Looking for information on MAPC’s official meetings and legal notices? Find it here.
Join MAPC on Wednesday, September 11, from 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM, for a free webinar on our new white paper, Hot, Cool, Clean: Clean Heating and Cooling Opportunities for Massachusetts Municipalities.
Across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, municipalities are embracing clean heating and cooling systems as important tools for reducing their energy costs and their greenhouse gas emissions. With recent technological advancements and evolving markets, air-source heat pumps, ground-source humps, and solar thermal have emerged as viable alternatives to fossil-fuel heating systems. Hot, Cool, Clean: Clean Heating and Cooling Opportunities for Massachusetts Municipalities highlights the technologies that are providing municipalities with cost-effective, low-carbon solutions for their heating and cooling needs. Join MAPC for this webinar to learn more about the incentives available to municipalities interested in clean heating and cooling and to hear from municipal leaders who have installed these systems.
To preserve our communities and create opportunity for future generations, we must eliminate carbon emissions and green our cities and towns. We also must advance equity, resilience, public health, and economic growth.
How do we align those critical needs for mutual benefit? That’s the question the MAPC Clean Energy Forum will dig into on December 11. Join us!
Light breakfast and beverages will be served. Further event details to come!
Learn more about MetroCommon 2050, Greater Boston’s next regional plan: https://metrocommon.mapc.org.
COVID-19-related unemployment could cause a massive housing crisis in Massachusetts. 468,000 Massachusetts residents filed unemployment claims in the first three weeks of the COVID crisis.
Who has been laid off? How many are now at risk of eviction or foreclosure? Will CARES Act assistance help? What about those who don’t qualify for federal aid? Join MAPC staff for a virtual discussion of our research brief, “The COVID-19 Layoff Housing Gap.”
On April 21, MAPC is releasing an update to “The COVID-19 Layoff Housing Gap” with the latest unemployment data.
At this webinar on April 22, MAPC Data Services Director Tim Reardon and Socioeconomic Analyst II Sarah Philbrick will discuss the updated data–and what it means for workers, municipalities, and the Commonwealth.
MAPC and Groundwork USA invite municipal and agency staff, community organizations and members, and renewable energy developers to join a virtual workshop on the potential of Brownfields to Brightfields (B2B) to advance equitable community development. B2B projects repurpose brownfields sites – land with known or potential hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants – with solar energy installations on ground-mounted arrays, building rooftops, or canopy structures.
This workshop will share findings on models for B2B projects that advance equity and community benefits, highlighting real-world examples, challenges, and opportunities. Participants will learn about a new mapping tool for identifying potential B2B sites in Massachusetts and have the opportunity to lay the groundwork for future B2B project partnerships.
Download Agenda
This project was made possible with support from EPA’s Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization. The event is free and preregistration is required. Register here and contact Julie Curti (jcurti@mapc.org) or Adi Nochur (adi@groundworkusa.org) with any questions.
MAPC’s Clean Energy Department is hosting its first webinar in a series about what centering equity in municipal-level clean energy and climate planning and implementation can look like. This first event will provide an introduction to equity in climate planning, followed by presentations and a panel discussion with three guest speakers who have worked on equitable climate planning in their municipalities:
• Emily Koo, Director of Sustainability, City of Providence
• Shayna Hirshfield-Gold, Climate Program Manager, City of Oakland
• Ibrahim Lopez-Hernandez, Sustainability Manager, City of Chelsea and Revere, Town of Winthrop
There will then be an opportunity for Q&A with attendees.
Stay tuned for information about the additional sessions in the webinar series!
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s (MAPC) Clean Energy Department is hosting a webinar on equitable community engagement for its Equity in Clean Energy webinar series. This event will provide an introduction to equitable community engagement in planning, followed by brief introductions from each of our guest speakers and the community engagement work they do in their communities. We will be joined by:
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- Niri Kumar, Natick Resident
- Marlees Owayda, Cambridge Community Engagement Manager
- Lindsay Diaz, Cambridge Community Engagement Team Co-Leader
- Gail Latimore, Executive Director, CSNDC – Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation
Questions? Please contact:
Francelis Morillo Suarez
fmorillosuarez@mapc.org
MAPC is releasing new research that analyzed 27,000 flood claims from the historic March 2010 storms that dropped 18 inches of rain across Eastern Massachusetts. $59m in disaster assistance was paid out. We found that only 4% of disaster claims were located in FEMA 1% chance flood zones. With the prospect of more frequent and severe storms due to a changing climate, what can local, state, and the federal government do to better understand, prepare for, and minimize flooding and flood damage?
Presenters and panelists:
- Anne Herbst, Principal Environmental Planner – retired, MAPC
- Mia Mansfield, Director of Climate Adaptation and Resilience, MA Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
- Jason Mammone, P.E., Director of Engineering, Town of Dedham
- Van Du, Senior Environmental Planner, MAPC – Moderator
Following this event, all registrants will receive a copy of the report via email.
Register to join us for this webinar here!
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s (MAPC) Clean Energy Department is hosting its final webinar for its Equity in Clean Energy webinar series. This event will focus on equitable access to clean energy technologies, specifically models for EV (electric vehicle) equity.
Join us to learn about a local equity-focused EV Carsharing model, EV charging infrastructure at multi-unit dwellings, and to hear about the MAPC Transportation Department’s work in this area.
There will then be an opportunity for Q&A.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMpduCtrT0iHdNkvPrPTrrA5iwB6kwdbEUT#/registration
Join the Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the City of Boston Office of Environment, Energy, and Open Space, and nonprofit advocacy organizations for a briefing on how third-party electric suppliers harm Massachusetts residents, why the industry is past the point of reform, and how you can help support efforts to protect residential consumers.
Two Briefings: 1:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m.