Penner is chair of the Williamstown COOL (CO2 Lowering) Committee and has been actively engaged as a member since 2005. On the Committee, Penner partnered with the Williamstown Elementary School, Mount Greylock Regional High School, and the Center for EcoTechnology to conduct outreach and education to students and their families about energy efficiency and renewable energy. Under her direction, several hundred students have participated in energy days at their schools and toured nearby clean energy facilities such as the Jiminy Peak wind turbine. Working closely with Williams College and other community partners, Wendy has brought numerous educational and outreach events to Williamstown, including a climate change talk by Bill McKibben and several Earth Day energy fairs.
Under Penner’s leadership, the COOL Committee worked closely with Williamstown to achieve designation as a Green Community and to coordinate a very successful Williamstown Solarize MA program in 2013 during which nearly 80 households installed solar PV. Building on that success Penner recently coordinated the submission of an application for Williamstown to conduct Solarize Plus – a multi-pronged solar campaign to dramatically increase the number of clean energy installations in our community.
Read more about Wendy’s other numerous accomplishments.
