From the Classroom to the Rooftop: Amy Atchley's Climate Mission

@Amy Atchley will be the first to tell you she was wrong about Petaluma. Years ago, newly married and living in San Francisco, her husband Brian drove her up to see the town he was sure she would love. They came into town on Petaluma Boulevard North, and her verdict was swift: this place sucks. "Brian was right and I was wrong," she can admit now. Fourteen years into life here, Petaluma is her favorite place she has ever lived. Every day for those first months, she remembers, felt like the best day of her life.

What eventually convinced her to move here in the first place was finding a school for her kids. They were living in Oakland, Brian was making a brutal commute to San Rafael, and their two little kids were nearing school age. Amy had her heart set on Montessori, and when she discovered River Montessori, Petaluma’s free public Montessori charter school, that was that. "Sold," she says. "That's all I needed to know."

Amy grew up in Southern California, left for boarding school at fourteen, and went on to study English literature with a minor in math. That combination turned out to matter more than she could have guessed. For years she taught special education, most recently at Credo High School, work she loved for its give-and-give spirit. But somewhere along the way, talking to students who were anxious that adults were not moving fast enough on climate, something clicked. She had spent fifteen years married to a renewable-energy engineer. She knew adults who were doing the work, and she realized she wanted to be one of them. "I need to be an adult that's doing something," she remembers thinking. "I can't wait for my students to grow up and work on this."

The opportunity arrived, as so many did, during COVID. Brian, who had helped build the solar roof at Tesla and later led a solar-roofing team at the roofing giant GAF, had a vision he could not shake: really good products and processes to help companies scale solar roofing across the country. The math was compelling. Every year, roughly 200,000 Americans go solar, while five million get a new roof. Offer people a roof that pays for itself, and even a fraction of them adds up fast. "He said, if I had somebody to run this, then maybe I could do it," Amy recalls. "And I said, I'll do it." They founded Amy's Roofing & Solar. She likes to call it their third child.

In addition to running the business with Brian, Amy chairs the city's Climate Action Commission, a group of local volunteers  who helped shape Petaluma's Blueprint for Climate Action, then rolled up their sleeves to help the city actually put it into practice, drafting policy and forming working groups on everything from waste to communications. Comms is where Amy has landed, and it is a conviction she holds tightly: the city and the county are doing remarkable things, but "if people don't know about it, it doesn't matter."

Her dream is for Petaluma to become a model for how climate action can spread the way the best things do, neighbor to neighbor. "Person to person is such a valuable thing, and we don't do enough of it," she says. "It's the most impactful thing you can do."

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📷 courtesy of Amy Atchley

@Amy Atchley will be the first to tell you she was wrong about Petaluma. Years ago, newly married and living in San Francisco, her husband Brian drove her up to see the town he was sure she would love. They came into town on Petaluma Boulevard North, and her verdict was swift: this place sucks. "Brian was right and I was wrong," she can admit now. Fourteen years into life here, Petaluma is her favorite place she has ever lived. Every day for those first months, she remembers, felt like the best day of her life. What eventually convinced her to move here in the first place was finding a school for her kids. They were living in Oakland, Brian was making a brutal commute to San Rafael, and their two little kids were nearing school age. Amy had her heart set on Montessori, and when she discovered River Montessori, Petaluma’s free public Montessori charter school, that was that. "Sold," she says. "That's all I needed to know." Amy grew up in Southern California, left for boarding school at fourteen, and went on to study English literature with a minor in math. That combination turned out to matter more than she could have guessed. For years she taught special education, most recently at Credo High School, work she loved for its give-and-give spirit. But somewhere along the way, talking to students who were anxious that adults were not moving fast enough on climate, something clicked. She had spent fifteen years married to a renewable-energy engineer. She knew adults who were doing the work, and she realized she wanted to be one of them. "I need to be an adult that's doing something," she remembers thinking. "I can't wait for my students to grow up and work on this." The opportunity arrived, as so many did, during COVID. Brian, who had helped build the solar roof at Tesla and later led a solar-roofing team at the roofing giant GAF, had a vision he could not shake: really good products and processes to help companies scale solar roofing across the country. The math was compelling. Every year, roughly 200,000 Americans go solar, while five million get a new roof. Offer people a roof that pays for itself, and even a fraction of them adds up fast. "He said, if I had somebody to run this, then maybe I could do it," Amy recalls. "And I said, I'll do it." They founded Amy's Roofing & Solar. She likes to call it their third child. In addition to running the business with Brian, Amy chairs the city's Climate Action Commission, a group of local volunteers who helped shape Petaluma's Blueprint for Climate Action, then rolled up their sleeves to help the city actually put it into practice, drafting policy and forming working groups on everything from waste to communications. Comms is where Amy has landed, and it is a conviction she holds tightly: the city and the county are doing remarkable things, but "if people don't know about it, it doesn't matter." Her dream is for Petaluma to become a model for how climate action can spread the way the best things do, neighbor to neighbor. "Person to person is such a valuable thing, and we don't do enough of it," she says. "It's the most impactful thing you can do." ♦️♦️♦️ 📷 courtesy of Amy Atchley