Boston
News |Mission | Policy Focus | Political Climate | What’s in the Works | Steering Committee Members
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In partnership with
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CONTACT
Darlene Lombos
(617) 723-2639
Community Labor United
Darlene(at)massclu.org
8 Beacon Street, 2nd floor
Boston, MA 02108
The Boston Apollo Alliance won a victory for social justice and the environment when the state Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (EEAC) told the state’s utilities to add equity to their efficiency plans. Read the press release.
December 6, 2008: Boston Green Justice Coalition Joins Apollo Alliance
On Nov. 2, 2009, the state of Massachusetts adopted a $1.4 billion plan that will bring economic revival to working class neighborhoods by:
- cutting greenhouse gas emissions,
- creating high-quality jobs in the state’s highest unemployment communities, and
- providing up-front financing so low-to-moderate income residents can save money and do deep retrofits on their homes.
Visit www.massclu.org for more information.
MISSION: We are creating a partnership of community groups, labor unions, environmental organizations and other allied organizations to build a broad-based constituency in support of a sustainable, equitable, and clean energy economy in the Boston region. We are dedicated to ensuring that our region’s growing green economy will create quality jobs, local workforce development opportunities and create healthier and safer communities. In particular low-income communities and communities of color have been overburdened by our unsustainable economy therefore we want to ensure that these communities are at the forefront of the growing green, sustainable economy.
Through research, policy recommendations and organizing we will demonstrate that a socially-just, environmentally-sustainable, and economically-prosperous future is attainable.
POLICY FOCUS: We will begin our campaign work in Boston strengthening and influencing Boston’s development of wide-scale energy efficiency work. This work will examine and shape both Boston’s plans to achieve higher municipal energy efficiency of city owned properties and vehicles and Boston’s plans to expand private energy efficiency through the development of the Boston Energy Alliance.
Our broad goals include:
- Reduce Boston’s carbon footprint;
- Maximize energy efficiency opportunities for Boston’s working class communities; and
- Create living wage job opportunities for Boston residents & local businesses.
In the coming months the Coalition will shape detailed policy recommendations that include the following elements:
- High job quality standards with career paths;
- Local hiring opportunities linking people from low-income communities and communities of color with these energy efficiency jobs (energy auditing, green building construction retrofit, maintenance, landscaping and manufacturing);
- Strong training programs that link low-income community members with the training needed to acquire and carryout these jobs;
- Low-income communities at the forefront of the energy efficiency work so that the people who could most benefit from energy savings realize them early on;
- Stakeholders – community, labor, and environmentalists – directly involved in the oversight of Boston’s energy efficiency work;
- Financing mechanisms that maximize energy savings for local residents and supports funding the job training programs needed to ensure low-income communities and communities of color are being trained for the energy efficiency jobs.
Read our plan: “The Green Justice Solution: a Win-Win Plan to Prevent Climate Crisis and Jumpstart an Equitable and Sustainable Economic Recovery“
- Historically, low-income communities and communities of color have borne the brunt of our economy’s unsustainable environmental practices, while benefiting the least from the vast wealth it has generated. Roxbury and Dorchester, two of Boston’s lowest income neighborhoods, are host to more than two-thirds of the City’s solid waste facilities and have some of the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the state. A Northeastern University report by Danny Faber and Eric Krieg titled “Unequal Exposure to Ecological Hazards 2005” finds that “in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts minority populations live each day with substantially greater risk of exposure to environmental health hazards than white communities.” Unfortunately, the situation has worsened in recent years. A person living in a community of color is now 39 times more likely to live in one of the 30 most environmentally-burdened communities in the state. The study also finds that across our state, high minority communities (ones that are less than 25% nonwhite) average 23 times more hazardous waste sites per square mile than low minority communities. All this occurs in a state where people of color comprise less than 20% of the population.
- In January 2007, Boston became the first major city in the nation to require adherence to the US Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards for all development projects over 50,000 square feet.
- In January 2008, the Mayor announced his plan to develop the Boston Energy Alliance (BEA), a public private partnership that will implement $300-500 million of energy efficiency improvements over the next 5-7 years. Boston will follow the City of Cambridge’s model. The Cambridge Energy Alliance was the first wide-scale private energy efficiency initiative in the country. Boston expects their initiative will generate more than 2,500 jobs.
