Trainings & Events

Join Eversource Energy on the first Thursday of most months to learn about their energy efficiency programs and offerings in Connecticut. These lunchtime webinars are an opportunity to learn directly from your desk.

For Eversource's final First Thursday webinar in 2024, they will provide an overview of programs and incentives currently available to their residential and commercial customers located in Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection designated environmental justice communities. Participants will be joined by select energy efficiency consultants who will take you through the available resources and how to access these energy efficiency programs and offers.

Why should you attend? 

• You want to learn more about energy efficiency and offers for State of Connecticut-defined environmental justice communities

• You want to learn about energy efficiency programs that you can share with your community, residents, businesses, and organizations who serve these communities  

• You want to help your community members reduce their carbon footprint through energy efficiency

Relevant Building Sectors: U.S. commercial buildings

Recommended for: Building owners, managers, and service providers

Duration: 1 hour

Webinar Level: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced

Continuous improvement of energy performance requires establishing effective energy management practices and processes. With current technology and a drive for energy efficiency, organizations of any kind can effectively use the endless data available to them to create an actionable energy management strategy. Join this webinar to hear from representatives across two different sectors — schools and real estate—about how they are doing just that.

Des Moines Public Schools will discuss how they are using a building automation system to manage more than 100,000 data points that are actively feeding data into the system from the school district’s more than 6 million square feet of occupied space.

Empire State Realty Trust will discuss the ways in which meticulous tracking and reporting of energy data in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager® supports and drives progress towards their net zero goal. They will also include strategies for staff training as well as the timeline of platform updates and data collection, benchmarking and reporting processes, and tracking mechanisms. 

Speakers:

• Tyler Puls, Energy and Environmental Specialist, Des Moines Public Schools
• Dana Robbins Schneider, Senior Vice President, Empire State Realty Trust

Antioch University’s School for the Environment and Sustainability is embarking on a year-long celebration to mark 50 years of community, excellence, impact and leadership. They are initiating a comprehensive series of events and international field study opportunities to mark this milestone. This year-long celebration uplifts their proud tradition of educating, inspiring and launching generations of environmental leaders who are dedicated to advancing a more just, sustainable and healthy future.

Environmental justice relies on democratic power, policies, practices, and institutions. Democracy is born through dialogue. Democracy has been called the worst form of government except for all others which have been tried. Democracy is not something we have, it is something we do, and if you aren’t at the table, you’re on the menu.

At their best, democratic systems create spaces of belonging, the rule of law, justice, and robust participation in the decisions that affect their members’ lives. Increasing rights, protection, and democratic representation and participation has been the work of environmental and social justice advocates in the United States and elsewhere for generations. New forms of rights are emerging, including the right to a healthy environment and the rights of nature.

Democracy in its most familiar forms, however, has often floundered in the face of systemic injustice. Democracy has also repeatedly been used as a shield to further environmental injustice and colonial extraction both domestically and internationally. How can we work toward justice while reckoning with and disrupting this disturbing legacy? How do we understand the importance, possibilities, and approaches for centering environmental justice in our contemporary democratic systems and processes? What solutions-oriented pathways already exist? What practices will no longer serve us? This colloquia series aims to support and enliven the discourse around these and other questions. Most fundamentally these colloquia seek to build our collective capacity for engaging in democracy to cultivate environmental justice.
 

Join the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health for an informative webinar on a new toolkit for local heat and air quality response planning in Connecticut. This session is designed for local health departments and municipal leaders committed to enhancing community resilience in the face of climate change. The Center also warmly welcomes anyone interested in this vital topic, including community members, advocacy groups, press, and public health enthusiasts.

