Mayor Walsh's Climate Preparedness Plan for Boston

Last week, on the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Walsh announced a regional summit to better prepare Boston for the impacts of climate change. The announcement also marked the kickoff of an international design competition focused on climate preparedness, as well as an update of the City of Boston’s ongoing climate efforts.

“There is no issue more urgent than climate action. When we work together, the steps we take do more than protect us: they can bring us closer together, they can create good jobs, they can improve our health, our public space, and our civic life,” said Mayor Walsh. “I look forward to working closely with the MAPC, the Metro Mayor’s Coalition, and the Commonwealth on this critical issue.”

The half-day summit, which will be held at the University of Massachusetts Boston next spring, is a first-of-its-kind convening on regional climate preparedness and will establish a mechanism for coordination of regional, cross-government action going forward. 

“It is essential that communities in the Boston metropolitan area work together on climate change,” said Richard C. Rossi, Cambridge City Manager. “Climate change is creating new stresses on our communities, and while we are individually doing a lot within our borders, what is missing is a regional strategy.”

“The impacts of climate change do not respect municipal boundaries,” said Marc Draisen, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC). “It’s incredibly important that all of the cities and towns in Greater Boston work together to address issues like sea level rise, coastal flooding, and rising temperatures. Cooperation and planning are the keys to success.”

The competition invites multi-disciplinary teams to submit design solutions to sea-level rise for three sites in the City that will help better prepare the site and the surrounding community for climate change. The three sites are located in the North End, Fort Point Channel, and Morrissey Boulevard. The competition will conclude in the spring, with a first place prize of $20,000. It is funded through a grant from the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, and the Barr Foundation. Details about the design competition can be found at www.bostonlivingwithwater.org.

These announcements build on the City of Boston’s ongoing climate preparedness efforts. A year ago, the City released the report, Climate Ready Boston: Municipal Vulnerability to Climate Change, which was a cross-departmental effort led by the Mayor’s Office of Environment, Energy, and Open Space.

The report identified the City’s vulnerabilities to climate change in order to help departments take action to prepare. In the past year, the City has made significant progress on reducing these vulnerabilities, especially in the areas of emergency response, extreme heat preparedness, flood and stormwater management, capital planning, and community engagement. Efforts include:

Backup power at emergency shelters: As a result of $1.32 million in grant funding from the Commonwealth, four emergency shelters will be getting solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays to provide at least three days of backup power during an emergency. In addition, the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF) are conducting an Emergency Generator Study to outfit four BCYF Community Centers with emergency generators.

Facility improvements to address extreme heat: BCYF has purchased tents and water access (sprinklers) to help handle extreme heat at outdoor programming sites during the summer. In addition, the BCYF Paris Street Community Center capital project includes installation of an emergency generator and air conditioning throughout the building, allowing the facility to serve as a cooling center.

Increased food resilience: With funding from the Kendall Foundation and the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, the Mayor’s Office of Food Initiatives has recently commissioned a team to complete a city-wide food resilience study. The Department of Neighborhood Development also continues its efforts to transform vacant lots into urban agriculture.

Flooding and stormwater management: A number of green infrastructure projects that help mitigate flooding have recently been completed or are underway.

·         Boston Transportation Department completed construction of Boston’s first green municipal parking lots.

·         The Public Works Department worked with the Charles River Watershed Association and the Boston Groundwater Trust to repave an alley in the South End with porous pavement.

·         The Parks Department is finalizing the 2015-2021 Open Space Plan, which incorporates climate preparedness.

Increased education and awareness: Greenovate Boston, Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), and OEM have teamed up to deliver concerted messaging during National Preparedness Month. This included the launch of a new webpage with daily tips, as well as a community preparedness event that attracted over 200 residents.

Better prepared buildings and development:

·         The BRA has implemented a mandatory climate preparedness questionnaire as part of the Article 80 development review process. So far over 60 projects have completed this new requirement.

·         The Mayor’s new Housing 2030 plan incorporates climate preparedness goals and actions.

·         ​This fall, the City added a new partner to its property insurance team. FM Global is an international, mutual-insurance firm with a focus on loss-prevention engineering. FM Global will work with the City to identify and prioritize solutions for risks to the City’s 33 largest buildings, and contribute loss-prevention expertise to the City’s building design processes. The risks of flooding and high winds, which will increase with climate change, are priorities at FM Global. Through this partnership, the City gains research and engineering expertise to help address these risks.

These efforts, along with future actions to better prepare the community, will be part of the 2014 Climate Action Plan Update, which will be released the second week of November for public comment. Interested parties may view and comment on the draft strategies and actions currently posted at Engage.GreenovateBoston.org.

Thank You, Mayor Menino

Former Boston Mayor, Thomas Menino, passed away this morning. During his 20+ years as leader of the city, Menino did many great things - including great strides in sustainability and climate change preparedness. Though we'll miss Menino, his legacy will live on for years. We are ever grateful for everything he did for Boston.

