City Voices

Worcester’s green plan to prepare for climate change

VEER MUDAMBI

The Green Worcester Plan, which outlines steps toward making the city both more energy sustainable and climate resilient, was intended to have a thematic unveiling on April 22, Earth Day 2020. Because of COVID-related delays, however, a draft of the plan was made available for public comment on Oct. 27.

While COVID-19 may have derailed the plan’s dramatic reveal, John Odell, head of Worcester’s Department of Energy and Asset Management, has actually found it a reason to be optimistic. After seeing Worcester residents respond to the COVID crisis, he now feels even better about the GWP’s long-term success. “We had an amazing local response to the pandemic, a lot of people have worked very hard to keep people as safe as possible,” he said. “Worcester is capable of getting together and making significant improvements and we think that can translate well to the climate crisis.”

Preparing for a second crisis in the midst of the first one is not an ideal situation, but science tells us that cities like Worcester will face serious climate-related challenges unless they take steps to adapt.

Over the last year and a half, Worcester city officials have been doing just that — preparing for another crisis. By designing a broad initiative called the Green Worcester Plan, Worcester officials aim to make progress on two objectives: to significantly reduce the city’s overall carbon emissions as well as

to ensure that the city is better prepared for the inevitable detrimental effects of climate change. These two objectives will power the forward movement on the main goal of alleviating the climate crisis and its impact on Worcester.

Developed by the DEAM in partnership with the Green Worcester Working Group (a collective of city staff, environmental groups, residents and a consultant) the plan aims for Worcester to be “sustainable and resilient” by 2050. In terms of energy, the end goal is for the city to be 100% powered by renewable energy, implemented in the following three phases: municipal buildings by 2030; renewable electricity citywide by 2035; all sectors by 2045, including heating and transportation. Through this approach, the hope is that net zero building — the amount of energy a building uses being equal to the amount generated — will become the norm.

Paul Mathisen, Director of Sustainability at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, agrees that sustainability and resiliency are intrinsically connected and that “a sustainable society really needs to be resilient, in that it can make an efficient recovery from the impact of various weather events.” He believes that while it is an ambitious schedule and definitely not an easy goal, it is a commendable plan.

A member of 350 Central Mass, Paul Popinchalk, said “In general, I’m very impressed with the GWP” and it is doing all the right things, just not fast enough. 350 Central Mass was one of the entities represented in the GWWG. “[Climate change] is happening now,” emphasized Popinchalk, “not in the future. We cannot wait until 2045, we need this tomorrow.”

No time to waste

While it could be faster, Popinchalk believes that state and local policy is moving in the correct direction. “We have already seen a one degree Celsius rise in temperature and scientists didn’t understand why the atmosphere and land wasn’t heating up faster, before realizing much of the heat was being absorbed by the deep ocean.” He explained how this leads to a “violent purging” in the manner of extreme weather events, and once the storm begins, the warm ocean water just feeds it.

But what are we preparing for — what will climate change look like in New England? Alexandra Vecchio, Climate Change Program Director at Mass Audubon, said changes in precipitation will be most significant, with more extreme weather events throughout the year. The transition between seasons will fluctuate, such as fall to winter being later and winter to spring coming earlier.

Though a shorter winter may seem appealing, this will also lead to a “more hazardous winter storm effect.” Additionally, summer months will have higher temperatures and less rain with droughts such as this past summer becoming the new normal. Extreme heat can create real threats to public health, said Vecchio, “especially in New England since we’re not built for dozens of days over 90 degrees.” Individuals and institutions, from the average homeowner to city councils, she said, have to be prepared for this shift in weather patterns.

Upgrading for resilience and sustainability

Adapting Worcester’s infrastructure for sustainability and resiliency is a tall order, admitted Odell. Many of Worcester’s office buildings and residential homes date back decades at least, while schools go as far back as the 1800s. Though the historical character of these old buildings has always been a point of pride with the city, this does not lend itself well to the needed changes for the GWP. “Worcester is an established industrial city,” said Mathisen, “with an infrastructure constructed a long time ago that definitely needs to be updated for today’s needs.”

Being built to last is usually a good thing, but it also means there is little incentive for change. While the longevity is impressive, it will inevitably break down and “will do so at a challenging time,” said Odell. Resistance to change in the name of preserving historic architecture is still to be expected but despite this, Odell believes that improvement and preservation are not mutually exclusive. A structure no longer has to be rebuilt from the ground up in order to be designated a green building.

There are green technology options that were not available even six years ago, said Odell, and can now be implemented on a wider scale with simpler and increasingly cost-effective measures. For example, solar power no longer means solar panels on every building but can still supply an entire community, said Odell, allowing people to lower their carbon footprint simply

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