible, and permanent benefits to low income people who are usually locked out of those opportunities. and offer a variety of trainings related to solar energy projects and policy.

RENEW in the community…

We work with community members to plan, organize, and build community-owned solar projects that benefit the most energy-burdened residents and communities in our city. Together, we create and facilitate strategic partnerships that enable access to the required expertise to develop and oversee clean energy projects from conception to launch and beyond, while staying true to the core guiding principles of energy democracy.

Why RENEW Does It

100% Renewable Energy Is Not a Sufficient Response.

The currently dominant economic system treats energy as a commodity to be exploited for profit. We can fuel our economy with renewable energy sources and yet leave in place the social, legal, and economic structures that prioritize property rights over human rights, that alienate people from one another and from mother nature that sustains all life. 

By doing so, we perpetuate the systemic inequalities that allow profit-seeking business interests to exploit our resources, extract wealth from our communities, and unfairly burden the most marginalized members of our community with the highest energy costs and the most negative environmental and health outcomes. We believe there is another way.

The Opportunity In a Changing Energy System

We get electricity from an electrical grid that is owned by monopoly utilities and organized around big power plants far from consumers. The good news is that our utility no longer has monopoly control over where and how we source our energy, and a decentralized supply system creates exciting possibilities for energy democracy. We can now design energy systems that are owned and under the control of community members.