Boston’s working class communities and communities of color still cannot fully benefit from state energy efficiency programs due to renter status and housing stock (asphalt-sided buildings, flat roofs, etc).
In this 2014 campaign, BostonCAN worked with the Green Justice Coalition’s Energy Efficiency Campaign and served as an active GJC steering committee member to:
- Testify at the state Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (EEAC) regarding the need to create a public database that tracks progress of the state’s efficiency programs.
- Help organize and participate in the GJC Energy Efficiency Summit.
- Mobilize GJC and other allies to overturn the City Council’s vote to delay implementation of BERDO, an ordinance that will encourage large building owners to increase energy efficiency.
- Draft and submit best practices for residential outreach to the EEAC’s Residential Barriers working group to aid design of Mass Save’s Efficient Neighborhoods+ program.
BostonCAN also took the GJC’s energy efficiency campaign to a new network of groups including the Sustainability Guild in Dorchester and Roxbury, Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH) in East Boston, Roxbury Presbyterian Church, and Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion in the South End. Besides encouraging these partner groups to engage in state-wide energy efficiency programs, we engaged them to find overlaps between their groups’ work and the greenhouse gas reduction goals in Boston’s Climate Action Plan.