During this webinar, participants will explore the Toolkit for Municipal Extreme Heat & Air Quality Response Planning in Connecticut, a set of resources developed by the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health in collaboration with the Connecticut Department of Public Health, and with input from local health departments in CT. Drawing from nearly 20 extreme heat and/or air quality response plans across the U.S., the toolkit includes a template for local heat and air quality response preparedness and response plans, highlights innovative strategies from municipalities in California, Maine, Connecticut, and Colorado, and provides shareable resources that can be adapted by local stakeholders. The toolkit was developed by students and staff at the Yale School of Public Health and the Yale School of the Environment during fall 2024 and prior semesters.

Participants will learn about:

• Key components of the template & toolkit addressing extreme heat and air quality response
• How to tailor the response plan to meet the unique needs of your municipality.
• Places to go for additional resources, including a new developing webpage
• Collaboration opportunities with CT DPH and YCCCH for guidance and support.

This is a valuable opportunity to gain insights into protecting public health, promoting community preparedness, and implementing actionable strategies to mitigate the impacts of extreme heat and poor air quality.
 

Join Energea at the Greenwich Botanical Center for Sustainable Storytelling, a unique event that merges the art of storytelling with the power of responsible investing. Discover how narratives from diverse cultures around the world can inspire sustainable practices in finance, and explore how our investments can drive positive impacts for both the environment and society.

Event Highlights:

• Cultural Talks: World-renowned explorer and cultural storyteller, Justin Fornal, will share insights from his global explorations, bringing to life the stories of communities that are embracing sustainable practices.
• Insights from Energea’s Leadership: Mike Silvestrini, Co-Founder of Energea, will discuss the journey of building Energea and how storytelling connects investors to impactful projects.
• Energea Expeditions Film Screenings: Experience exclusive screenings of Energea Expeditions films, each capturing unique cultural stories influenced by renewable energy projects worldwide.
• Cocktail Hour by The Study Fine Wines: Following the presentations, attendees can enjoy a cocktail hour with curated wine selections and cocktails provided by The Study Fine Wines, creating a perfect setting to connect and network.

This event is an extraordinary opportunity to learn, connect, and be inspired by how responsible investing and cultural storytelling can drive sustainable change. Please share this with anyone interested in sustainable finance and global impact.
 

Relevant Building Sectors: Water and wastewater treatment plants

Recommended For: Owners, managers, and/or service providers

Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Webinar Level: Intermediate/Advanced

This webinar features the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager, a powerful no-cost online tool that can help you track and manage your treatment plant’s energy usage and energy savings from efficiency projects, as well as related greenhouse gas emissions. Speakers will discuss the benefits of benchmarking water and wastewater treatment plants and demonstrate how you can create an account, add a property, input monthly energy use, and benchmark your systems at no cost to you.

Speakers:

• Audra Agajanian, Senior Analyst, Cadmus
• Mimi Smith, ICF

The SRC Team is excited to announce that for their 2024 Annual Workshop they are holding a series of virtual sessions over two days focused on our assistance programs, new regional resilience resources and tools, and a discussion on planning for inundation and different considerations communities may face. Leading up to the workshop, the SRC Team is also planning two field trips to showcase community resilience projects in CT and NY.

Find all the details and register below!

CT & NY Field Trips

On December 5th, visit the new bioretention project at Town Center Park in Hamden, CT! Together with Save the Sound and the Town of Hamden, you will tour the site, learn behind-the-scenes project details, and have the opportunity to workshop your own resilience project. Registration coming soon!

On December 6th, visit the living shoreline recently installed by Westchester County at the Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary in Rye, NY. More details and registration information coming soon!

Session 1 – SRC Resilience Assistance Programs

Join us on Tuesday, December 10th from 10-11:30 AM to learn about our Sustainable and Resilient Communities resilience assistance programs and hear from communities who have successfully utilized them to advance resilience project plans, build capacity, and/or secure competitive grant funding! Register here.

Session 2 – Resilience Tools

Join us on Tuesday, December 10th from 1:30-3:30 PM to learn about new Resilience Tools being developed and used throughout coastal Long Island Sound! Register here.

