ORGANIZE A CLEAN ENERGY, SUSTAINABILITY, OR CLIMATE ACTION COMMITTEE

The Colorado Chamber’s Energy & Environment Council provides expertise in the areas of air, water, industrial waste and energy. Subcommittees include Energy, Air Quality, Industrial Waste, and Water. In order to ensure that legislation and regulation do not unfairly increase the costs of doing business or make it burdensome for regulated businesses to function, the council works closely with state regulatory agencies, the General Assembly, and the executive branch.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP) has established a Sustainability Leaders Group of over 50 of the largest companies and organizations in the region. The group meets regularly to build relationships, exchange ideas, and plan broader community initiatives.

Recognizing that innovation is key to sustainability, the Sustainability Leaders Group initiated an industry-led Labs program where companies work together to solve common challenges through innovation, exchanging best practices and finding opportunities for collaborative solutions.

Additionally, companies and institutions are working together to create centers of excellence for Sustainable Manufacturing and Materials through recent awards including an NSF Innovation Engine, an EDA Tech Hub, and the Arch-2 Hydrogen Hub.

Greater Miami & the Beaches is a coastal community that is a burgeoning hub for trade, logistics, health care, life sciences, international banking, finance and creative industries. However, the community also faces a number of shocks and stressors such as hurricanes, aging infrastructure, sea-level rise, sunny day flooding, gridlocked traffic, and serious economic inequalities.

The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce’s Resilience Committee looks to engage and impact key governmental and private sector stakeholders to advance solutions and actions protecting our natural resources and supporting the Resilient 305 Strategy – 100 Resilient Cities initiative. The Committee acts on multiple fronts and partners with other Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce committees to address these challenges.

Objectives:

• Enhance collaboration between business leaders, government, the not-for-profit sector and academia to enable our community to bounce back quicker from the inevitable stressors it faces

• Support protection and investment in resilient gray, green, and blue built infrastructure, both existing and future

• Undertake viable ways and promote business opportunities that mitigate the impact of climate change on the future of the region

• Promote efforts to improve water quality, prevent salt water intrusion, and protect our fresh water supply

• Support the restoration of the Biscayne Bay Ecosystem and Coral Reefs

The New Mexico Chamber of Commerce’s policy agenda is the product of year-round input by our member businesses, working through focused policy committees, such as the Energy and Extractive Industries Committee.

Policy positions from the committee in the 2024 Policy Agenda include support for:

• The exploration, development, and utilization of long-term sustainable, diverse and environmentally responsible energy and mineral resources

• Facilitating the state’s energy goals by supporting efforts to streamline and expedite infrastructure projects that reduce the carbon intensity of energy, increase interstate and intrastate transmission, and/or promote energy affordability, reliability and storage

• Development of clean energy resources, and other beneficial technologies such as energy storage, which will allow the state to benefit from the economic development opportunities that come from hosting these projects

• Approval of projects that enable New Mexico’s energy security

• Market-based approaches to achieving net-zero by 2050

The Salt Lake Chamber’s Natural Resources Business Council (NRBC) is a dynamic assembly of professionals, experts and stakeholders from key industries such as energy, environmental conservation and agriculture. This council delves into in-depth analyses, fosters insightful discussions and crafts strategic policy recommendations to address the unique challenges and opportunities within these fields. Their expertise and innovative proposals are instrumental in shaping the Salt Lake Chamber’s commitment to promoting responsible and sustainable natural resource practices throughout the region. Our mission is to create a greener, more sustainable future for all.

The San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Sustainability & Industry Committee works to ensure the region’s energy and water supplies remain dependable and cost-effective.

On the energy-side, the committee advocates for investment in essential energy infrastructure and access to cost-effective renewable energy resources. With regard to water, the committee works with the San Diego County Water Authority, the City of San Diego Public Utilities Department, the Metropolitan Water District and other water agencies to improve the resiliency of the water system. Priorities of the committee are expanding the use of recycled water and seawater desalination.

The Sanibel-Captiva Renewable Energy Working Group, a recently formed initiative, is a perfect demonstration of this mission. Chamber CEO John Lai, is one of several involved community leaders connecting local government, utilities, and the business community to develop actions needed to mitigate climate change by setting and pursuing clean energy goals.

The St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce’s Sustainability & Resiliency Committee works with local stakeholders to amplify and advance an equitable clean energy economy, while highlighting business leadersehip in the areas of clean energy, climate action, and resilience.

The purpose of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce’s Sustainability Committee is to recognize and champion sustainable businesses in Tempe while providing education and resources to all Tempe Chamber members who would like to adopt or enhance sustainable methods and practices.

Committee objectives:

• To advise, educate, and promote to chamber members, best methods, and practices as they relate to prolonging natural environments, economic vitality, and healthy communities

• To be at the forefront of driving long-term sustainable value for our members and the business community

For more than a decade, the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce maintained a solar industries committee as part of advocacy efforts to support solar development in Ohio. In 2023, the chamber broadened the scope to engage in other area of sustainability impacting the business community.

The chamber convenes business leaders engaged in topics such as grid reliability, energy efficiency, and recycling to build on their work to promote the development of solar and other renewable sources of energy. By bringing together multiple industry partners, the chamber is better positioned to promote the benefits of adopting policies that advance sustainability development and practices. As part of their biennial public policy agenda, the chamber is intentional about including policy recommendations that advance an all of the above energy strategy that specifically calls out support of solar development.

The Virginia Chamber’s Corporate Sustainability and Environmental Executive Committee provides thought leadership and advises policy research to advance corporate sustainability initiatives that promote long term economic success.

The Executive Committee is working to implement the sustainability and environmental policies and initiatives outlined in the Virginia Chamber’s strategic plan, Blueprint Virginia 2030. The four areas of focus identified within the document offer a pathway to protecting Virginia’s natural resources while at the same time using them in a thoughtful way to enable economic growth:

• Streamline regulatory and permitting process

• Encourage corporate sustainability

• Energy and environment

• Environmental stewardship of our land and water resources