The Somerville Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change held a meeting to discuss progress on school decarbonization, youth climate engagement and advancements in renewable energy accessibility for the community, on Jan. 7.
The efforts to transition Somerville schools to clean energy were championed by the Somerville Educators Union as well as other local coalitions including the Green New Deal for Somerville Public Schools, Somerville Carbon Free and Healthy Schools Coalition, 350 Mass, Somerville Mothers Out Front and Climate Resilient Schools Coalition.
“The city has provided no concrete plan or timeline for how or when they will reduce carbon emissions from school buildings,” the local educators groups collectively stated in a 2024 presentation to the council.
Christine Blais, director of the Somerville Office of Sustainability and Environment, updated the council on steps the council has taken towards school decarbonization, which were first announced in a June 2024 memo.
Somerville is rewriting their Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change’s ordinance, adding a Somerville Public School representative to the commission.
“We’re hoping to have a [Somerville Public Schools] member on this commission, so hopefully that will provide more connectivity,” Blais said.
The Somerville Office of Sustainability and Environment’s “Climate Forward” community climate action plan provides a roadmap for achieving goals including a 50% reduction in emissions in Somerville municipal and school buildings by 2030.
Blais said one of the initiatives is an Office of Sustainability and Environment task force connected to Somerville public schools, which will start up later this year.
“[There will] be like interdepartmental task forces that’ll take all of those actions that are in Climate Forward and break them out into actionable steps,” Blais said.
One project launching this month targets youth climate action engagement. The city is piloting an inter-school extracurricular climate change club focusing on students in sixth to eighth grade, across the Argenziano, East and Winter Hill Schools.
The program is overseen by Emily Sullivan, the climate change program manager for the office in an effort to fill a gap in the climate change curriculum and encourage students to engage with local climate action.
“As part of that, we’ve hired, so far, nine Somerville high school students to be facilitators, to work with teachers on this after-school programming to also have a workforce development job exposure or topic exposure experience for older students,” Sullivan said.
The pilot will run from the end of January through around mid-April.
Additionally, Blais announced that for the first time, the Office of Sustainability and Environment is involved in the capital improvement planning process and that sustainability has been added as a new goal of the city’s capital improvement plan.
Somerville’s new energy advisor, Shannon Taylor, was also introduced in the meeting as a resource for Somerville residents to help residents understand the available incentive programs, rebates and tax credits. The position is funded through a Massachusetts Clean Energy Center grant and a Community First partnership grant.
“I think the residents of Somerville are interested in energy efficiency and fairly knowledgeable from the questions I’ve been receiving so far,” Taylor noted, “and motivated as well, which has been great.”
Somerville secured a significant match from the Energy Stabilization Fund to aid an application for a Green Communities grant, which would create Somerville’s first municipally owned, decarbonized building and serve as a model for future projects.
The council then spoke about updates on network geothermal, a heating and cooling system that harnesses geothermal energy to maintain a stable baseline temperature in homes, allowing for efficiency gains. The city is currently conducting research to determine the feasibility of this project in Somerville.
“There’s a high upfront cost, but there are much lower operating costs because of those efficiency gains,” Blais explained. “And one of the benefits we’re finding through our analysis, being an urban community, there’s lots of buildings that can be hooked onto the system, which means that it can increase the efficiency of the system overall.”
Finally, Blais noted that rates for the 100% Local Green energy option in the Community Choice Electric Program have decreased due to structural changes, sparking increased community interest. This option offers entirely zero-carbon, regionally produced renewable energy.
“I’ve gotten mostly positive comments,” Blais said, “and I’ve actually gotten more inquiries recently from commercial businesses which is interesting.”
The increased interest in the 100% Local Green energy option means Somerville residents will be able to source energy from cleaner sources at a lower cost. Ramon Bueno, meeting attendee, commissioner and former member of the Tufts climate economics group, expressed his excitement.
“I think it’s a great opportunity,” he said. “Not everybody can afford to go to the 100%, but the [lower the rates] the more attractive it gets for people who can afford it.”
