Press:
Accelerate Climate Solutions
and BLAST Students
In The News

It's nice to be recognized as COOL! BLAST was featured in the cover story from December's Naperville Magazine. Our amazing students are highlighted, plus ways for people of all ages to get involved.

I chose to intern at Accelerate Climate Solutions, a local nonprofit dedicated to advancing clean energy and climate justice. This summer, we’re creating space for youth voices and creative expression to lead the conversation.

On Saturday, Aug. 2, Accelerate Climate Solutions hosted its first local art gallery, “The World We Inherit: A Climate Gallery,” an open house-style event highlighting climate action through multimedia storytelling.

Accelerate Climate Solutions was among several Naperville nonprofits selected to receive funding from DuPage County.

Grant recipients had to meet several specific criteria to receive the funding, including an official 501(c)(3) status, be an organization in good standing, and have annual revenue under $300,000. According to county officials, the funds were distributed equally among the board’s six districts.

Accelerate Climate Solutions was honored to be selected to receive a $30,000 grant to support our youth leadership programs.

Highlighting the amazing student winners of the BLAST 2025 Competition, NCTV17 also showed how the BLAST program is providing valuable experience and opportunities to local students.

As advocates for clean energy and rapid decarbonization of electricity, Accelerate Climate Solutions is part of a consortium of organizations and individuals urging Naperville City Council to Say No To Coal.

BLAST participant and former Accelerate Climate Solutions volunteer, Sabrina Tse, is highlighted in this article about her Tiny Forest at Naperville Central.

In September 2024, Accelerate Climate Solutions signed a contract with Green Energy Justice Cooperative to lead community outreach for the Aurora community solar project. Accelerate will be an approved Illinois Shines designee for this project.

Illinois is joining a handful of states across the country that have made climate change education a matter of law. And it’s in part thanks to a student from Naperville. Over the past year, recent Neuqua Valley High School graduate Grace Brady helped create and write House Bill 4895.

When it comes to looking after our planet, it seems the future may just be in female hands.

The last time Naperville updated its bike plan, 19-year-old Riley Leu was barely a toddler. Now she and a group of climate-minded young adults are devoted to seeing the plan mature with them.

Area high school students recently took part in the inaugural Building Leadership Around Sustainable Transformation, or BLAST, event at the DuPage Children’s Museum.

BLAST, which stands for Building Leadership Around Sustainable Transformation, pairs students with mentors to create projects that tackle pressing environmental issues.

Spotlight interview highlighting one of our interns.

To show that younger generations are committed to building a sustainable future despite the notion that it’s too late to turn things around — climate doomism, for short — a cadre of about 60 students are developing their own projects and pitches of innovative solutions to address the problem.

The Green Energy Justice Cooperative (GEJC) is a consumer-owned clean energy cooperative launched by Blacks in Green (BIG) and core partners, to develop three industry-scale solar projects at 3 megawatts DC each, totaling 9 megawatts of solar power, to benefit community members in Illinois.

The NEST Youth team (predecessor to the Accelerate Climate Solutions' Climate Action Team) encourages local school districts to adopt sustainability, which has strong support, according to their survey.