Mayor Walsh Celebrates Sustainability Leaders at Greenovate Boston Community Summit
Announces four winners and
commitments
to the Mayor’s Carbon Cup
BOSTON –
Mayor Martin J. Walsh today hosted the Greenovate Boston Community Summit to
celebrate Boston’s sustainability movement and the development of a
forward-looking vision for climate action across all Boston neighborhoods. As
part of the summit, Mayor Walsh recognized the winners of the Greenovate Boston
Awards, including four inaugural Mayor’s Carbon Cup participants, who have each
pledged or achieved a 35% reduction in greenhouse gas intensity in at least one
million square feet of space.
“Today is
a celebration of every Bostonian’s work in making Boston a greener, healthier,
and a more prosperous place,” said Mayor Martin J. Walsh. “It is also a day to
look at the climate challenges ahead, and to have confidence that the
collective knowledge and drive of Bostonians can step up to these challenges.”
This year, the Mayor
presented 11 Greenovate Awards. The awards, now in their eighth year, recognize
sustainability leadership across Boston in businesses, community organizations,
non-profits, residents, and institutions. 2014 Greenovate Boston award winners,
include:
· The Boston Architectural College and Halvorson Design
Partnership, INC – Green Alley Project
· Planet Southie – Community Organizing
· Ace Auto Body – Hazardous Waste Reduction
· Codman Square Health Center – Green Building &
Education
· Tim Hall, CERO Cooperative – Community Leadership
· Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH) – Community
Climate Preparedness
· Veolia Energy - Green Steam Pipeline
· Codman Square Neighborhood Development
Corporation – Community Organizing
· Bon Me Food Truck – Sustainable Food Systems
· P&G Gillette, Boston Site – Energy Conservation
· Curley K-8 School – Waste Reduction
In
addition, the Mayor’s Carbon Cup, which launched in April of this year,
showcased four large institutions that have each committed at least one million
square feet of building space to a 35% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
intensity by 2020. The institutions collectively committed roughly 15 million
square feet to the Cup and, if successful, will remove approximately 35,000
metric tons of GHGe from a 2005 baseline, equivalent to weatherizing close to
27,000 housing units.
“These
large properties are leading the way on climate action, both in preparing for
its impacts and lowering our collective carbon footprint,” said Chief of
Environment, Energy, and Open Space Brian Swett. “With over 500 Bostonians in
attendance today, our hope is that we can all find some place of leadership on climate
action, whether in our homes, neighborhoods, or workplaces.”
Carbon Cup Participants
Partners
HealthCare, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
- Committed to a 35% reduction in
GHG emissions per licensed bed across 3.1 million square feet
- In order to
achieve reduction, will build a cogeneration plant at BWH, in addition to
HVAC retro-commissioning, occupied/unoccupied scheduling, and a lighting
upgrade
Boston
University
- Achieved
to a 35% reduction in GHG emissions per square foot across 1.1 million
square feet since FY 2005
- Committed to a 35% reduction in
GHG emissions across 5.2 million square feet by FY 2020
Harvard
University (within Boston city limits)
- Achieved
a 35% reduction in GHG emissions per square foot across 1.1 million square
feet since FY 2005
- Committed to a 30% absolute
reduction in GHG emissions across entire North American campus by 2016
Partners
HealthCare, Massachusetts General Hospital
- Achieved
a nearly 43% reduction in GHG emissions per licensed bed across 5.6
million square feet since FY 2005
- Reduced
greenhouse gas emissions due to energy usage alone by nearly 20,000 metric
tons from FY 2005 baseline, or the equivalent of 4,200 cars taken off the
road
The Cup
is actively seeking new commercial real estate, hospitals, and universities to
commit throughout this year. For more information, visit bit.ly/CarbonCupBos.
The daylong
summit also featured interactive workshops, keynote speakers including MBTA
General Manager, Beverly Scott, Next Step Living CEO, Geoff Chaplin, and Vice
President of the Codman Square Neighborhood Council, Cynthia Loesch, and
mechanisms for soliciting public feedback into the 2014 Climate Action Plan.
For the full agenda, please visit Summit.GreenovateBoston.org.
Coinciding
with the one-year anniversary of the public launch of the Greenovate Boston
initiative in conjunction with over 50 community partners, the Summit belongs
to a larger suite of events and programming to engage Bostonians on how to
lower the city’s carbon footprint and prepare for the impacts of climate
change. Greenovate Boston staff have personally briefed over 1,000 people and
co-hosted or attended over 20 community events regarding the Climate Action
Plan.
Moving
forward, Greenovate Boston will continue to co-host community meetings for the
purposes of soliciting feedback for the Climate Action Plan. Feedback is also
being collected via Greenovate Boston’s virtual town hall at Engage.GreenovateBoston.org. Those who wish to have a more active role can join the Neighborhoods,
Climate Preparedness or 80x50 Strategy Committees. Feedback from all of these channels
will be fed directly into the Steering Committee, who is tasked with providing final
strategy recommendations for the Climate Action Plan, which will be completed in
late 2014.