Green Tips for Keeping Up the Climate March Momentum

image courtesy of People's Climate

There is some serious momentum behind the climate change movement right now. How can we keep it going? How can we make sure businesses and politicians see climate change as an immediate issue? How can we continue to take action at home? 

For all of us pondering these questions in the wake of the largest climate march in history, the Huffington Post has provided some fantastic answers. 

Mainly, vote on November 4th. That is the one of the most important green tips of all! If you aren't already, please register to vote. 

#SaveCitySoil Day of Action

Zoo New England, under pressure from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), has formally asked City Soil to leave their land in Mattapan.

City Soil staff has a meeting with Secretary Sullivan on Wednesday, May 14th, but the formal eviction letter is not a good sign. Before the meeting we need to make sure that Governor Patrick understands that our community stands with City Soil;

ON TUESDAY, May 13th, please call AND e-mail Governor Patrick and respectfully ask him to stop the eviction of City Soil.

Phone: 617-725-4005

E-mail: goffice@state.ma.us, jwalsh@devalpatrick.com info@devalpatrick.com

Please let Everett of City Soil (everett@citysoil.org) know when you've called/emailed so that they can keep track of our impact.

If the meeting does not go well, there will be a rally on Saturday:

Rally to #SaveCitySoil!

SATURDAY, MAY 17th

11 a.m.

City Soil & Greenhouse site

415 American Legion Highway, Mattapan 02126

Stay tuned to learn how the meeting goes and if we will need to mobilize. Thank you so much for your support!

Take Action Now to #SaveCitySoil

source image courtesy of The Boston Globe

City Soil operates its composting site at the Boston Nature Center in Mattapan. They have partnered with the Suffolk County Conservation District to develop the Mattapan Ecovation Center, an enclosed composting system and intensive 4-season urban agriculture demonstration on state-owned land leased from Zoo New England.

Unfortunately, the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) recently announced a plan to evict City Soil from 50% of their leased site – including the area dedicated for the innovative urban agriculture project. Why? An out-of-town corporation, Landscape Express, has strong-armed the DCR into evicting City Soil and awarding the leased land to them for sales and parking space, under a no-bid expansion of their contract to manage the DCR’s neighboring site.

To prevent this eviction, hundreds of City Soil supporters such as the Conservation Law Foundation, Higher Ground Farm, Boston Natural Areas Network and more called State Senator Pacheco and Environmental and Energy Affairs Secretary Sullivan. Pacheco called the founder of City Soil that day and let him know that he heard the message loud and clear, but he's not sure  he can do anything about it. City Soil then made its next move and collected over 200 signatures on a petition to send to Governor Patrick.


You can help support city soil by joining the twitter campaign #savecitysoil and by calling Secretary Sullivan or Governor Patrick's Office:

Secretary Rick Sullivan

Phone: 617-626-1101

Email: rick.sullivan@state.ma.us, rachel.kreitz@state.ma.us

Governor Deval Patrick

Phone: 617-725-4005

Boston Races to Solar

In April, Mayor Walsh launched the Race to Solar, a program for local non-profits and small businesses to increase the adoption of solar power installations and energy efficiency measures. Race to Solar is a partnership with Renew Boston, NStar, National Grid, and Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) to promote energy efficiency upgrades and make solar power more affordable and accessible for non-profits, including houses of worship and schools, and small businesses that own their buildings.

Through the Race to Solar, organizations will be able to take advantage of a competitively priced option for installing solar power. To participate, non-profits and small businesses must own their buildings, have suitable site conditions for a solar installation, and be in good financial standing.  The goal of Race to Solar is to promote and facilitate the installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) energy systems on the buildings of 40 local non-profit organizations, adding approximately 1 megawatt of clean, renewable electric power capacity to Boston and Cambridge.  SunBug Solar was selected as the solar installer.  

To learn more about the Race to Solar and speak directly with program providers, please attend an upcoming technical workshop:

• Wednesday, April 30th, 10am to 12pm, Cambridge City Hall Annex, 344, Broadway, Cambridge
• Thursday, May 1st, 6pm to 8pm, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, 239 Harvard Street, Cambridge
• Thursday, May 15th, 6pm to 8pm, Curtis Hall, 20 South Street, Jamaica Plain
• Tuesday, May 20th, 6pm to 8pm, Carpenter’s Center, 750 Dorchester Avenue, Dorchester

Movie Night Suggestion

image courtesy of tumblr

If you haven't already seen the eye-opening documentary Blackfish, I highly recommend you get on Netflix and watch it ASAP! As a lover of wildlife, I was horrified to learn of the conditions in which many orcas are kept around the globe. While SeaWorld claims that much of Blackfish is false or misleading, the documentary certainly does a good job of making people think of the human-animal relationships in zoos of all types. There are always more than one version of the truth, but an opinion on orca captivity simply should not be made without viewing this film. 

