We leverage our experience administering energy, clean water, healthy housing, and workforce development programs to offer a unique perspective that translates across constituencies and enables us to influence policy and solve problems. We collaborate with local advocates to build a policy landscape that facilitates meaningful energy, water, and workforce programs for those who need them most.
Energy and Water Policy
We’re part of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition and Energy Efficiency for All, two coalitions that advocate for clean energy and water policy, clean job creation, and efficient, affordable housing.
In 2017, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition successfully passed the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) in Illinois, and in 2021 helped to pass the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA). In Missouri, Michigan, and Wisconsin we work with coalitions to engage with local community organizations on issues of energy insecurity, water affordability, heathy housing, and diversity in the clean energy workforce.
Water Affordability and Lead Service Line Replacement Policy
We advocate for policies that help remove lead service lines and afford water utility bills across the Midwest. We’re working to understand the implications of clean water policy and what policy changes mean for our water services and the people we work with.
Workforce Policy
As an administrator of workforce development programs and training, Elevate shares what we learn from our programs with policymakers and advocates for policies that support robust and diverse clean energy industries.
Policy Successes
Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA)
The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (SB2408) was passed as Illinois law in 2021. As part the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, Elevate helped design and advocate for the legislation, and took a strong role in communicating with energy and environmental stakeholders to ensure CEJA would support their needs.
CEJA puts equity at the center and invests millions of dollars into Illinois’s solar, power grid, and electric vehicle infrastructure. Notably, CEJA directs 40% of those investments to communities on the frontlines of climate change and will bring thousands of jobs through the creation of statewide job training hubs, support services, inclusive capital, project incentives, and accountability measures to ensure underserved workers and contractors are getting access to the projects and jobs created by Illinois’s investment in the clean energy economy.
Learn more about CJEA on the ICJC website.
National Multi-family Expertise
Elevate is a national partner in the Energy Efficiency for All coalition, which is dedicated to linking the energy and housing sectors together to tap the benefits of energy efficiency for millions of families with lower incomes. Elevate first brought the benefits of energy efficiency to the affordable housing sector to light in two seminal papers on the subject, which were informed by the multi-family buildings efficiency programs we developed in Illinois.
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