Calling all green leaders!

Mayor seeks nominations for Community Advisory Committee on Climate Action


Mayor Thomas M. Menino today announced that the City of Boston and the Mayor’s Climate Action Leadership Committee are seeking nominations to the Community Advisory Committee on Climate Action. Nominations are due by June 26, 2009.



The Community Advisory Committee will ensure that the ideas and concerns of a broad range of Boston residents are fully considered in the City’s updated Climate Action Plan. The Committee will meet at least four times between July 2009 and March 2010, provide Mayor Menino and the Leadership Committee with input on climate issues and proposed actions, and help to develop a plan for engaging all Boston residents, businesses, and institutions in climate action. The Community Advisory Committee will be comprised of 20-30 members representing the diverse neighborhoods and businesses of Boston, and its meetings will be facilitated by consultants with expertise in running public meetings on scientifically complex issues. The first meeting will be in July.



Community Advisory Committee members are not expected to have scientific or technical expertise. However, they should live in Boston, be active in the community, be concerned about climate change, and have:



· A willingness to make a year-long commitment involving about 20–40 hours of work, including meetings and follow-up activities;

· A willingness and ability to work well in a diverse team;

· An ability to consider ideas and strategies objectively, to think beyond one’s own experience, to be an active listener, and to generate creative ideas and solutions; and

· An appetite for healthy debate and an eagerness to be part of a dynamic process.



Residents can nominate themselves or others and obtain additional information at http://www.cityofboston.gov/climate/committee.asp or contact Carl Spector, Carl.Spector@cityofboston.gov, 617-635-3850.



The Community Advisory Committee will support the work of the Boston Climate Action Leadership Committee, which Mayor Menino, joined by Former Vice President Al Gore, announced on March 30, 2009. Mayor Menino has asked this 22-member group to:



· Review the City’s Climate Action Plan and make any appropriate recommendations;

· Update the community-wide greenhouse gas emissions inventory and set goals for community-wide reductions;

· Recommend to the Mayor the community actions necessary to meet climate action goals and ways to maximize associated opportunities;

· Evaluate the risks to Boston from sea-level rise and other likely consequences of climate change, and recommend actions for the City and the community to take to reduce these risks;

· Develop enhanced strategies to engage all residents and sectors of the community in reducing energy consumption and addressing climate change; and

· Identify economic and workforce development opportunities associated with climate action and the clean technology sector.



The Leadership Committee will also inform the Mayor’s ongoing creation of Renew Boston, an innovative public-private partnership serving Boston residents and businesses that will coordinate energy efficiency and alternative energy service delivery with the Mayor’s green collar workforce initiative.



The Mayor’s creation of the Climate Action Leadership Committee and the Renew Boston initiative are the most recent in a series of actions designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy use in Boston and grow the green economy and the green-collar workforce. Other actions include: joining ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection Campaign in 2000; being an early signatory to the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement; issuing a Climate Action Plan and Executive Order in April 2007; purchasing 12 percent renewably generated electricity for municipal operations; requiring all new city-owned building projects to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver standard; and embarking on a program to plant 100,000 trees by the year 2020.



Announcing Renew Boston on March 6, 2009, the Mayor reiterated his goals to create 2,500 green collar jobs in Boston, to reduce by 200 megawatts Boston’s electricity demand by 2017, and to install 25 megawatts of solar power by 2015. Renew Boston will be implemented with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which awarded $6.5 million in Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants to Boston.



The Mayor’s creation of the Boston Climate Action Leadership Committee and Renew Boston is supported by grants of $250,000 each from the Barr Foundation and The Boston Foundation.