Panel on The Role of Regulation in Furthering Sustainability

WHEN: Tuesday, February 4, 2014 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

WHERE: The Venture Cafe, Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th Floor, 1 Broadway, Cambridge, MA

WHY: This month's Boston Area Sustainability Group meeting is co-hosted by the New England Women in Energy and the Environment (coordinated by Boston Green Blog!) The theme of the evening is using legislation and regulation to promote environmental sustainability. As long as a capitalist economy fails to capture the costs of negative externalities, there is little incentive for corporations to reduce their environmental impact.  However, as shown through the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Dodd-Frank, among other local, national, and international laws, businesses are required to evaluate and report their risks and impacts.  That requirement can provide incentive for more sustainable actions. The following speakers will present information about successes and challenges in using regulation, legislation, and legal action to drive change for a more sustainable world.

• Ann Brewster Weeks, Senior Counsel, Legal Director at Clean Air Task Force
• Erica Mattison, Legislative Director, Environmental League of MA
• Lea Reynolds, Senior Policy Analyst, M.J. Bradley & Associates, LLC, Concord MA
• Steve Long, Director of Government Relations, The Nature Conservancy

REGISTER HERE!

What to watch on Netflix this weekend

This 2011 documentary, available for streaming on Netflix, takes an inspirational look into the brief, but landmark, presidency of President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives. The Maldives are the lowest lying country in the world, and may very well disappear as a result of climate change. Nasheed heads to the U.N. and to Copenhagen to face adversaries like China and India in the hopes that they can come to an agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Island President is informative, witty, and motivating - two thumbs up!

Spotlight: City Soil

As many of you know, the Massachusetts Food Waste Ban goes into effect this year, which makes composting increasingly important in Boston and beyond. This week's spotlight company, City Soil, has played a pivotal role in developing Boston gardens and farms, including at Revision Farm in Dorchester. Responding to the need for responsible compost management, City Soil employs Boston residents to operate the City of Boston’s leaf compost site in partnership with Casella Resource Solutions. City Soil is a leader in compost heat capture. Moving forward, City Soil will continue to responsibly manage Boston’s organic resources and develop opportunities to expand the urban food system.

Keep an eye out for their work! And read learn more here.

Pencil it in: Boston Area Sustainability Group Meetup

source image courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org

When: Tuesday, September 3, 2013 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Where: The Venture Cafe - Cambridge Innovation Center, One Broadway, 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142

Why:  Some say you should only recycle after all waste elimination and reuse options have been ruled out. If recycling is our panacea, why have recycling rates remained flat despite a perceived growing awareness? Landfills are full, incineration is out, what are we doing with our stuff – from food to pharmaceuticals, from electronics to Styrofoam? Can you connect the dots between solid waste and climate change?

To start the fall, we plan to push the boundaries of familiarity to explore:
- Legislation/Regulation – its challenges, achievements and unintended consequences
- Zero Waste – Is it really zero?
- Product stewardship’s role in waste reduction
- Handling textiles at their end-of-life
- A Day in the Life of a “Fancy Trashman”

Learn more and register here. 

Pencil It In: Urban Agriculture and Access to Healthy Food

image courtesy of CLF

WHEN: Wednesday, July 24, 2013, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM  (click here for other dates and times, as there will be multiple meetings to discuss this issue in different neighborhoods)

WHERE: Copley Branch BPL (Raab Hall), 700 Boylston St., Boston Back Bay

WHY: Join your neighbors at a meeting regarding the development of a new section of the Zoning Code by the City of Boston to address the growing interest in urban agriculture. This is your chance to voice your opinions for urban farming and access to healthy food!

They will be discussing about commercial ground level and rooftop farms, farmers markets and farm stands, aquaculture, hydroponics, aquaponics, farm composting, farm soil safety, and conditions for backyard keeping of hens and bees. Learn more here.

Pencil it in: Boston Mayoral Candidates Environmental Forum

image courtesy of The Boston Globe

WHEN: Tuesday, July 9, 2013, 12 pm - 2 pm

WHERE: Suffolk University Law School, 120 Tremont St., Boston, MA 02108

WHY: As Mayor Thomas Menino steps down from 20 years of leading Boston, his leadership in the areas of energy and the environment will be missed. At the same time, the transition to a new mayor offers opportunities for enhanced programs and policies on climate protection, sustainable transportation, parklands, green jobs, air and water quality, urban agriculture, and coastal management and many more areas that so greatly affect the quality of life in our communities. At this forum, hosted by Coalition of Energy, Environmental, Transportation and Innovation Groups, the 12 mayoral candidates will be given a chance explore a variety of topics related to community, development, jobs, sustainability, and livability in our city. Learn more here.

