EASTHAMPTON — As the city continues to consider community input on sustainability initiatives, its Climate Action Plan is on track for completion by February.
The plan, the first of its kind for the city, will serve as a roadmap for city officials, residents and businesses to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, on Easthampton’s way toward becoming a net-zero community.
In 2017, the city was responsible for 145,722 metric tons of CO2 emissions, equivalent to one person driving around the circumference of the Earth 15,000 times, according to Cassidy Yates, a sustainability engineer at Weston & Sampson, the engineering consulting firm hired by the city to examine its current dependence on fossil fuels.
“It’s in line with a lot of other communities, but it’s a lot and we need to reduce that,” Yates said at a recent community workshop session held at City Hall.
“This Climate Action Plan is really to reduce those carbon emissions and build resilience within the community to impacts like flooding, extreme heat, wind, other storms we’re experiencing,” she said.
At the community workshop session, which drew some two dozen people, city officials and contractors shared results from a community input survey, identified next steps for the plan, and led a group discussion and brainstorming activity.
“I’m thrilled to see this many people here,” said Mayor Nicole LaChapelle at the Oct. 4 meeting. “I know we’re a community that just jumps in and helps, and I’m so excited about this and that we’ll have a plan that reflects community input.”
Over the last few months, officials conducted a baseline fossil fuels assessment for the city, as well as a survey for residents and business owners.
Since it was released in June, the survey has received over 300 responses.
Survey results identified a number of barriers to taking action to combat climate change. For businesses, those barriers are largely related to costs and staff capacity.
Renters reported challenges with costs and property owners not allowing infrastructure installation, while homeowners responded with cost issues, difficulty obtaining information, and feeling like individual actions do not make a difference.
Community members’ input and discussions at the meeting, for the most part, aligned with survey results.
During a workshopping activity that involved weighing costs associated with emissions reductions, community members discussed challenges around transparency, a need for more peer-to-peer support and knowledge sharing, public transportation, composting, and — as seemed to be the overarching issue — cost barriers.
“We have lots of notes to bring back and absorb and think about how we step into action development,” said Yates, adding that next steps include discussing with city officials how to best support residents, whether through education, policies or programs.
Ultimately, the plan will recommend actions the city, businesses, residents and workers can take to reduce carbon emissions.
Those actions may involve things like installing solar panels, heat pumps or electric/induction stoves; adding more trees and green space; reducing waste; electrifying and improving green transportation methods; among other potential action items.
The plan will include detailed plans for each action item, including identifying project leaders, funding, staff time, regulatory or policy barriers, equity concerns and timelines.
“We’re doing this at a really good time because the state is organizing themselves to start funding those climate-related initiatives and projects,” said City Planner Jeff Bagg. “We’ll do this planning process, come up with a prioritized list of action items because that’s required for us to then get grant funding from the state.”
Officials added that future community events will involve residents once some action items and plans are developed.
The webpage for the project is continually updated with up-to-date information on project status, and can be accessed at https://easthamptonma.gov/728/Climate-Action-Plan. Those wishing to share comments can reach Conservation Agent Cassie Tragert at conservation@easthamptonma.gov.
Maddie Fabian can be reached at mfabian@gazettenet.com.