Community Engagement and Clean Tech

This TIME feature by Justin Worland spotlights a critical challenge for the clean tech transition: communities, especially those historically harmed by industrial projects, are wary of new carbon removal and energy infrastructure. The piece highlights a Huntsville, Alabama forum co-hosted by the Aspen Institute and the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice (CREEJ), where activists, civil society groups, and industry leaders explored what real community engagement should look like. As Aspen CSG’s work emphasizes, strong local buy-in isn’t a box to check—it’s foundational to equitable and sustainable development. The Huntsville gathering echoed that ethos, underscoring how listening to residents and embedding their voices from project design to implementation can create cleaner, more resilient economies.