One Civic Act

Today, I attended a conference co-hosted by Massachusetts Sierra Club Greater Boston Group and Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. The conference highlighted the importance of ecosystems in building climate resilience. That includes our forested areas, food systems, watersheds and coastal regions.

Today, we gathered a team from the Climate Reality Project Boston chapter to get involved with our Outreach committee. It’s quite an accomplished group and I’m happy to be a part of it. Not much to report; obviously it takes a while for these kinds of committees to get organized and find their footing.

Somerville doesn’t have a lot of ballfields. One of them, Lincoln Park, is out of commission while it’s renovated. Now another, Conway Field, has been closed off. Today, I went to a Parks and Recreation meeting when the city and its consultants told the public what happened: Soil testing conducted in preparation for the proposed renovation of revealed PCB contamination in the soil. It seems to be me that the city is taking the right steps in handling the situation. But, to be clear, there were many in the audience who were unhappy with how long it took the city to even start the renovation process.

An emerging, and I hope enduring, trend is the record number of women running for public office. More than twice as many women are running for congress in the 2018 mid-term elections than ran in 2016. And they’re finding success: “After two primaries this month — in Illinois and in Texas (which holds primary runoffs if no candidate gets to at least 50 percent) — out of a total of 67 female House candidates, 35 either won their primaries outright or will compete in a runoff,” reported NBC News . They’re also being supported by organizations such as Emily’s List . Today, I supported a Kickstarter for a documentary film called, Knock Down the House , which is following four women in their quest for office this year.

Today, I dialed into a monthly call of the Brattle’s Development Committee. Actually, it’s a subset of that committee that focuses on individual outreach and major donors. It was really just quick touch for us to chat briefly, but the regular contact helps to keep us on track.

Today, I helped to make happen the next edition of our Conscious Conversation, one of our Conscious Capitalism Boston chapter event series. This time our focus was on employees, more specifically on how companies can be intentional about their employee engagement and how employees can be “conscious” even in companies that might not seem to be. Fantastic panel, once again, and great breakout groups. We had a testimonial from a member who attested to how many connections he’s made through our event series that have directly impacted his new venture. I think we’re on to something here.

Today, I sent a letter to the Chairwoman of the Massachusetts Senate Committee on Ways and Means, Karen Spilka, urging the committee to push forward two bills: An Act to Promote a Clean Energy Future (S.2302), which is the Senate omnibus bill covering climate change, and the 100% Renewable Energy Act (S.1849, H.3395). It’s time to put Massachusetts on track to achieve 100 percent renewable electricity by 2035 and 100 percent renewable energy economy-wide by 2050.