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2025 Intern Recap
January 09, 2026

In the summer of 2025, A Better City was fortunate to host three summer interns working to advance a host of A Better City research priorities—from transportation finance, to fare policy, to downtown revitalization. You can read more about their backgrounds and work below!

William H. Harney V. joined A Better City as the UMass Boston 2025 Robert C. Wood Student Internship Awardee. William is a lifelong resident of Dorchester currently enrolled in the UMass Boston Urban Planning and Community Development Master of Science program. William received a Manufacturing Engineering Bachelor of Science from Wentworth Institute of Technology and worked in manufacturing facilities both big and small, where he developed project and data management skills. While serving on the Mayor's Youth Council of Boston, he developed a love of public service, social justice, and civic engagement. For the past several years, William has been involved in public transit advocacy with an interest in equity and accessibility, funding policy, and mode shift. When not riding the T, William can be found solo traveling the world or candlepin bowling with his friends.

At A Better City, William researched various roadway pricing options that could be considered in the Commonwealth, as state leaders explore new ways to apply user fees on driving as a way to manage traffic congestion, reduce carbon emissions, and invest in modern infrastructure. Williams’s analysis examines the history of various federal programs, as well as the potential benefits, legal issues, and general challenges behind these different plans. You can read his white paper here and view his LinkedIn profile here.

Cole Lewis joined A Better City through the Forest Foundation Summer Fellowship. Originally from the San . . .

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Event Recap: Built to Lead: Lessons in Building Decarbonization New Technologies and Opportunities
December 17, 2025

On Wednesday, December 17th, A Better City convened a captivating third panel in the "Built to Lead: Lessons in Building Decarbonization and Resilience" series, a showcase of the climate leadership of A Better City member companies and institutions. This panel event focused on inspiring new technologies and opportunities.

We explored a wide variety of projects with lots of overlapping and intersecting potential—AI building envelope evaluation, thermal energy potential of water sources, hybrid electrification and the rightsizing of geothermal projects. Thank you to our panelists for sharing their time and expertise:

• John E. Fernández, Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Lamarr.AI
• Zeyneb Magavi, HEET
• Colin Schless, LEED, CPHC, Turner Construction Company
• John Kastrinos, Haley & Aldrich
• Jacob Knowles, BR+A Consulting Engineers
  
  You can check out their slides: here.
  
  Please save the date: Tuesday, February 3, 2026, for our next installment of the "Built to Lead" series with a focus on deconstruction and embodied carbon. Registration will open . . .

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Boston's Climate Ready Workforce Action Plan
December 12, 2025

On December 3, 2025, the City of Boston released the Boston Climate Ready Workforce Action Plan (the Plan), an analysis of the workforce needed to achieve the City’s climate goals in four priority areas (building decarbonization, transportation electrification, clean energy, and resilience and nature-based solutions), and a list of recommended strategies to achieve a just transition to a clean energy economy.

The Plan provides data on the number of jobs that will be supported by Boston’s strategies to decarbonize its buildings, provide clean energy to residents, electrify transportation, and make Boston more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Over the next 25 years, the plan estimates that these four priority areas will need 67,000 workers in 45 different occupations – half in trades - each year, 10% of these in net new jobs which would not exist without Boston’s climate policies and strategies. For example, BERDO is estimated to drive $4.41 billion to $8.15 billion in new spending between 2025 and 2030 that will support upwards of 29,000 jobs per year during that timeframe.

The plan also makes a number of recommendations to advance policies and programs in three key areas:

• Removing barriers preventing many Bostonians from accessing training opportunities that could lead to good green jobs by:
  • Continuing and expanding ESOL instruction
  • Communicating good green jobs opportunities
  • Easing access to childcare
• Developing and supporting quality training in Boston, with measures including:
  • Funding wraparound services at high-performing training programs
  • Engaging employers more directly in training programs
  • Developing Boston Public Schools programs that provide pathways to good green . . .

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PowerCorps Boston Building Operations Cohort #4
November 20, 2025

The fourth cohort of the PowerCorpsBOS Building Operations program is underway with 16 trainees for the technical and in-service learning training that runs from September 2025-March 2026.

The in-service learning will take place in 5 A Better City member company buildings – BXP managed by C&W Services, Equity Residential, Related Beal, and Trinity Management – as well as 11 external partners.

In addition, A Better City hosted PowerCorpsBOS Building Operations staff and trainees as well as building partners for their annual meet and greet/cultural competency training on October 17.

PowerCorpsBOS Building Operations staff and trainees have also been in attendance at A Better City’s Built to Lead: Lessons in Building Decarbonization and Resilience panel series.

For any questions, please contact Yve . . .

