Somerville formulates plan to reduce emissions

The City of Somerville has adopted a plan to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in the city.

A Climate Action Plan, formulated by the Somerville Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change, suggests steps the city can take to reduce emissions and indicates how private citizens, businesses, organizations, and government can contribute.

The Commission hopes the plan will help fulfill a goal set by Aldermen last year to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2010.

Two representatives from Tufts contributed to the Climate Action Plan: Anja Kollmuss, a project coordinator for the Tufts Institute on the Environment, and Justin Sullivan, a graduate student at Fletcher. The University's greenhouse gas emissions were included in an evaluation of the city's energy efficiency.

"The University is not entirely an island," said William Moomaw, a professor of international environmental policy at Fletcher. "We produce greenhouse gases just like everyone else."

Sullivan, who interned for the city while it formulated the plan, explained that Tufts is involved because it "realizes its visibility in the community, as well as its responsibility to take action on these issues."

"Moving forward the way we are living is not sustainable," he said.

The CAP includes suggestions to make public buildings more energy efficient and recommends that all municipal building projects in the future be designed as "green" buildings, although Environmental Protection Officer Vithal Deshpande said that budget issues may restrict the city's ability to construct such buildings.

The plan also suggests that the city evaluate less polluting power sources for its buildings, implement energy efficiency policies, and enforce anti-idling legislation for vehicles.

On the residential level, the plan recommends launching campaign named "Somerville Sees the Light," which would encourage households to replace one incandescent light with a fluorescent light each year. Replacing incandescent with fluorescent bulbs would both increase efficiency and lower costs. According to Sullivan, the initiative "is idealistic but at the same time very practical and pragmatic."

Somerville follows Brookline, Arlington, and Medford in adopting an action plan. But unlike the other towns, Somerville's plan was written by a commission consisting solely of volunteers rather than city employees. The initiative, according to commission chair Lori Segall, "came from the ground up as opposed to the top down."

"We want the rest of the country to see that the Northeast is taking this issue seriously, because the federal government is not," Segall said. "If Somerville can do it, the federal government can do it."

The plan follows other environmental programs in Somerville. The recently-constructed Capuano School on Glen Street reduces carbon dioxide emissions by more than half a million pounds a year, uses 43 percent electricity and 56 percent less water. It is the first public school in New England that meets official standards for environmentally-friendly buildings.

Somerville has also made some municipal buildings more energy efficient.

For the University, involvement in CAP is part of a spate of environmental initiatives: plans for the new dormitory between Talbot Avenue and Professors Row include solar panels and Tufts became the first university to join the Chicago Climate Exchange, which allows member organizations to trade pollution permits and encourages them to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Moomaw, who teaches a course on Energy, Technology, and Policy, said that the precedent for environmental consciousness at Tufts was set long ago: in 1990, Tufts became the first university with an environmental policy.

Also that year, former University president Jean Mayer brought the leaders of 19 other universities together to sign the Talloires Declaration, a ten-point action plan for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

"Tufts has a tradition of students who are interested in engaging society in all kinds of ways," Moomaw said. "We are on the academic, operational, and outreach sides of issues here."