Session 3 – Planning for Inundation 

Join us on Wednesday, December 11th from 10 AM-12 PM to hear from communities and regional entities that are considering different aspects of planning for inundation, including buyout programs, land use policies, and community perspectives on retreat/relocation. Register here.
 

Discover how farms and farm-allied ventures are tapping into the growing compost market to boost their sustainability and profitability. This webinar explores innovative composting strategies, market opportunities, and best practices that are transforming agricultural waste into valuable resources, helping farmers to diversify their income streams while contributing to environmental stewardship.
 

Relevant Building Sectors: All commercial buildings

Recommended for: Building owners, managers, and service providers

Duration: 1 hour

Webinar Level: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced

Every other Wednesday at noon, ENERGY STAR holds a Portfolio Manager “Ask the Expert” session. It’s a live webinar that gives all users an opportunity to ask their questions directly to EPA experts in an open forum. Want to talk to a “real” person? Have a question about how Portfolio Manager calculates your score? Want to learn more about entering Green Power? Join experts and they'll answer all your questions about Portfolio Manager in this public forum.
 

Relevant Building Sectors: All commercial buildings

Recommended for: Those with a basic knowledge of Portfolio Manager who want to learn about the tool’s more advanced features 

Duration: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Webinar Level: Intermediate

Build on your basic knowledge of EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tool by taking a deeper dive into more advanced features, such as editing property data, correcting and updating property use details, using the data quality checker, and sharing property data with other users.

Attend this webinar if you’re interested in:

• Going beyond the basics of Portfolio Manager functionality.
• Learning about property sharing, improving data quality, and more.

Speaker:

• Chris Costello, ICF

This webinar introduces a housing mapping and data application that the GIS Office (within CT OPM) has created in partnership with the CT Department of Housing (DOHG) and the CT Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) for use by governments, non-profits, planners, and interested stakeholders. Called the CT Housing Data Hub, this site uses a variety of maps and charts to show the current state of housing, housing programs, rent burden, and permitting across the 169 towns of CT. This resource allows users to understand housing trends over almost 20 years of time and get information about their local municipalities with linked maps, data, and charts. Please join us to learn more about this useful resource.
 

Relevant Building Sectors: All commercial buildings

Recommended for: Regular users of Portfolio Manager who want to learn its most advanced features

Duration: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Webinar Level: Advanced 

Are you well-versed in the basic functionality of the EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tool and ready to take advantage of more advanced features? If so, join this webinar to learn about the tool’s most advanced features, including using spreadsheet upload templates to update property data, setting goals and targets to plan energy improvements for properties, creating custom reports, and using the Sustainable Buildings Checklist.

Attend this webinar if you’re interested in:

• Learning about Portfolio Manager’s most advanced features, including goal setting, custom reports, and more

Speaker: 

• Maddy Albee, ICF

The Coffee Hour is taking the month of December off to share an eggnog latte with friends and family, but it will be back and full of resolve for the New Year! So, please do plan to join us for the January Coffee Hour (January 16) as we discuss the importance of sustainable Winter operations and management.
 

Join us for the January Coffee Hour as we discuss the importance of sustainable Winter operations and management. We will be joined by Mary McCarthy, T2 Center Program Director, and Shannon O’Loughlin, T2 Center Educational Program Coordinator, who will provide an overview of the T2 Center's programs, the CT Green Snow Pro training program, and how it can help your municipality manage snow more sustainably and earn points towards action 3.14, Implement Sustainable Snow Management. We will also hear from Tom Modzelewski, Director of Public Works, WPCA Administrator, and Tree Warden for the Town of Ellington. Ellington is a leader in sustainable snow management and is the only town in the state to earn all 60 points available under Action 3.14.

Join Sustainable CT for virtual, informal, discussions most third Thursdays of each month. We share program updates and resources, explore your questions, and strengthen the network of Sustainable CT champions. These sessions are free and open to all.