BCAN

BCAN Celebrates Passage of BERDO Regulations [Boston, MA] — Thanks to the advocacy of BCAN, the City of Boston passed the Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO). BERDO is the largest step toward combatting climate change in Boston’s history. BERDO requires all buildings that are (20,000+ square feet or 15+ housing units) to reduce…

Last week, the Senate voted YES on an amendment to the Economic Development bill empowering state agencies and municipalities throughout Mass to use project labor agreements! The amendment covers the same territory as the bills H.3012/S.2027 we have been pushing for, but adds it to a larger bill there is significant momentum to pass. Our member…

Right now, there are just a few more weeks left in the MA State Legislature’s legislative session. Legislators are currently finalizing legislation and voting on various bills. As they do so, our advocacy is critical in ensuring our Legislature passes bold climate legislation that centers environmental justice communities and puts the Commonwealth on the path…

On Wednesday, June 26th, BCAN, CLU, and GJC allies like Clean Water Action (CWA), and others, will take to the steps of the State House and rally this campaign. Join us in support of a critical climate justice issue alongside our Green Justice Coalition allies to fight for Project Labor Agreements in Massachusetts that ensure…

In Boston, 71% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings. Half of Boston’s emissions come from a small group of the largest buildings. There are about six thousand of these buildings, which are 20K+ square feet or 15+ residential units. That’s why BCAN and our allies successfully advocated for the passage of the Building…

Boston Climate Action Network’s Executive Director Hessann Farooqi joined a panel of climate advocates to testify in support of S. 2103 An Act Relative to Mass Save Assessments before the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change in a virtual hearing on March 5 and urge the transformation of the Mass Save program to…

Boston Climate Action Network’s Executive Director Hessann Farooqi offered testimony to Boston City Council’s hearing on February 9 on “An Ordinance creating the Planning Department in the City of Boston.” This ordinance would codify the transition of staff from the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) to a City Planning Department. The budget-neutral measure is…

Judy Kolligian was a dedicated BCAN volunteer from 2006 until she became too sick last year to continue living independently. She died in hospice on February 6, surrounded by loved family members. The Green Blocks Pioneer Throughout the past 18 years of working with BCAN, she indulged her time in several different projects. One of…

Boston Climate Action Network is pleased to see a slate of bills as part of the Clean Heat Platform remain under consideration until April following Joint Rule 10 and urges lawmakers to take action on these crucial bills to reduce greenhouse emissions in buildings. Joint Rule 10 requires all Joint Committees in the Massachusetts Legislature…

The Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN) is proud to announce Hessann Farooqi as our new Executive Director. He is the first person of color to lead the organization in our 24 year history. The son of immigrants, his appointment comes amid a wave of people of color taking leadership positions across environmental nonprofit organizations, including…

BCAN Celebrates Passage of BERDO Regulations On Wednesday, the City of Boston’s Air Pollution Control Commission approved the final set of regulations supporting the Building Emission Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO). These regulations are the final phase of policy supporting BERDO, which is the largest step toward combatting climate change in Boston’s history. BERDO requires…

On November 21, BCAN was thrilled to join Governor Healey, Lt. Governor Driscoll, Secretary Tepper, and others for the announcement of the first round of Deep Energy Retrofit Program grants. These will decarbonize apartments while keeping them affordable. The first round of grants will fund renovations across the state, including in: This funding comes from…

In 2021, BCAN helped pass the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO), a Boston-wide law that requires buildings to publicly report and reduce their emissions. Building emissions, caused by fossil fuels used for heating, cooling, and electricity, are responsible for 70% of Boston’s greenhouse gas emissions. BERDO aims to reduce building emissions in large…

BCAN’s Housing Justice project is proud to unveil our database of Funding To Make Your Home Green And Healthy. We have compiled information on grants, loans, and tax credits that support repairs, upgrades, and retrofits. You can find what is available—from federal, state, and local governments, as well as private sources—to make it easier to afford…

The Boston Climate Action Network is thrilled to celebrate another step forward in our ongoing efforts toward green, healthy, and affordable homes. Affordable housing building owners can now apply for up to $10,000 grants supporting deep energy retrofits and decarbonization thanks to a new program announced by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. These funds will enable…

Last week, the Boston Climate Action Network held a series of focus groups to gather input from community members across the city to inform regulations on carbon emissions from buildings, as a part of our work on the Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance. The Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO) is a City…

The City of Boston has taken a significant step towards reducing its carbon footprint by opting-in to the stretch code. This decision was made after the Boston City Council voted in favor of adopting the new climate-friendly state building code, which includes the stretch code, on April 5, 2023. The stretch code is an optional…

On March 3, 2023, Boston Common was the site of a powerful demonstration in support of action on climate change. Thousands of activists from across the city and beyond joined together to make their voices heard on this pressing issue. Among the groups participating in the march was the Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN), a…

Written by Stefan Geller Over 100 climate activists gathered in front of the State House on Friday to take part in the “People, Not Profit” climate strike with Fridays For Future Massachusetts, demanding Gov. Charlie Baker and the Boston City Council take urgent action to combat the intersecting crises of racism, economic and energy injustice,…

March 23, 2022 Activists of Boston and beyond will come together this Friday to demand urgent action needed to combat the intersecting crises of racism, economic and energy injustice, housing, and climate change. The strike will be on March 25, 2022, at 3 PM at the Boston Commons, where the park meets the Statehouse. The…

Boston Climate Activists Join Fridays For Future Global Climate Strike March 23, 2022 Activists of Boston and beyond will come together this Friday to demand urgent action needed to combat the intersecting crises of racism, economic and energy injustice, housing, and climate change. The strike will be on March 25, 2022, at 3 PM at…

