Boston is on a carbon diet

We just heard that Boston will receive $6.5 million in federal stimulus funds to help get “Renew Boston” off the ground. This is an effort to reduce the city’s carbon footprint, while creating jobs at the same time. See report from the Herald this morning.

Former Vice President Al Gore will team up with Mayor Thomas M. Menino today to announce that the city is receiving $6.5 million in federal stimulus funds to help kick-start “Renew Boston,” a program aimed at reducing the Hub’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The money will help create a program that will reduce energy consumption by weatherizing homes and retrofitting city-owned buildings. The money also will be used to spur the development of “shovel ready” municipal solar-electric, solar-thermal and wind-energy projects, according to the city.

Boston seems to be a very active town with engaged citizens and city workers. While organizing Pitch the City this year we were able to get an inside view and it was inspirational. Not only was the City of Boston open to the idea of gathering ideas from the public, they encouraged us to conduct the contest and help them make it happen. On top of that, we received over 100 ideas from citizens! We are looking forward to hearing the four finalists on Sunday at D2E and hope you can join us.

Don’t forget to come by the Hynes this weekend. We have a lot of great events going on. Check out our EVENTS page for details.

Tags: boston, city, environment, Government, stimulus

Policies for our future

Sometimes we have to be told what to do. As stated in earlier posts, we are learning how important policy is to our future. And though responsible businesses are taking the lead, we need policy to make everyone play nice in the sandbox.

Since it is difficult for the normal person, busy trying to make a living, to keep up with what is going on in our local governments, D2E is working to organize a panel discussion on policy. We want to create a forum for citizens to listen to and speak with their policy makers. The goal is to shed light on how our government can help us move faster towards a more sustainable world. Town, city, state, national and international policy makers have to step up to the plate and help us move forward. What have we done? What are we in the process of doing? And what should we do? Unfortunately the US is behind the game compared with other developed countries, but I have faith that we can catch up.

In today’s Globe I read an article by Erin Ailworth:

Under an ordinance set to be considered by Boston city councilors today, commercial waste haulers could lose their licenses if they don’t offer recycling services to customers. …. “If there’s an area that we can improve in, it would be recycling,” said City Councilor Michael P. Ross, who drafted the proposal.

Go Michael! I love hearing that elected officials are taking their responsibilities seriously. This is great news. Our cities have to make these rules, otherwise it might never happen.

Tags: boston, globe, Government, local, officials