By Gavin Bodkin, MBA Candidate, College of Management, UMass Boston
On October 22, 2015, Austin Blackmon, City of Boston Chief of Environment, Energy and Open Space, spoke at UMass Boston about the city’s Climate Action Plan and its current policies and initiatives to address climate change and advance greater resiliency.
Blackmon opened the talk with some of the developmental history of Boston. Prior to 1630, Boston’s tributaries were open and undeveloped. Over the course of the following centuries, fill was poured into the bays, creating the foundation for what we know today as Back Bay, Logan Airport, the Seaport, and South Boston areas. Boston’s surface area was increased, but its capacity for handling sea level rise was diminished. While in the past 100 years sea level has increased 10″, Boston needs to prepare itself to handle an expected 6-8-foot increase in sea level by 2100. Clearly, the city is extremely susceptible to the effects of climate change; the question is, what can be done now to prepare for it?
The City of Boston has outlined a Climate Action Plan to combat these effects and promote green jobs in the Greater Boston area. Blackmon’s department is focusing largely on lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25% by the year 2020 and 80% by 2050. While it is on track to meet the 2020 target (presently, we are down 17% from the 2005 baseline), getting to the 2050 target will be a challenge. The largest emitters of greenhouse gases in Boston are the large buildings and institutions sector, emitting over twice the amount of the transportation or neighborhood sectors (about 50% of all GHG emissions). One of the measures passed to lower business emissions is the Building Energy Reporting & Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO). This is a set of reporting and disclosure guidelines for businesses and large residential buildings. Another initiative is the Mayor’s Carbon Cup: a collaborative program between hospitals, universities, commercial real estate owners, and property managers to commit to a 35% reduction in GHG emissions by 2020. Further, the Green Ribbon Commission was established to support to the Climate Action Plan. This group of the largest employers in Boston, including National Grid, Eversource, Partners Health, and Boston Properties, advocate with targeted sectors to align their strategies to lower emissions, highlight best practices amongst sectors, and advises Boston on the implementation of its GHG reduction plan.
As part of its Climate Ready Boston initiative, the city has installed solar-powered fueling stations, has reinforced Deer Island for sea level rise, and has installed solar-powered traffic signals in the event of an outage. These implementations will help to ensure Boston has accessible power under extreme conditions. Aside from these, buildings are being engineered to withstand extreme weather conditions as well. As one of the best examples of building resilience, Blackmon discussed the Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital (owned by Partners Health) that has been designed with its key mechanical, electrical, and emergency services on its roof in case of flooding. Critical patient programs are located above the ground floor. Windows are also removable in case an emergency evacuation is necessary. These are only a few examples of implementations the city has created in partnership with local organizations to combat extreme climate conditions. To get to the 80% reduction in GHG emissions, however, requires drastic changes to the way we live and work in Boston. Imagine Boston 2030 is a new effort to create a common vision of climate-ready Boston.
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