There is much we can individually do but it will take more than individual actions to head off the impacts of climate change.  I consistently follow the state House and Senate bills on climate and reach out to my representatives when I feel they need to hear our support or non-support for a particular bill. This can make big difference when they can report out what messages they are receiving from their recipients.  It is important that we do this if we want to have greater success. 

I really appreciate the hard work the Harvard Climate Initiative has been doing! Happy to include connecting my neighbors to this incredible resource as part of my advocacy.

On that note…I understand that part of the hesitancy to start composting on our own properties has to do with attracting wildlife. I know this is a concern I have! That said, it is hard to get compost pickup in Harvard because we are more remote. To that end: I have been in touch with Black Earth Compost. If we have enough residents preregister, we’ll be able to get access to their services. We only need 100 folks for them to commit to adding us to their route. Here is the link!

https://blackearthcompost.com/

Co-president of the Green Team at TBS. Leading a projects on EV charging stations, compositing bins, and more.

I have been a member of the Bromfield Green Team for four years now, and it has been a great opportunity to make contributions toward a more environmentally friendly community. Previous projects I have worked on include installing no-idling signs, replacing invasive plants with native plants and starting a composting system at the school. 

We switched to Geothermal heating cooling system about 3 years ago as well as a heat pump hot water heater last year.  This completed our transition from propane to electric (with renewable electric energy).  The system is fantastic and provides excellent heating and cooling for our home.  Now we only use propane during emergencies to fuel our generator.  Highly recommend Bill Wenzel and his team for geothermal conversions.  We used Rick West to install our heat pump hot water heater.  This pulls heat from our muggy hot basement and keeps it nice and cool and dry in our basement all summer.

Advocacy on climate can occur at so many levels: global, federal, state, town, friends, and family. Over the years I've had the opportunity to engage in each and then some... advocating for academic programs to incorporate climate into public health curriculums, build courses on scope 3 emissions, and more. The first intentional climate advocacy I participated in was as part of Power Shift in DC in 2009. It was the first ever national youth conference to solve the climate crisis and we marched from the conference center to the coal power plant powering the halls of Congress, engaging in civil disobedience to convey the importance of leaders taking action on climate. That's one way to get started... dive on in. When the US's Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022, I reflected the ten-thousand peers who joined that conference and the tens and hundrers of millions of people who have been fighting for decades to see that mitigation and adaptation strategies are implemented and implemented equitably. Advocacy pays off, even if the results aren't linear. 

It's difficult to stay abreast of all of the things that our federal and state governements and big business are doing as it relates to climate action (or inaction), and find a way to make your voice heard.  I have found a great tool that makes it easy to identify issues that are of importance to me and  amplify my voice. It's called Climate Action Now and it is an offshoot of Al Gore's Climate Reality Project.

You can simply download a free app to your iphone or android and access it when you have a few minutes to learn about up to the minute legislative decisions and important current events that are taking place. You can select which ones you want to weigh in on, and the app will give you options as to how can contact the person or organization (email, phone call, text, tweet) and lead you right to it. It's as easy as a few clicks for you to make your voice heard. I keep it on the front page of my phone apps and try to visit every day. 

Climate Action Now will encourage you to take 5 actions each day, but there is NO PRESSURE. To top it off, you earn points for each action taken that add up to have a real tree planted by Eden Restoration Project.  Go for it!

I have been an active member of the Bromfield Green Team for the past 2 years, involved with planning events to inform the community of Climate Actions and Incentives and various town fairs and meetings, as well as assisting in removing non-native plants from Bromfield and replacing them with native plants.

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Our first step for climate action was taken over 12 years ago, in April 2012.  We were part of the first group of residents to sign up for a solar installation.  Worth Robbins organized an introductory presentation in 2011 and I realized our barn roof had the perfect exposure for locating an array of panels.  It has been a very good investment for us and reduced our carbon foot print for over decade.  On a cash basis, including federal and state credits, payoff was in 4.75 yrs.  On a present value basis uing a 7% discount rate, payoff was in 7 years.  We routinely only pay an electric bill 5-6 months/year but several of those months it is a nominal amount.  Our annual electricity costs ar $400-$600.  At the time of our installation, I wanted to get the "newest technology" of a battery backup.  I was told that a such a system would take up approximately half our basement.  Recently, we completed construction of a new house on Cape Cod and installed solar panels and a Tesla power wall.  The power wall is no bigger than a radiator.  Technogical progress is happening fast and we can all take advantage of that to reduce our carbon footprint.

We bought a Volvo XC40 all electric last year.  It has been a fantastic car.  I drive a lot for work and usually have plenty of charge for my daily driving.  When we go on longer trips, we plan ahead.  We also have a Pacifica hybrid plug-in which is enough to get us one way to work.  We have drastically reduced our gas consumption.