From LaGrange to Obama’s Team: Michelle Moore on Community Power

Season 4: Episode 12

In this episode of Cimiify, Eric welcomes Michelle Moore, a distinguished climate policy expert and former federal environmental executive under the Obama administration. Michelle shares insights from her journey growing up in rural Georgia to impactful roles in national climate policy, including reducing the government's energy bill by $11 billion. The episode delves into her motivations rooted in community and faith, her work with the non-profit Groundswell to promote community power and clean energy projects in underserved areas, and the importance of values-based system change. Michelle's philosophy of 'doing well by doing good' and her latest book, Rural Renaissance, are highlighted. The conversation also explores actionable steps individuals can take to support climate justice and policy changes.

After the interview, design researcher Jacqui Himmel joins Eric to unpack the episode providing the most important calls to action from the discussion that you can implement today!

Listen to this episode on: Spotify, Apple, and other apps

About our guest

Michelle Moore is author of “Rural Renaissance” and CEO of Groundswell, a 501(c)(3) that builds community power by eliminating energy burdens and increasing economic opportunity with community solar, resilience centers, residential energy efficiency, and pioneering research. A social entrepreneur and former White House official with roots in rural Georgia, Michelle is a relentless agent for change. Her accomplishments range from cutting the government’s energy bill by $11 billion and deploying 3.2 Gigawatts of new renewable energy for President Obama, to developing LEED into a globally recognized brand for USGBC.

Michelle also serves as a Senate-confirmed member of the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors and as Secretary of the Board for the Interdenominational Theological Center. Her work is rooted in her faith and the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Links mentioned in this episode

George Bandy, Jr.

Ray Anderson

Jarami Bond

Interface Carpeting

The Ecology of Commerce (book)

Mid Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model (book)

Rural Renaissance: Revitalizing America’s Hometowns through Clean Power (book)

Groundswell

Tennessee Valley Authority

US Green Building Council

Social Media

Groundswell (IG)

Groundswell (Linkedin)

Michelle Moore (Linkedin)


Music in this episode

Nature sound effect by bbc.co.uk – ©2023 BBC

Climify Theme Song by Casual Motive

The Season 4 Climify Team

Eric Benson (Host)

Cam Burkins (Producer)

Bhavna Bhavanishankar (Experience Researcher and Multisensory Educator)

Adam Dziaba (Designer)

Jacqui Himmel (Multimedia Journalist and Scriptwriter)

Abigail Zhuk (Design Researcher)

 

Climate Design Assignments

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

 
 
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Designing for Impact: Thinking in Systems with Scott Boylston

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Ecoscenography in Action: Tanya Beer’s Living Stage