The Massachusetts Energy & Environmental Literacy Plan (MEELP) will bridge and bond key work across the state in to support these key priorities:

1. Green Communities: Nonprofit and informal community organizations and clubs can support an understanding of multiple uses and collective impact and how to balance needs across our community.  Additionally, the plan will align and connect small scale or grass-root efforts across the state to maximize positive impacts.
2. Green Economy:  The plan will support business leaders to keep pace with industry and market trends as they relate to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability initiatives. This will help keep Massachusetts placed at the top across states for energy efficiency and position the Commonwealth to be prepared for changes to our environment, energy use and green economy.
3. Green Education:  Educators and agencies need to prepare all learners to understand and address multi-faceted environmental and community challenges.  Massachusetts will produce graduates who are college and career ready and develop informed citizens able to make well-considered choices with positive environmental impacts.

The Massachusetts Energy & Environmental Literacy Plan is the product of collaboration across sectors with support from state and federal agencies, educational institutions, and a range of organizations and business. The vision for the plan states that Massachusetts residents will develop an understanding of the interconnected relationship between community, economy and the environment.  They will have an appreciation of the impacts their choices and actions have on others, locally and globally, and the natural systems that support our lives.  Residents of the Commonwealth will make environmentally responsible choices regarding complex issues that affect the environment, their families and communities, and the world beyond our state.  Citizens will act to help the state achieve a healthy balance between the needs of human societies and the natural world through education, innovation, and stewardship, all with an environmental ethic.  Residents of Massachusetts will have positive personal connections with the rest of the natural world – they will become environmentally literate citizens of the Commonwealth.
 
The desired outcomes of the ELP are as follows:

• Developmentally appropriate environmental education will be well integrated across the Pre-K-12 curriculum, including the new state science and other standards.
• Higher education will provide a similarly appropriate and integrated curriculum, have opportunities for environmentally-related research, and prepare students for  environmental and STEM-focused careers.
• Teacher training and professional development programs for all educators will integrate environmental literacy goals.
• Career programs will offer  job  training  specifically in environmentally-relevant  and STEM -relevant fields, as well as integrate environmental-related components in a wide range of jobs not directly related to the environment.
• Informal learning environments such as after-school, camps, museums, zoos, and aquariums will enhance and promote environmental literacy.
• Businesses, government agencies, and NGOs, will consider and strive for positive environmental impacts in every decision, policy, or initiative they undertake.

Through education, innovation, stewardship, and an environmental ethic, Massachusetts’ citizens will have the tools to envision and achieve an enduring balance between the needs of society and the natural world.