Boston

(go Celtics!)

Boston’s Sustainability Goals

	​Goal & Date Expected	Expected Benefits	Was it Met?	Accountability
​Energy	​Equity: Increase supply of renewable energy to low-income residents, potentially by using the aggregation to invest directly in new, local renewable projects [1, pg 71]	​Large number of low and fixed-income residents whose energy bill becomes more predictable and affordable as a result of their participation in the program [1, pg 71]	​ ✔	Implement an opt-up engagement program in partnership with community organizations [1, pg 72]
	Educate: educate residents about the predatory practices of some retail electricity suppliers [1, pg 71]	Protection from the predatory practices of some retail electricity suppliers [1, pg 71]	​ In Progress	Submitted a plan to the Department of Public Utilities for the CCE program. Plan includes online resources, community meetings, a customer service center, & translation services [1, pg 72]
	Expand the use of sustainable energy: implement and expand community choice energy [1, pg 71]	Reduced carbon emissions from electricity consumption by residents and businesses [1, pg 71]	✔	Launch CCE program, pending approval of Boston's plan by the Department of Public Utilities [1, pg 72]
Extreme Weather & Climate Change	Equip: prepare Boston's built infrastructure and its residents for more frequent and intense heat waves, extreme storms, and flooding [1, pg 15]		✔ & In Progress	BPHC developed an action plan for extreme temperatures; The Imagine Boston 2030 plan sets a long-term vision for the city regarding climate change preparedness, increased affordability & equity, & economic growth for 2030 [1, pg 15]
	​Revise: Update the City's heat emergency action plan [2, pg 20]		In Progress	Awarded a Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Program (MVP) grant for a heat resilience planning study [2, pg 20]

Table 1: outlines the City of Boston’s climate goals from 2019 to 2021. It is broken down into 2 parts: energy goals and extreme weather-induced climate change goals. These objectives have been pulled from Boston’s 2019 [1] and 2021 [2] climate action plans.

Energy:

From 2013 to 2019 the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy selected Boston as the most energy efficient city in the country [1]. So what happened?

In 2019, Boston set a goal of implementing and expanding community choice energy, and as of 2021, they achieved it. Community choice energy (CCE), or municipal aggregation, is a way for cities to purchase electricity for their residents. It allows governments to buy and distribute more renewable energy than the state legislatures require. It also allows governments to purchase electricity in bulk, therefore increasing the stability of prices [1]. It was reported in 2021 that Boston’s program was the largest municipal aggregation project in New England. It had over 200,000 customers with 63% of residents and 70% of businesses participating [2]. Thus, Boston did achieve its 2019 goal of “expanding the use of sustainable energy” through the implementation of Community Choice Energy! However, the government failed to specify in their 2021 climate update what the socioeconomic status of the residents participating in CCE was, so they haven’t highlighted whether or not they met their equity goal. I suspect that this lack of information was intentional because they knew they didn’t meet their 2019 goal of making sustainable energy more accessible to lower-income residents. Awfully sneaky of them. But although they didn’t quite succeed on the equity front, they did implement CCE, which is a great start. Boston is taking steps to improving their current energy sources by implementing more sustainable ones.

Extreme climate:

Extreme weather occurrences pose a very serious problem in Boston, specifically coastal flooding and extreme heat. What is Boston doing to minimize their effects?

Rising sea levels increase the risk of erosion, flooding, and habitat loss [3]. They can erode shorelines, displace residents, cause higher storm surges, and lead to an increase in water-borne and respiratory illnesses due to contaminated drinking water and flooding-induced mold. 53% of Massachusetts residents live in coastal communities. Thus, more than half of the state is at risk. Scientists even fear that flooding due to high tides will become a chronic hazard; these seaside neighborhoods may face flooding on a monthly basis [4]. In addition to the destructive effects of flooding, Boston is also facing extreme heat and stormwater flooding, however the flooding is to a lesser degree.

