Our Story

From our grassroots origin to the present day, Communitopia’s mission, vision and values remain the constant pulse that brings our work to life.

In December of 2008 ten people concerned about global warming gathered in a coffee shop on the Northside of Pittsburgh to discuss how citizens can have a bigger role in addressing climate change. From that conversation, Citizens Climate Corps was born with a goal of empowering groups of people to make climate-friendly changes in their communities, schools and businesses.

In 2013, the organization changed names becoming Communitopia, and gained a focus on new media, humor, and public events. In 2018 the primarily volunteer-run organization hired its first Youth Educator and began the important development of its youth-focused and school-centered programming. By 2019 the youth climate movement had taken the world by storm and the organization found itself in the unique and critical role of ensuring our local youth voices became part of the unfolding global story on climate change. In each of these iterations, the organization has retained the original, core values of engaging the public and empowering everyone to help build the climate-friendly, energy-independent society of tomorrow.

Currently, Communitopia has grown our team of staff to an Executive Director, a Director of Education, and a Director of School Programs. With the increase in staff capacity we aim to strategically meet this upcoming decade, a critical one in the climate fight, head on. We hope you’ll join us!