Video: Students speak about WACBAT experience!
WACBAT Blog http://wacbat.wordpress.com/
The Weatherization and Community Building Action Team (WACBAT) is a student led group that focuses on student and community engagement to bring about culture change, policy change, and community building around saving energy, money, and jump-starting a greener economy based on local renewable energy. WACBAT focuses its energy in the community and on campus to make these changes happen.
For the 2011/2012 academic year, WACBAT focused on several different initiatives:
- WACBAT collaborated with Wind for Schools to bring renewable energy, engaged education to Flagstaff’s elementary schools.
- We have collaborated across NAU to bring about the Blackout, a campus event directed at education and lowering NAU students’ energy usage through celebration, music, education, and student lead action.
- We are working with local utility companies to bring more energy efficiency services to Flagstaff residents and community members, as well as insuring that all residents have access to proper translation of their bills and public services.
- We are working with the South Side Murdoch Center and Solar Mosaic to bring small scale solar installations to our community centers and institutions.
In the past year and a half, WACBAT has quickly expanded and ramped up its work in Flagstaff. Some of WACBAT’s signature achievements include: Cool the Planet, Warm the Neighborhoods. A community event that brought over 500 different people from different backgrounds together to eat, listen to music, and celebrate Flagstaff’s community energy efficiency programs on November 14th, 2010; raised funding to weatherize the Flagstaff Family Food Center; raised funding for and weatherized numerous Flagstaff homes; played a major role in organizing the 10/10/10 event with the Green Fund, Environmental Caucus, and 350.org to sign up over 100 households for more than $630,000 in energy efficiency programs, Our organizing provided the on the ground support and demand (the BUZZ) for the creation of the $2.7 million dollar Unisource revolving loan fund for community energy efficiency retrofits.