Energy and the Environment
Creating a GreenPrint for Boston
By Sam Yoon
American cities have an opportunity to make a major contribution to the effort to combat climate change, and Boston has the raw assets to lead the way – but only if we take action now.
Green leadership requires more than blue-ribbon commissions. While Boston has made some symbolic steps toward reducing Boston’s carbon footprint, the change we need is bold and transformative.
The most important shift is a fundamental one. Smart growth, transit oriented development, energy efficiency – these have to be guiding principles of government.
These are the types of actions we can take with a little ingenuity and passion on greening the city:
Retrofitting Our Aging Homes
As any green planner will say, the greenest building is the one that is already built.
Creating environmental standards for new buildings is important, but Boston’s housing stock is among the oldest in the nation and lacks the weatherization to minimize energy use in the summer and winter.
We will create good jobs and energy savings for low-income families by putting young people work retrofitting our aging homes. This requires us to work in collaboration with youth organizations, community groups, and unions. We will also need to infuse existing government programs with private-sector funds to maximize our output.
The “green-collar” jobs that we’ve heard so much about will finally be a reality because we have the sense and leadership to make it happen.
Creating Green Neighborhoods
I came to Boston to study urban planning and transportation at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Yoon administration will emphasize green neighborhood planning.
We will rezone our neighborhoods to encourage community gardens and farmers’ markets, and incentivize fresh produce options in neighborhood convenience stores and bodegas.
We will transform our streets by tapping into the latest and most effective ways to increase public space and calm traffic – raised pedestrian crosswalks, more pedestrian islands and plazas dedicated to foot traffic, and a network of separated bike lanes.
This means more trips by foot, more trips by bike, and more trips not taken because of the selection of local options.
Incentivizing Green Roofs
One of the most exciting innovations in cities around the country is green roofs – roofs covered in soil and vegetation, planted over a waterproof membrane. These roofs promote energy efficiency, reduce storm-water runoff, improve air quality, lessen the urban heat island effect, reduce noise, promote productivity, beautify rooftops, and extend roof life. They also create new markets and jobs for rooftop garden products.
We will show the rest of the city these benefits by converting the top of City Hall to be a model for green roofs.
And we will offer a property tax abatement to incentivize home owners to convert to green roofs. I introduced such legislation in the City Council in July.
Managing City Vehicles Efficiently
Last month, I introduced a fleet sharing proposal at City Hall. This is an idea that harnesses the best thinking of Boston’s technology sector to help reduce the number of cars on our roads, save taxpayer money, and reduce our carbon footprint.
The idea is simple: we maximize the use of our City’s fleet through vehicle-sharing technology. City workers reserve cars and vans through an internal system on an as-needed basis. This means fewer cars used by workers across all departments, lower emissions and fuel consumption, and big savings for the City.
Slimming down our City’s fleet would also expedite our conversion to energy-efficient hybrid and electric vehicles. With a fleet sharing program, we could have stations around the city that would hook up electric cars to our power grid, and a computerized way to track how long cars need to be charged depending on their usage.
A complete plan for greening Boston also needs to look at:
• Regional transportation planning. More than just cars. A lack of collaboration is one of the biggest problems in transportation, but it has one of the easiest solutions. We should coordinate our transportation department with the neighboring cities and towns planning efforts.
• A permanent, public bike-sharing program. The first step is building the infrastructure needed to make bikes a safe and efficient option.
• Compost collection program. We can start a program to collect and coordinate compost from individuals, businesses, and institutions.
• Public recycling in our parks and open spaces. Our commitment to recycling should not end when we leave our homes.
• Reduce use of bottled water. Our city government should end contracts to purchase bottled water and reinvest that money in maintaining our public water fountains.
• Healthy, local foods in the public schools. Our school meals should be produced and prepared locally with fresh and healthy ingredients.
Sustainability cannot just be a buzz word; it has to be engrained in our civic culture. We have the plan – now let’s make it happen.
