Beyond Offsets: Aligning Institutional Climate Goals with Local Community Impact
This live, online Boston Climate Week panel explores an innovative approach to advancing community access to resilient climate solutions while helping an institution achieve its carbon mitigation goals.
Since 2019, Williams College has partnered with the Center for EcoTechology (CET) to create the Community Climate Fund (CCF). The Fund is used to sponsor high-impact, community-based carbon-reduction projects to help individual households, farms, and community organizations access climate solutions that would otherwise be financially out of reach, stalled, stuck, or blocked. Since its launch, the Community Climate Fund (CCF) has invested in 119 projects that mitigated 10,882 lifetime tons of carbon and benefited nearly 1,000 community members.
This panel will explore CCF's goals, how it works, who it helps, and lessons learned. Case studies will help you deeply appreciate the real-world co-benefits of community-based climate solutions for institutions. The panel will conclude with a discussion of how this program could be replicated at other universities and other types of institutions that aspire to integrate their climate goals with community impact.
Speakers
Sara Draper, Market Evolution Manager - CET
Sara Draper is the inaugural Market Evolution Manager at CET, leading the implementation of pilot projects, developing innovative service models, and analyzing the impact of programs across CET’s portfolio. Sara’s roots in sustainability are in the built environment; she trained in historic building conservation at the University of Bath, and worked as a sustainability strategist at Bruner/Cott, a Cambridge architectural firm. She moved into higher education as the first director of the R.W. Kern Center, a certified Living Building at Hampshire College. She later served as the college’s Sustainability Manager, leading the development of a new climate action plan, overseeing a portfolio of renewable energy assets, and teaching courses in environmental action. Sara brings her love for collaborative creation and out-of-the-box thinking to grow CET’s decarbonization programs.
Tanja Srebotnjak, PhD, Executive Director - Zilkha Center for the Environment
Tanja Srebotnjak is an environmental sustainability leader and the executive director of the Zilkha Center for the Environment at Williams College. She holds a PhD in environmental performance measurement from Yale University's School of the Environment. Her work focuses on advancing climate action through strategic planning and the implementation of programs spanning clean energy, sustainable buildings, low-carbon mobility and more. She brings a systems-thinking approach to integrating sustainability into institutional operations while fostering partnerships across campus and with surrounding communities. In addition to managing sustainability initiatives, she is committed to education, mentorship, and cultivating innovative solutions that align environmental stewardship with environmental justice and social impact.
Mike Evans, Deputy Director - Zilkha Center for the Environment
Mike Evans is the Deputy Director of the Zilkha Center for the Environment at Williams College. He joined the ZCE in 2014 and leads stakeholder engagement and strategy on zero waste, departmental sustainability plans, and sustainable food and procurement, and he oversees campus sustainability internship programming. He finds cultivating campus partnerships and cross-collegiate collaborations to be one of the most rewarding aspects of his work, viewing them as essential for integrating sustainability and solving problems at a systems level. Prior to his time at Williams, he worked in nonprofits focusing on food security, youth empowerment, sustainable agriculture, and food justice in Boston, Austin, and Salt Lake City.
By registering for this event, you agree to share your registration information with the organizers of Boston Climate Week.