Communities for Sustainable Monterey County advocates for change in using resources.

If you appreciate the efforts of John Muir preserving Yosemite, you may also appreciate the leadership efforts of Rob Hopkins’ Transitions Network and its impact on the Monterey Bay region.

Hopkins promotes what’s called a “transition-town culture,” a movement to naturalize change through small actions, such as maintaining community gardens, to large-scale ones, such as installing solar panels to fully power government buildings.

Is it realistic and possible? Ask Muir’s critics if they thought it was possible to safeguard the marble caves inside Sequoia National Park. Carving out concern for our environment is no fad. As fuel prices skyrocket, alternatively-designed transportation and living communities gain more and more appeal.

Hopkins may be based in the U.K., but his transitions movement has inspired initiatives around the world, including locally through Communities for Sustainable Monterey County (CSMC), a grassroots network of eight local groups.

CSMC aims to transition the county into energy-efficient towns via the power of the sun. CSMC’s “Big Idea” for 2014: Create momentum for the installation of solar panels on county and city public buildings, enough to produce their own electric power.

“It’s essential we create a critical core of people who will put pressure on their elected officials to install solar panels on public buildings,” says Denyse Frischmuth, CSMC president. “We need to reach more people to raise greater awareness about both the crisis of climate change and the role solar panels can play to slow its pace.”

It can be done. In Monterey, for example, the city has a 25-kilowatt solar power system that provides about half of the power for the human resource and finance department administrative building on Pacific Street, according to Ted Terrasas, the city’s sustainability coordinator.

CSMC is an all-volunteer nonprofit leading the funding, organizing and structuring of the eight action groups, each educating people about affordable solar partnership tax-credit programs, water conservation, composting, recycling, plastic pollution, alternative transportation and growing your own food.

Action groups, such as Citizens for Sustainable Marina, B-SAGE, Sustainable Salinas and Monterey Green Action meet quarterly to collaborate, problem solve and discuss what’s working.

“I CAN CHANGE MY LIGHT BULBS, BUT WE ALSO NEED OUR POLICY MAKERS.”

“We must decrease our demand for energy,” Frischmuth says.

“I can change all my light bulbs,” she adds, “but we also need the participation of our policy makers to move the communities in the right direction.”

A CSMC action group, The Climate Reality Project, elevates the scientific awareness of political officials.

Sustainable Seaside, another CSMC action group, invites locals to visit seven different green homes to actuate their own green-home makeover. Workshops cultivate water-wise plants, rainwater harvesting, green cleaning products, walking, biking, plug-in electrical vehicles, and explain how supporting local Monterey Bay Green Business Certified businesses contributes to the solution.

In Salinas, Sustainable Salinas member Matthew Spiegl is advocating for the city to ban single-use plastic bags, a movement that is gaining slow but steady traction.

At the Community Garden in Pacific Grove, volunteer Shoshanna says, “I just plant some seeds and watch them grow.” She sustains herself with her own garden – shedding 45 pounds since May – inspired by local transition-network naturalists. A sustainable seed planted by Muir in the Sierra Nevada mountains now grows on the Monterey Bay.