- In the summer of 2008, the Massachusetts Legislature passed the Green Communities Act. The Green Communities Act requires least cost procurement by utilities (requiring them to invest in efficiency that is less expensive than new supply); creates a funding pool for municipalities that are certified as Green Communities; requires utilities to pilot “pay and save” programs to allow customers to do on-bill financing for energy retrofits; and authorizes 100% auction of carbon allowances under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, directing at least 80% of the proceeds to energy efficiency. This established the first “cap and trade” auction to occur in the country, generating millions of dollars for local energy efficiency work.
- In the summer of 2008, the Massachusetts Legislature passed the Green Jobs Act, which established a Clean Energy Technology Center and has allocated millions of dollars over the next year to support green job training programs.
- In the summer of 2008, the Massachusetts Legislature passed the Global Warming Act, which requires the state to develop programs and policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 10% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050.
- By the end of 2009, Massachusetts utilities will finalize their three-year efficiency plans required under the Green Communities Act. Most expect these plans will triple the current levels of energy efficiency programs. Boston Apollo is working to include job quality, targeted hiring and training standards into these plans; to steer the work towards community and union accountable entities; and to ensure that lower income communities and renters have full access to these resources.
- Organize and engage a coalition with a Campaign Committee of at least 30 community groups, environmental organizations, labor unions, consumer advocacy groups, interfaith organizations and workforce development and training institutions committed to moving campaigns to create quality green collar jobs and pathways and training for these jobs connecting vulnerable populations to this work.
- Produce 2-3 Green Jobs with Justice reports outlining local opportunities, national precedent, replicable models, and local recommendations for promoting job standards and local hiring into the emerging green economy.
- Assess current utility energy efficiency programs to determine best practices and policies to expand in collaboration with the utilities and the state oversight bodies.
- Recommend policy, program, and financing for how our region’s aggressive energy efficiency plans can also provide high quality jobs and career pathways out poverty, strong job standards and opportunities for lower income communities to be at the forefront of the efficiency work. This will likely include creating new certification steps and programs for contractors and workers.
- Conduct leadership development trainings involving community and union members arming them with the knowledge and skills to become leaders in this campaign.
- Develop and begin implementation of a strategic organizing plan to win our policy recommendations. This will include large community meetings, public hearings, actions, and press conferences.
- Advocate for significant short-term opportunities presented by stimulus funding. The Green Justice Coalition (GJC) has been a key member of the Massachusetts Coalition for Energy Efficiency. Conservation Services Group, MassEnergy, Mass Oil Heat Council and GJC are developing a $26 million proposal due in July 2009. If successful, this proposal would open up auditing and contracting opportunities, connect various training resources and provide a new funding source for retrofitting 8,000 inefficient oil-heated homes, which are disproportionately in low income communities. GJC ensured that the proposal includes a $1 million community mobilization component, which would provide funding for up to 20 outreach and education initiatives across the state.
- Support the development of a community-owned energy services company. Several of GJC’s community partners (including ACE, Boston Workers Alliance, Chinese Progressive Association, Coop Power) are conducting a feasibility study and developing a business plan for their own business that would hire local workers and compete for energy auditing and implementing weatherization and energy efficiency measures.
We are an emerging coalition of community organizations, labor unions, environmental organizations and other allied organizations. The coalition includes a wide array of organizations that meet regularly and are responsible for shaping the campaign’s policy focus and planning the campaign’s strategies and activities. The coalition is headed up by a Steering Committee of base-building community organizations representing low-income communities and communities of color. The Steering Committee is further supported by representatives from other sectors (unions, environmental organizations, workforce development organizations among others) who are willing to play a leadership role organizing other groups in their sectors behind this work. The Steering Committee meets in between Coalition meetings, plans the meeting agendas and plays a leadership role in the campaign work. Community Labor United convenes and staffs the Coalition work.
Currently serving on the Coalition’s Steering Committee are the following organizations:
Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE)
Alliance to Develop Power (ADP)
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN)
Chelsea Collaborative
Chinese Progressive Association
Clean Water Action
Coalition Against Poverty/Coalition for Social Justice (CAP/CSJ)
Community Labor United
Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative
Four Corners Action Coalition
MassCOSH
Neighbor to Neighbor
New England Council of Carpenters
Painters & Allied Trades DC35
Project RIGHT
Additional Coalition Members include: Adaptive Environments, Boston Workers Alliance, Boston Youth Environmental Network, Chinese Progressive Association, Greenport, Green Roundtable, Home Energy Efficiency, Massachusetts Energy, Massachusetts Green Jobs Coalition, Mass. Interfaith Climate Action Network, Sheet Metal Workers Local 17, Urban Ecology Institute, Urban Mass Green Alliance, Youth Build Boston
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Send an e-mail to info(at)apolloalliance.org or visit http://www.apolloalliance.org.