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Comment Letter: MWRA Proposed Charles River Reclassification
November 14, 2025

On November 13, 2025, A Better City submitted comments on the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) proposal to reclassify the Charles, Mystic, and Neponset Rivers, tallowing for releases of sewage overflows. In the letter, A Better City expressed surprise and disappointment and urged MWRA to reconsider the proposal and to more broadly redouble their long-standing commitment to improve the water quality of these rivers, which are vital to our region’s environmental and economic vitality alike. The MWRA Board tabled a vote planned for November 19, 20205, allowing time for further discussion of a potentially revised approached to managing the issue. Please read the full letter here and contact Isabella Gambill with any . . .

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Comment Letter: Streamlining MEPA Regulations
November 10, 2025

On November 7, 2025, A Better City submitted comments on the draft 301 CMR 11.00 amendments to Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) regulations. Overall, A Better City supports for the overarching goal of streamlining the MEPA review process to expedite crucial housing and mixed-use development, strategic downtown revitalization efforts, and vital ecological restoration and resilience projects, without compromising the intent of the MEPA process. Additionally, A Better City encourages the MEPA Office to look beyond the amendments proposed in 301 CMR 11.00 and consider additional changes to expedite the development of both public and private projects to expand, modernize, and protect our critical transportation, utilities, and flood resilience infrastructure. The letter also details more granular suggestions for strengthening the current proposal. Please read the full letter here and contact Isabella Gambill with any . . .

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Event Recap: Built to Lead: Lessons in Building Decarbonization in New Construction
October 31, 2025

On Thursday, October 30^th, A Better City convened an informative and inspiring second panel in the "Built to Lead: Lessons in Building Decarbonization and Resilience" series, showcasing the climate leadership of A Better City member companies and institutions in initiating innovative and replicable strategies in new construction.

We explored a variety of projects—passive housing developments, net zero office & residential spaces, an electric lab development, and methods of reducing embodied carbon from mass timber to insulation and lower carbon concrete from Sublime. Slides from the event can be found here. Thank you to our panelists for sharing their time and expertise:

• Rustom Cowasjee, Tishman Speyer—Enterprise Research Center (ERC), net zero residential building, hotel, and lab
• Heather Henriksen, Harvard University—Rubenstein Treehouse Conference Center using Mass Timber and low embodied carbon concrete
• David Gillespie, AvalonBay—Salem, MA, passive house development
• Christoph Stump, Trinity Financial—Bronx, NY, passive house development
• Yanni Tsipis, WS Development—Seaport, net zero carbon office building using Sublime cement and all-electric systems
• Randy Boles, Vertex—Seaport, 95% electric lab development

Please save the date: Wednesday, December 17, 2025 for our next installment of the "Built to Lead" series with a focus on new technologies and opportunities. Registration will open . . .

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Boston Releases Draft Update for the 2030 Climate Action Plan
October 23, 2025

In April 2025, Boston began community engagement for the update to Boston’s Climate Action Plan for 2030, which will identify priorities between now and 2030 to meet goals across climate mitigation, climate resilience, and climate justice. This 2030 update is the first version to incorporate climate justice, alongside climate mitigation and resilience goals. In summer 2025, Boston released the first draft of the 2030 Climate Action Plan, with the following 8 overarching goals: making our buildings healthier, more resilient, and fully decarbonized; making transportation more sustainable, accessible, and equitable; powering Boston with clean, renewable energy; combatting the risks posed by extreme weather events; reducing waste and promoting sustainable consumption; protecting and expanding our green space; building a green workforce; and prioritizing public health for a healthier, stronger city.

The draft Boston Climate Action Plan offers 36 strategies across 11 categories: buildings, transportation, energy, recovery and materials, open space, combating heat, combating stormwater and inland flooding, combating coastal flooding, combating cross-hazard climate risks, workforce development, and funding and financing. Through a series of community stakeholder sessions and written comments on the initial draft Climate Action Plan for 2030, Boston hopes to prioritize the strategies to focus on for the next 5 years, as well as to identify relevant metrics for tracking success and implementation progress, and relevant “delivery partners” that can help the City to implement various strategies.

A Better City submitted extensive comments on the draft Climate Action Plan and encouraged the City to consider financial and technical feasibility of . . .

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Zoning Commission Approves Downtown Skyline Districts
October 22, 2025

Earlier today, the City of Boston Zoning Commission voted unanimously to approve zoning amendments to create new Skyline Districts that implement zoning recommendations from PLAN: Downtown to modernize land uses, incentivize preservation and adaptive reuse, and enable more growth, housing, and businesses Downtown. Mayor Wu is expected to sign the zoning into law in the coming weeks.

Tom Nally, Senior Advisor at A Better City, offered the following testimony: 

Good morning. My name is Thomas Nally and I am a planner and architect by training and a Senior Advisor at A Better City. A Better City represents a multi-sector group of nearly 130 business leaders united around a common vision: to create a more vibrant, competitive, sustainable, and equitable city and region for all. Our mission is to engage the Greater Boston business community and civic institutions in developing solutions and influencing policy through . . .

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