What do the towns of Belfast, Biddeford, Boothbay, Freeport, Kennebunk, Portland, Saco and Yarmouth have in common? They are each involved in a nationwide initiative called, “Cool Cities” sponsored by the Sierra Club.

The Cool Cities concept can be tailored to the needs or interest of individual towns or cities. In Maine, the name has been changed to Cool Communities (think Boston as compared to Bangor). And the initiative is guided by a partnership of Maine organizations who have worked together for several years on climate change, air quality, and smart energy solutions – Sierra Club-Maine Chapter, American Lung Association of Maine, Maine Council of Churches, Physicians for Social Responsibility-Maine, and Maine Energy Investment Corporation.

One Cool Communities initiative in Maine, called “No Idling,” focuses on creating clean air zones around schools. In Maine, more than 13 percent of our children suffer from asthma – that’s the highest rate in New England.

Children are more sensitive to pollution; they breathe 50 percent more air per pound of body weight. Vehicle emissions contribute particulates and air toxics, as well as nitrogen oxides that react with sunlight to form ozone pollution. Vehicle or mobile sources contribute more than 50 percent of our air pollution emissions here in Maine. In Cool Communities, schools and parents work together to create a clean air zone around the schools by asking the bus drivers not to idle their bus engines.

Another Cool Communities concept is to offer green power information to communities through the Biodiesel for Maine project. The project works with interested towns, cities, municipal departments and their decision-makers, to understand how cleaner, renewable fuels, often made in Maine, can help tackle global warming.

Biodiesel is a great way to make a dramatic reduction in global warming pollution by changing the fuel used by trucks, buildings, municipal and commercial vehicles. Biodiesel is a renewable fuel made from animal or vegetable oils.

Yet another Cool Communities project is to encourage Mainers to buy and eat organic food that is grown locally. Imagine our food grown with no pesticides, food that did not travel by plane or truck from California, and the jobs that could be created right here in Maine if each of us would commit to buying locally-grown food.

Across the nation, more than 800 cities and towns in 50 states are designated as Cool Cities. Maine Partners for Cool Communities, with the Sierra Club Maine, has sent information to Windham Town Manager Tony Plante, who has expressed an interest in knowing more about this project.

One member of our Town Council, Kaile Warren, has also expressed an interest. A representative from the Maine Council of Churches, Andy Burt, a tiny powerhouse of a woman who is associated with many local environmental organizations, and well-known environmental activist Joan Saxe, Sierra Club Maine chapter energy chair, has contacted Plante to schedule a time to discuss the program. A Cool Communities program was recently presented to the Windham Rotary Club, which prompted some members to express an interest in Windham following other Maine communities in becoming a Cool Community.

In Yarmouth, two high school students who are now in college worked closely with the Maine Partners for Cool Communities following the showing of “An Inconvenient Truth” and a discussion about solutions to global warming. Their unrelenting insistence that Yarmouth become a Cool Community and their persuasive presentation to the Town Council give us all hope for the future. Do we have Windham high school youth who would take this challenge? They could get plenty of help from other Yarmouth youth and from Maine Partners for Cool Communities.

For more information about Cool Communities, call Sierra Club Maine at 761-5616 or visit the Cool Communities website at www.coolmaine.org.