BOSTON - September 11, 2025 – Today the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, and Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs celebrated the launch of the Climate Resilience Playbook – an online interactive tool that local planners and community partners can use to identify and prioritize resilience actions for their communities. Filled with ideas, tools, and best practice examples from Massachusetts communities, the Playbook is intended to serve as a starting point for municipalities at various stages of preparing for climate impacts, such as sea level rise and coastal storms, increased flooding, and heat waves.

The main elements of the Climate Resilience Playbook include the online Playbook Actions Tool, Implementation Blueprints, and Planning Resources. The Actions Tool is a searchable list of approximately 120 municipal project ideas (and growing!), which are filterable by factors including: climate threat; project type; climate resilience theme; and others. A select set of those recommended actions have “implementation blueprints,” or detailed roadmaps that outline the steps and information needed to start implementation. The actions that have implementation blueprints are those that were identified as foundational and high impact through extensive engagement and project experience. Downloadable planning resources provide how-to guidance and information about climate resilience planning in the Commonwealth, such as partnering with Indigenous communities, conducting equitable community engagement, and more.

"The Healey-Driscoll Administration is proud to support MAPC and PVPC to create the Climate Resilience Playbook," said Secretary Rebecca Tepper. "We are thrilled to have this resource to help level the playing field and increase capacity of communities across the state, and will be incorporating it into our Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant program."

“Cities and towns are advancing climate resilience through both planning and project implementation. At the local level, work is done collaboratively across sectors, departments, staff, and various commissions to achieve results, and the Playbook is a reflection of the incredible work that has already be done and provides a blueprint for what we can achieve,” said MAPC Acting Executive Director Lizzi Weyant. “This project involved consultation with representatives from 87 cities and towns across the Commonwealth, and nearly as many community partners, to garner insight on the locally-led projects. We’re excited to see the many ways that cities and towns across Massachusetts use this Playbook to support residents and local priorities.”

As communities across Massachusetts are learning to withstand and cope with more extreme weather, heavier storms, and other climate impacts, some groups experience the impacts first and more severely. It is important to assess and understand which populations bear more of the burden of climate impacts and how the identified solutions will support or protect them. All of the implementation blueprints in the Playbook include considerations for how to implement the actions equitably.

“In Western Mass, resilience can mean safeguarding drinking water, protecting farms and forests, and making sure small towns with limited staff can still respond to storms and flooding,” said Kimberly H. Robinson, Executive Director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. “Together with MAPC and in partnership with EEA, the Climate Resilience Playbook captures these local lessons and makes them available statewide, so communities of every size and circumstance can take equitable, practical steps toward climate resilience.”

MAPC and partners held an informational webinar to introduce the Playbook and highlight its various resources; the webinar recording is available at https://youtu.be/2r9DO9dz1Ow. MAPC welcomes feedback and suggestions on the Playbook to ensure its growth and improvement over time, and a feedback form is available on the Playbook’s website.

The Playbook Actions Tool enables individuals to search for relevant actions by climate threats, such as extreme heat, coastal flooding and storm surge, and stormwater flooding, and the database tags actions based on project types (e.g., planning and assessment, policy, education and outreach, etc.). The recommended actions are also designed to support project implementation at various stages, from pre-planning through design, permitting, and construction. Additional guidance focuses on tailoring projects based on community type and geography, recommending solutions that may be more appropriate or applicable for smaller and/or rural communities.

The planning resources and recommended implementation actions in the Playbook were developed based on input from municipal government staff, state agencies, community partners, technical assistance providers, researchers, and many others. In 2024, MAPC, EEA, and PVPC conducted extensive research on best practices and case studies, administered surveys, facilitated focus groups, and hosted one-on-one conversations to inform the Playbook.

In addition to aligning with available guidance and resources from the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) program, the Playbook was developed in coordination with other existing and ongoing state planning efforts (e.g. ResilientMass Plan, ResilientCoasts Initiative, ResilientMass Metrics, Massachusetts Farmland Action Plan, etc.) and draws on recommendations from local climate action plans. The creation of the Playbook was generously supported by the Barr Foundation.