Mayor Walsh celebrates sustainability leaders at Greenovate Boston Community Summit

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.