Sustainability & Climate Change Initiative

A Better City (ABC) Sustainability & Climate Change Initiative aims to provide leadership to advance transportation, energy, and sustainability strategies for businesses, institutions, and buildings in Greater Boston in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Growing awareness of climate change and the need to protect the environment has given the question of sustainability a new urgency. Greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced promptly to minimize growth in atmospheric concentrations and global temperatures, and must be cut by about 80 percent overall by 2050 to stabilize the climate in subsequent years. States are responding with the first major wave of environmental policy and regulatory measures in decades. Each week brings a new announcement of state, municipal or private action with implications for greater Boston.

Our future prosperity and quality of life depend to a considerable extent on how greater Boston responds to climate change and matters of sustainability. Nationally, the major sources of energy consumption are, in order of magnitude, buildings, transportation, and industrial processes. Buildings account for nearly half of energy consumption. There are extensive opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through measures that have high economic rates of return. Many clean energy measures also improve local air quality, improve the urban environment in other ways, or reduce climate-related regulatory and economic risk. Expanding awareness of these measures is necessary to increase implementation on a wider scale.

Initiative Overview

The Sustainability & Climate Change Initiative aims to educate businesses, institutions, and buildings on sustainability and energy issues associated with climate change; and provide leadership to advance strategies that aim to lower costs, reduce resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Through the Initiative ABC will also work to engage its membership with city and state agencies providing a forum for discussion on future policy and regulatory issues and programs.

Led by a Board of Advisors, the ABC Sustainability & Climate Change Initiative will be offering the following programs and services during the first year that will inform, educate, and encourage forward movement towards a sustainable region:

Additional Resources

Initiative Sponsors

Founding Partners