August 30th, 2023: Muni Summit: Transparency and Community Engagement
The summit focused on transparency and community engagement within municipal utilities (MLPs), why it’s important, and what municipal utilities and advocates can do to improve practices in their districts.
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July 20th, 2023: Clean Energy Infrastructure, Environmental Justice, and Community Needs
This panel discussed the critical need that Massachusetts faces to build new clean energy infrastructure and the challenges, as well as opportunities, that are available to ensure that community needs are met and environmental justice is achieved as part of this process. The panel will also touch on potential reforms that may be needed to ensure our climate targets are being met in a way that enhances environmental justice. Our panel of experts included: Melissa Hoffer, Massachusetts Climate Chief Maria Belen Power, Massachusetts Undersecretary of Environmental Justice & Equity Turner-Smith, Deputy Bureau Chief of the Energy & Environment Bureau at the Attorney General’s Office John Walkey, Director of Waterfront & Climate Justice Initiatives at Greenroots Richard Kanoff, Partner & Chair of the Renewable Energy Group at Prince Lobel & Tye
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May 30, 2023: Innovative Approaches to Building Mapping
During this event, MCAN and the Massachusetts Building Electrification Accelerator discussed four approaches to building decarbonization mapping. Over two million buildings in Massachusetts will need upgrades to become future-ready and sustainable. How will we identify, prioritize, and map their unique paths? The Building Electrification Accelerator and the Massachusetts Climate Action Network held a webinar to discuss this very issue. Specifically, we heard about four approaches to building decarbonization mapping from our list of wonderful guest speakers: Greg King from TSK Energy Solutions Erin Camp from PowerOptions Craig Altemose from BlocPower Lucy Lyons from Kestrix Enjoy this fascinating discussion which covers an area of critical importance to equitable, holistic, and effective building decarbonization.
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April 25th, 2023: How Massachusetts Can Become a Leader in Reducing Embodied Carbon
During this event, MCAN discussed steps Massachusetts can take to become a leader in reducing embodied carbon in buildings. We were joined by a fantastic group of guest speakers including Thomas O’Neill from the City of Cambridge, as well as a number of incredible legislators who have been champions for increasing our efforts to reduce embodied carbon in buildings.
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April 19th, 2023: Legislative Launch: Advancing Clean Energy, Equity, and Innovation in Municipal Utilities
This event focused on a new, critical piece of legislation in Massachusetts: An Act advancing clean energy, equity, and innovation within municipal utilities (H.3150/S.2117). H.3150/S.2117 is important because it will enhance the distribution of benefits and burdens of the clean energy transition by ensuring that communities served by municipal utilities meet the same clean energy standards as the rest of the Commonwealth. It also increases support for Environmental Justice communities who have historically had limited access to funding and incentives to benefit from the clean energy transition. While the bill may focus on municipal utilities, this legislation affects our entire state's ability to meet our climate targets. Learn from our incredible panelist of legislative champions and experts about why this bill is necessary, how it would help advance climate action and environmental justice, and what you can do to support it.
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