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Clean energy saves you money on utility bills, creates jobs, improves our health, and makes life better for future generations. When you become a Clean Energy Champion, these benefits become a reality for your family and the nation. A Clean Energy Champion takes action to make the world a better place.

Taking action can be very easy, or it can be more involved. At any scale, we need every American to champion decarbonization and the advantages of a clean energy revolution. Here’s how you can be a Clean Energy Champion:

Join the clean energy workforce. The rapid increase in renewable energy deployment means plenty of opportunity for renewable energy employment. From 2015 to 2019, energy sector jobs grew 12.4%—more than double the economy-wide employment growth rate. Clean energy sectors added nearly 915,000 jobs in that period, too, representing more than 10.7% of all new employment.

And almost 11,000 jobs in renewable technologies were created in 2019 alone. These are just energy sector jobs, but other industries, like real estate, education, and manufacturing, also have a climate connection.

There’s a job in renewable energy with your name on it whether you’re just finishing school or you’ve spent years working in the fossil fuel industry. Millions of jobs are being created to keep up with accelerating deployment of renewable energy; some of those clean energy jobs are here at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

DOE is working with employers and labor unions to make sure clean energy jobs are secure, stable, and well-paying. DOE is also investing in workforce development to make sure workers have access to the training necessary to excel.

Meet Clean Energy Champions at EERE

Use renewable energy. At home, you can install a cold-climate heat pump, a geothermal heat pump, a solar energy system, a wind energy system, or ask your utility if it has a program to ensure your home is powered by renewable energy sources.

Find out what technologies might be a good fit in your home through a home energy assessment. After improvements, get a Home Energy Score and share your progress with friends and family. You can also decide that your next car will be an electric vehicle.

These actions help reduce air pollution from carbon emissions that cause serious health conditions like asthma, which—along with other effects of climate change—disproportionately impacts Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, and low-income Americans.

Be a leader. You can support renewable energy by showing others the way:

• Recruit your friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors to become Clean Energy Champions.
• Share facts and dispel myths.
• Volunteer with organizations that work to bring justice to communities affected by fossil fuels or that have been denied a seat at the table in planning their renewable energy transition.
• Enter the $2.5 million Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize competition to increase diversity in climate innovation.
• Join the National Community Solar Partnership to help make renewable energy accessible to all Americans.
• Contact your local government leaders about improvements or infrastructure you want to see in your neighborhood. For example, does your community have SolarAPP+ yet? It speeds up the permit process for solar installations.