Cooperative Energy Futures (CEF) is a cooperative that has co-developed with the Twin Cities Summer of Solutions program over the last five years. Developing the legal structure and community organizing for CEF was one of the three projects that participants in the first Summer of Solutions collaborated on. The organization currently in the running for a $5000 online voting grant from Green America. Read about the project  and then vote for CEF once during the month of November! The top three vote-getters win.

If this is the first time you’re hearing about CEF, it’s an energy efficiency cooperative helping Minneapolis neighbors work together to make energy efficiency and clean energy accessible, easy, social, and fun. CEF helps communities make the biggest positive environmental impact possible by working together to lower energy bills, generate energy revenue, improve home comfort, and create a healthier community and planet.

CEF’s primary services are our bulk buying programs for solar and insulation, home energy workshops, and community owned renewables. If you are interested in getting involved with these services in Minneapolis, please check out the links to the relevant pages.

If CEF wins this award, they will combine this funding with the revenue from the bulk buying projects and neighborhood workshops to create a green job, employing a community member from South Minneapolis to organize more local energy projects in the community. This would be a huge step in expanding capacity and getting CEF working on fast-moving, consistent basis.

Don’t forget to check out their page, vote for them, and then please tell a friend! Since you get three votes in the competition we also encourage you to vote for Solar Mosaic, a group we’ve worked with in the past that is doing great things to advance community participation in the clean energy economy. For your third vote, check out the other Green America finalists.