Recap: The Future of Nature, Event 1: The Future of Food

On Earth Day, The Nature Conservancy and WBUR hosted a discussion panel on what the future of our food system will look like. Attendees gathered at the Artists for Humanity center in South Boston and mingled and grabbed some freebees from sponsors before hitting the appetizer table for an assortment of cheeses.

Eventually we took our seats and our moderator, Sacha Pfieffer of All Things Considered, took the stage. (Which, as NPR fan, was quite exciting!). The panel contained an interesting set of scientists, chefs, and agriculture specialists ready to share their thoughts on the current food system and what will need to change in order for future generations to get proper nourishment after the population reaches 9 Billion in 2050. Then, each panelists shared their thoughts:

Michael Leviton, Chef, Lumiere Restaurant, Area Four Restaurant, Chef’s Collaborative

-Not only do we need to think about feeding a population of 9 billion people, we need to think about how we will feed them well.

-To do this, we need to learn as a nation to eat less meat - not have meat be “the center of the plate.”

-Local food in certain regions can be extremely expensive which is not sustainable because businesses will have trouble making a profit.

-The best thing you can do as a consumer is to support businesses that are doing the right thing. 

David Cleary, Agriculture Strategy Director, The Nature Conservancy

-As China and India move into the “middle class” they are going to require more complex diets.

-Many of the environmental issues that negatively affect our food sources are man made. 

-To have a healthy agriculture system, we will need to abide by 4 principles: 

     1) manage soils properly 

     2) have natural habitats in and around farms 

     3) manage your imputs properly (water, fertilizers, etc.) 

     4) we need to build agriculture systems that will be resilient to climate change.

Paul Greenberg, Author, Four Fish: The Last Wild Food
-What we must do to ensure we have enough food in the future, is mostly a result of what we have already done to damage natural food systems.
-70% of all seafood Americans eat is in restaurants, so we need to learn to ask questions about our food.
-50% of all seafood we eat is farmed.
-Eat local seafood, not too much, mostly bivalves (good news for me, I LOVE oysters!)


Oran Hesterman, Author of Fair Food and Founder of the Fair Food Network
-Health problems and rampant obesity are caused by a broken food system.
-There are many great initiatives popping up all over the country to address this issue which gives us great hope for the future.
-Individuals and institutions need to make changes.
-The most important thing you can do is put pressure on the government to pass the Farm Bill

After each panelist gave their presentation, the audience was invited to ask questions. The resulting conversation spoke volumes - a majority of the questions were about GMOs. It seems as though the future of food will definitely involve biotechnology! Though the future of food presents some daunting tasks, I left the event that night feeling hopeful and empowered. I look forward to the rest of The Nature Conservancy’s Future of Nature Series. 

A New Mayor for Boston Means Another Chance to Vote Green

Mayor Menino has done many wonderful things for the city of Boston over the past twenty years - including countless green initiatives (including Greenovate Boston). Just a few years ago in 2009, I got to meet him at the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters party endorsing him as their choice candidate for mayor. I was just six years old when he was first elected Mayor of Boston, but still, I am sad to see him go.

image courtesy of cityofboston.gov

However, the upcoming mayoral campaign gives Bostonians a whole new chance to prove what is really important to them. I plan to watch the campaign closely, as the next mayor is sure to bring changes. I will be looking to the Mass League of Environmental Voters  website to keep an eye on the candidates' stances on green issues.

So stay tuned for more!

Tax Credit for Wind Industry Extended

In addition to narrowly escaping the fiscal cliff, Congress also extended the tax credit for wind energy. Which is great news, but unfortunately, since many people in the wind industry didn't know if the credit would be extended or not - many companies have already made major cuts, which will slow our progress towards energy sustainability and independence.

NPR had a great piece on the issue yesterday, that stated:

"Congress renewed the tax credit for a year, but the industry had no idea which way it would go, so it had to prepare for the worst. Nobody wanted to gamble on starting a project that wouldn't be competitive. So after rushing to complete as many projects as possible before the tax credit expired, developers stopped planning for the future. Some companies had to lay off workers. Some manufacturers went bankrupt."

For the full story, click here. 

image courtesy of NPR.org

Petition for a Carbon Tax

The idea of a carbon tax in the United States is a controversial issue. While popular political groups like the Tea Party oppose creating new taxes of any kind because they only support a sick governmental system, many think a more appropriately arranged tax structure would help cure the country's economic problems.

One such new tax could potentially be a carbon tax. Other countries with struggling economies such as Ireland, have adopted carbon taxes to both reduce the deficit and help change behavior (meaning, make people more green!) If a carbon tax is something you support, or something you'd like to learn more about, I highly suggest taking a look at this petition.

image courtesy of indianlink.com.au

Happy New Year!