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Projects and Collaboration

COWS collaborates with other groups and institutions to conduct research and policy projects, address key public policy issues, and educate the general public about our work. To learn more about these efforts, click on the links below.

Apollo Alliance

A national campaign of labor, environmental, and civil rights organizations to create jobs through energy efficiency in communities across the country.

Center for State Innovation

Center for State Innovation is one of the leading organizations helping governors and state executives promote innovative, progressive policies that better the lives of the people they serve.

Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN)

A network of scores of local, state, and national organizations that conduct research, policy, and educational work related to economic and labor market issues.

Efficiency Cities Network

The Efficiency Cities Network (ECN) is an informal policy learning network of government staff, researchers and technical assistance providers, and NGOs currently active in or committed to making scaled efforts at high-road (i.e., concerned with equity and democracy, not just sustainability) energy retrofits (seeking increased energy efficiency, conservation, and clean generation) of urban building stock.

Emerald Cities Collaborative

The Emerald Cities Collaborative is a small group of business, labor, and community leaders fulfilling the promise of “high-road efficiency cities” (aka “equity efficiency cities” or “emerald cities”) — that is, cities that organize themselves to become more energy efficient and less CO2e-emitting, with equitable local capture of the benefits of doing so.

Green For All

Green For All is a national organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.

Mayors Innovation Project

The Mayors Innovation Project (MIP) is a learning network for mayors and their staff dedicated to developing ‘high road’ policies for American cities. MIP brings together research resources, policy innovations, and metropolitan leadership to create cities of shared prosperity, environmental responsibility, sound management, and democratic accountability.

Regional Industry Skills Education (RISE)

By promoting career pathways, Regional Industry Skills Education (RISE) works to create new routes from low-wage work to high-paying careers.

State Smart Transportation Initiative

The goal of SSTI is to help reform transportation policy and practice in the United States, moving toward environmental sustainability; shared prosperity; and more efficient, democratic governance.

Wisconsin Energy Efficiency (We2)

COWS and the Cities of Milwaukee, Madison, and Racine have pioneered Wisconsin Energy Efficiency (We2), a program that targets residential, commercial, and industrial buildings in the three cities for energy efficiency upgrades.

Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership

A Milwaukee-based consortium that brings together business, labor, the public sector, and community organizations to improve economic opportunities through plant modernization, job training, and employee recruitment, retention, and mentoring programs.

Working Poor Families Project

The Working Poor Families Project (WPFP) is a national initiative launched in 2002 to strengthen state policies that can better prepare America’s working families for a more secure economic future. WPFP is active in 23 states and the District of Columbia. COWS leads the project in Wisconsin.