Throughout the United States, extreme heat is the number one cause of weather related deaths. It’s more deadly than all the United States’ hurricanes, winter weather, tornadoes, and flooding combined [5]. From 1985 to 2016, the heat-related death rate was 2.9 deaths per every 100,000 people per year. Scientists predict that this rate will more than triple to 10.5 deaths per 100,000 people per year if we reduce our emissions to a “moderate” state. If we proceed with business as usual, or in other words continue to produce our current amount of emissions, it could reach 19.3 deaths per every 100,000 people per year [1]. That’s unacceptable.

Thus, Boston set a goal in 2019 to better prepare the community for these extreme weather occurrences. Part of this preparation included updating the city’s heat emergency action plan. The final version of this plan was published in April of 2022. It took 14 months to develop, and went through 3 phases: analyzing existing data, creating heat resilience strategies, and writing the report. During this process, the project team conducted a citywide survey on where citizens can stay cool and where they feel hot, as well as a youth idea session. They also administered five neighborhood idea sessions where people from different neighborhoods had the opportunity to share their heat resilience ideas. I think these surveys are a really good thing; they show that the city truly values their residents and wants to hear their voices. The report even has a glossary full of heat related terms. A glossary is an often overlooked but I think essential part of any somewhat scientific political document. Check out page 35 of it if you want to see how Boston defines heat emergencies, the land surface temperature, adaptive capacity, and many more terms.

So what are Boston’s solutions to extreme heat? First, residents who are signed up for AlertBoston will receive emergency alerts by text, email, or phone [5]. Also, when a particularly hot day is declared a heat emergency, public facilities such as Boston Centers for Youth and Families will serve as cooling centers. Normally these community centers require registration, but now they will be open to the public during heat emergencies. However, we are faced again with the issue of environmental justice. Lower income citizens who have limited transportation options may not be able to get to these community centers, and thus are at a higher risk of heat-related injury.

Opening community centers and having emergency text alerts are a good place to start, but there are many other steps the government can take to reduce heat vulnerability, such as making sure power plants don’t overheat in order for reliable energy to continue to be available to hospitals and residential air conditioning systems. Also, planting more trees along roads will greatly reduce the temperature of them due to their high albedo. When the sun hits a surface, the light is either reflected or absorbed. Darker surfaces like concrete or tar roads have a very low albedo, which means that they absorb more light and convert it into heat. Whereas, trees have a higher albedo; they reflect the sunlight very well and don’t retain a lot of heat. Trees also provide shade. Thus, because of the trees’ blocking of sunlight, the concrete and asphalt of the roads won’t reflect as much of the hot sun, despite their low albedo (learn more about the cooling benefits of trees here).

Boston has a long way to go to become truly sustainable. For now, I think it is doing a very commendable job. The government is listening to resident feedback, meticulously documenting its environmental progress for easy citizen access, and also somewhat focusing on climate justice and not forgetting about under-served communities. Boston is a city that truly cares about its citizens, and I think that care will continue to show through its future environmental initiatives.

Sources cited

[1] City of Boston. (2019). Climate action plan 2019 update (Climate Action Plan

Update). City of Boston. https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/embed/

file/2019-10/city_of_boston_2019_climate_action_plan_update_4.pdf

[2] City of Boston. (2021). Climate action fiscal year 2021 report. City of Boston.

https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/file/2021/10/

FY21%20Boston%20Climate%20Action%20Report_2.pdf

[3] Cleveland, J. (2021). "The heavy lifting starts now" with the

boston green ribbon commission [Interview transcript]. CBCA. Retrieved

September 14, 2022, from https://www.city-businessclimatealliance.org/

cbca-knowledge/the-heavy-lifting-starts-now

[4] Department of Public Health, Bureau of Environmental Health, & Environmental

Toxicology Program. (2022). Sea level rise. Mass.gov. Retrieved September

14, 2022, from https://www.mass.gov/info-details/sea-level-rise

[5] City of Boston. (2022, April). Heat resilience solutions for boston. City of

Boston. https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/file/2022/04/

04212022_Boston%20Heat%20Resilience%20Plan_highres-with%20Appendix%20%281%29.pdf