Written by Loie Hayes In honor of Black History Month, BCAN wants to share a posthumous tribute to one of Boston’s most active Black climate organizers in the early 2000s: Owen Toney. Owen was an organizer with the local chapter of ACORN in 2008, when BCAN and ACORN began co-hosting energy saving workshops in Fields…

Written by Paula Georges From the 1970s until her death in 2011, Hazel Johnson empowered residents to seek redress from the pollutants that threatened their health. From the South Side of Chicago, she fought for clean air and water for the residents of Altgeld Gardens, a housing project built on a toxic waste site. After…

Written by Paula Georges Boston’s large buildings, including office, commercial and residential buildings, account for over half of the city’s carbon footprint. To reduce pollutants from Boston’s dirtiest buildings and meet Boston emissions reduction goals, the City has drafted an overhaul of the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO). The amended ordinance, now called…

Written by Paula Georges In January 2021, a group of researchers at the Institute for Environment and Society at Brown University, led by Professor J. Timmons Roberts, published a report, Who’s Delaying Climate Change in Massachusetts? The report documents how industrial actors successfully lobby against climate legislation at the state level. The report may not…

Written by Paula Georges Three recent opinion pieces published on the Boston Globe’s opinion page on Monday, May 31, 2021, suggest three ways to address the impact of climate change on Boston and the other communities along Massachusetts’ vulnerable coastline and its regional economy. These proposals are worth reviewing, but the first line of defense…

Written by Loie Hayes This old adage – you can’t manage what you don’t measure – goes to the heart of why BCAN fought for the first version of Boston’s Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO) back in 2013. Without accurate data about how much energy our city’s biggest buildings are using, there’s no…

Written by Paula Georges The Boston Globe reports that as sea levels rise and storms become more powerful, the risk of flooding in the City is increasing, bringing with it potentially devastating financial impacts.  Citing a recent study from the First Street Foundation, the news article states that in Boston “by mid-century more than 3,000…

As the City of Boston rolls out Community Choice Electricity (CCE), we hear or read occasional criticism of the program’s “opt-out” nature. To some, switching customers into the program unless they object feels like overreach, and non-transparent. We firmly disagree that the City has been either deceptive or coercive. Communication about CCE has been open.…

You know the facts of climate change. You want to “fight like hell for the living,” as Mother Jones has told us. Boston Climate Action Network is leading the effort for city-level urgent and ambitious action on climate. Here are four reasons to join us in the fight and donate to make sure we win…

BCAN continues to document the increasing frequency of flooding in Boston due to sea level rise. This is especially noticeable at “king tide” events, the next of which is upcoming on Sunday November 15th. And this is only just the beginning. These coastline maps demonstrate the city’s vulnerability over the next several decades. Move the arrows…

BCAN’s campaign efforts usually do not include electoral issues and government appointments. However, the uncertainty of the presidential election warrants BCAN to use its influence to encourage a fair and democratic outcome.  On October 30, 2020, BCAN submitted the following letter to Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker addressing the November 3 election. In this letter, we have…

On Saturday 10/17, members of BCAN joined forces for the King Tide Rising Seas Rally. King Tides are especially high tides that occur during new or full moons, and pose an added danger to coastal cities such as Boston when combined with climate change. Click through the gallery below to check out some of the…

Watch our new video on greenhouse gas emissions and the effects of the Coronavirus shutdown!

On Earth Day 2020, we launched a petition drive as part of our “Green Buildings, Not Greenhouse Gases” campaign. The petition is aimed at accelerating the pace of energy retrofits of large, existing buildings citywide. Because the current applicable city law, BERDO, is not strong enough to ensure that these retrofits happen, the petition asks…

Researchers at Harvard University have found a link between long-term exposure to air pollution and death from COVID-19. According to The Boston Globe, these experts compared different neighborhoods in the United States and found that those with higher concentrations of small particles in the air also had higher rates of death from the coronavirus. Statistics…

An overflow crowd of climate activists, City officials, and others filled the Boston office of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) on Tuesday, August 20, for a public hearing on the City of Boston’s municipal aggregation plan. The hearing was one step in the DPU’s decision-making process regarding Community Choice Energy (CCE), the name…

BostonCAN recently announced its new campaign to promote deep energy retrofits of Boston’s existing buildings. What do these retrofits entail, and what are the challenges associated with them? On May 9, we hosted “A Discussion of Deep Energy Retrofits” in order to learn more. The event featured Paul Eldrenkamp, Kerry Kostinen, and Mike Duclos, contractors…

As the City of Boston works to implement Community Choice Energy, BCAN has been striving to define our next campaign. On Saturday, January 26, we held a productive retreat to determine how best to support and push Boston to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Previously, we had studied Carbon Free Boston’s preliminary report, with selected…

Thanks to guest blogger Andrea Nyamekye, of Neighbor to Neighbor, for co-authoring this post. The Massachusetts legislature just concluded its 2-year law-making cycle. While it did succeed in making some progress on climate change policy, the state legislature severely missed the mark on justice and equity legislation. The climate change policy that passed was full of…

The City of Boston is considering a proposal to require all new buildings to produce as much energy as they consume. With thick insulation, controlled ventilation, and solar panels, these types of buildings are called “Net Zero” since they have zero greenhouse gas emissions from their operations. The Distillery North, an apartment building in South Boston,…

The City of Boston has committed to become a carbon neutral city in a little over 30 years.  Getting there will require changes large and small across many sectors of the city.  Where to begin?  The City, Green Ribbon Commission (GRC) and Boston University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE) are currently producing a Carbon Free…