Sun Day 2025

The Sun Shines on Sustainable CT’s Action Roadmap

Sun Day 2025 will be taking place on September 21, 2025 — the autumnal equinox — the planet’s celestial balance of day and night — to celebrate solar power and to support a rapid departure from fossil fuels. The event is the brainchild of Bill McKibben, renowned environmental writer, co-founder of 350.org, and founder and guiding force behind Third Act, a national movement of retired activists championing climate and democracy. Third Act is joined by a coalition of environmentalists, community organizers, and faith-based activists throughout the United States and around the world.

Thirteen separate actions in Sustainable CT’s certification roadmap for Connecticut municipalities deal directly with renewable energy and energy efficiency. These actions include streamlining permitting and installing solar power, electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, net-zero buildings, energy audits, battery storage systems, and much more — totaling 790 potential points in Sustainable CT’s certification and Climate Leader designation programs.

“Sun Day, encouraging municipalities to take meaningful action to support and advance solar and other renewable energy, very closely tracks with our program,” said Jessica LeClair, Sustainable CT’s executive director. “And, like Sustainable CT, Sun Day celebrates municipalities that are reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions and preparing their communities for the impacts of climate change, while saving money, improving public health, and building community.”

Sustainable CT and Third Act Connecticut are inviting municipalities, community organizations, and individuals all over the state to rally, host events, and highlight solar projects. Activities might include ribbon-cuttings for new renewable energy installations, EV and e-bike parades, solar-powered concerts, tours of heat-pump homes, and supporting easier permitting of rooftop solar.

Any Connecticut city or town contemplating Sustainable CT certification should contact info@sustainablect.org to inquire how their renewable energy and efficiency plans and projects — in preparation for Sun Day or beyond — could qualify for certification credit.

Sustainable CT’s July episode of the IMPACT podcast features Bill McKibben speaking about Sun Day, how and why Americans can mobilize, and it begins with how we view solar energy. “The goal is to get across to people the idea that clean energy, power from the sun and wind, is no longer to be thought of as ‘alternative’ energy,” said McKibben. “That’s how we’ve been saying it for generations now, and it got too stuck in our heads, which causes us to think of it as kind of the Whole Foods of energy — nice but pricey. We need to get it through our skulls that this is the Costco of energy — cheap, available in bulk, on the shelf, ready to go.”

A July 9 webinar, hosted by Sustainable CT and led by Third Act Connecticut organizers Lynn Stoddard and Davida Foy Crabtree, showcased the vision for a marquee Sun Day festival in New Britain on September 21, with satellite events across the state on Saturday, September 20. Said Stoddard, Sustainable CT’s organizing founder and former executive director, “We’re getting all these partners together, we’re creating stories about amazing solar installations across Connecticut, so people realize how much is going on. There will be the events to get out information on the weekend of the 20th and the 21st and afterwards.”

Themes and Messaging

• Solar energy is mainstream. “It’s not ‘alternative’ anymore — it’s obvious, mainstream, common sense,” said McKibben. “And if we can get that through our minds, then the possibilities for doing things like winning some fights in Congress and in state legislatures and at city halls gets much, much easier.”

• Solar power is cheap. “The cost of energy from the sun and the wind is cheaper than the cost of burning coal or gas or oil,” McKibben pointed out. “We now live on an earth where the cheapest way to make energy is to point a sheet of glass at the sun.”

• Solar power is democratic power. Sun Day emphasizes that solar and wind energy aren’t controlled by multinational corporations or oil-rich countries, but by the public. “This is power that can’t be hoarded,” says McKibben. “It can’t be held in reserves. Nobody is going to fight a war over the sunshine.”

• It’s urgent. “If we didn’t have time pressure, if climate change wasn’t looming over us, then economic gravity would do the work by itself eventually,” maintains McKibben. “40 years from now, we’re going to run the planet on sun and wind because it’s so cheap, but if it takes us anything like 40 years to get there, then the planet we run on sun and wind will be a broken planet. So, our job is to force the spring here, it’s to catalyze this reaction. Hence, Sun Day.”

• Action + culture = change. It’s not just policy—it’s culture. With songs, art, dance, food and parades, Sun Day will celebrate the energy transition with joy and community engagement.

Toward a Solar Future

Sun Day is not just a symbol, but a movement for real change:

• Urging legislators to ease solar permitting and expand incentives.

• Celebrating and normalizing solar/wind, EVs, and efficient heating.

• Building intergenerational alliances, led by older activists (via Third Act) and young leaders alike.

Cementing community-based environmental action across municipalities, faiths, organizations, and individuals.

Sustainability and Resiliency Week 2025

Sun Day will be quickly followed by Connecticut’s Sustainability & Resiliency Week, September 28-October 4.

Last year, Governor Ned Lamont and the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) spearheaded the inaugural Sustainability and Resiliency Week, uniting state agencies, municipalities, universities, and nonprofits. The central aim again this year is to bring together residents, elected officials, educators, and community advocates to learn about state-led efforts and identify innovative strategies to combat climate change while enhancing resource management. Like Sun Day, it serves as both a celebration and a strategic platform — building further momentum, forging connections, and empowering all sectors across Connecticut to pursue a more sustainable, more resilient future. “The timing couldn’t be better,” Stoddard said. “Sustainability and Resilience Week will place a perfect exclamation point on Sun Day’s push in Connecticut.”

September 21 — Sun Day 2025 — blends the celestial, the cultural, and the environmental in a single movement: a mass mobilization in support of solar energy. It’s led by Bill McKibben’s Third Act, with grassroots champions like Third Act Connecticut and Sustainable CT, and powered by communities, faith groups, and climate activists. It’s an invitation — to rally, to organize, to celebrate solar on the sun’s annual day of balance and beyond.