Greening the City Conference Workshops

Please note that the following listing are subject to change.

Saturday, November 7, 10:30 am–11:50 am

Room 3-087 | Urban Forestry Tools

• Presented by John Walkey, Urban Ecology Institute
• This workshop will explore approaches to Urban and Community Forestry based on experiences in Boston and other Massachusetts cities. Emphasis will be placed on the organizational challenges and potential benefits of multi-stakeholder coalition approaches, as well as emerging mapping technologies for data collection and presentation.

Room 3-089 | Designing and Building Blue Cities: Chelsea River Case Study

• Presented by Kate Bowditch, Pallavi Mande, Julie Wood, and Clay Larsen, Charles River Watershed Association
• Learn about the Charles River Watershed Association’s approach to Greening the City through its ‘Blue Cities Initiative’ in the environmental justice communities of Chelsea and East Boston. Using water as a foundation for planning and design, this watershed-based approach will offer the means to achieve environmentally sensitive urban development.

Room 3-097 | The Urban Ecology Institute—Bridging Local Communities and Scientists through Field Studies and Citizen Science

• Presented by Lindsay Cotter, Urban Ecology Institute; Dr. Eric Strauss, Director of Environmental Studies, Boston College; Dr. Peter Auger, Adjunct Professor, Boston College; Dr. Madeleine Scammell, Boston University School of Public Health
• The Urban Ecology Institute has built strong ties to Boston-area public schools as well as community-based organizations. This workshop will briefly review past efforts to connect these groups with citizen science initiatives and will invite participants to discuss both potentials and roadblocks of environmental research and working with communities in this process.

Room 3-098 | Our Roots—From Community Gardens to Community Development

• Presented by Daniel Ross, Executive Director; Julia Rivera, Organizing Director; Rafael Rodriguez and Luis Galarza, Youth Leaders, Nuestras Raíces, Inc./Solutions CDC
• This workshop will define the principles and ‘agri-cultural’ model that allowed Nuestras Raíces to grow from one community garden in a low-income neighborhood of Holyoke, MA to have gardens, farms, sustainable enterprises, environmental justice programs, youth leadership, policy councils and cultural activities throughout the city and the region.

Room 3-101 | Engaging Urban Youth—A Stronger Force for Change

• Presented by Renée Toll-DuBois, Executive Director, Eagle Eye Institute; Chris Cato, YouthBuild USA
• Through a mix of presentation, discussion, and interactive activities, participants explore Eagle Eye’s success in engaging urban youth from underserved communities in community efforts towards sustainability, explore barriers to that success and strategize solutions, gain practical insights and leave with specific activities and approaches to begin to create more diverse communities working together for sustainability.

Room 4-037 | Green Building or Green Washing: Evaluating Public Health Aspects of Green Building

• Presented by Tamara Adkins, MPH (PhD candidate, Environmental Studies, Antioch New England)
• What are the implications of the ‘passive’ house for indoor air quality? What about using ‘recycled’ fly ash? Or ‘reclaiming’ sewage sludge as fertilizer? Let’s talk about how to evaluate claims for green building products or techniques. What questions should we be asking?

Room 4-034 | From Vacant to Vibrant: Building Conservation Communities, Responding to Local Needs, Supporting Environmental Action…Celebrating Ten Years of Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center

• Presented by Julie Brandlen and Erica Quigley, Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center

• Celebrating ten years of urban restoration and environmental education, Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center (BNC), the site of the former Boston State Hospital, responded to the needs of families, schools, and neighborhoods, creating alliances that lead to positive action. Discover how the BNC’s culturally competent strategies, particularly its whole-person to whole-community change model, have made it possible for communities to access and value the urban ecosystem.

   

Saturday, November 7, 2:15 pm–3:30 pm

Room 3-087 | Changing and Deepening the Conversation: Engaging Congregations and Communities of Color in Environmental Justice Conversation and Action

• Presented by Rev Canon Ed Rodman, The Stone Professor of Urban Ministry and Pastoral Theology and Tess Browne, SCN, Special assistant of Academic and Student/Community Life
• Learn about the Health Environment Leadership Project’s work engaging congregations and communities of color in environmental justice conversation and action. Having completed a four-year foundation funded program designed to raise awareness of communities of color on the multiple facets of environmental justice, and the racial implications thereof, this workshop is designed to explore the critical themes that emerged from the process. H.E.L.P. (Healthy Environment Leadership Project) had as its twin objectives: to establish community based leaders, who would organize in their respective communities to take action on these concerns within the legislative process.

Room 3-089 | Successful Strategies for Creating and Implementing Sustainable Development Strategies Within Cities

• Presented by Barbra Batshalom, Executive Director, The Green Roundtable & NEXUS Green Building
• Creating and implementing sustainability initiatives within a city requires a comprehensive paradigm shift in mindset, leadership, process, and program delivery. This interactive workshop provides frameworks, methodologies, and strategies to build collaborative processes, foster leadership, and implement successful programs.

Room 3-097 | Community Capacity Building in Urban Greening Projects: The CityRoots Experience

• Presented by Chris Timmel, Sustainable Cities Program Assistant, Urban Ecology Institute, and John Walkey, Urban Ecology Institute
• This workshop consists of a presentation of CityRoots, a long running community-based urban greening project that has sought to not only increase tree canopy and increase green space, but to also build stronger social bonds in Environmental Justice communities. The presentation will be followed by a facilitated discussion of the challenges and barriers to realizing urban greening projects.

Room 3-098 | Community-Based Environmental Research at Lesley: Developing Social Capital, Ecological Literacy, and a Sense of Place

• Presented by David Morimoto, PhD, Division Director, Natural Science and Mathematics, Tracey MacNeill, Rachel Laliberte, Olivia Hartranft, Vida Hamnquist, and Siobhan Pierce, Lesley University
• At this workshop you will hear about Lesley College’s program to engage students in urban ecology research with community involvement and outreach. Over the past several years Lesley students have been working in the local neighborhoods addressing issues of local importance and involving local residents and municipal agencies. David Morimoto, Division Director of Natural Science and Mathematics at Lesley College will give an overview of the program and its successes, and students will present some of their work. If time permits, we will take a short neighborhood ecology walk.

Room 3-101 | Co-op Power, Affordable Community Owned Sustainable Energy

• Presented by Lynn Benander, Manager, Co-op Power, Inc.; Danilo Morales, Co-Coordinator, Co-op Power Metro East; Danah Tench, Co-Coordinator, Co-op Power Metro East
• Co-op Power Metro East is a multi-racial, multi-class community that shares your values and puts your money to work to support the things you believe in. We support renewable energy installations in limited resource communities. We build community-owned clean energy generation (wind, solar biomass, biofuel) and green jobs in the Northeast.

Room 4-034 | Proactive Planning vs. Reactive Scrambling: Planning for Sustainability Before Urbanization

• Presented by Stephanie Elson, Project Director, Shaping the Future of Your Community Outreach and Assistance Program, Mass Audubon; Celia Riechel, Forest and Land Program Coordinator, Division of Conservation Services, Energy and Environmental Affairs
• Massachusetts is the fastest growing state in the Northeast. Most land-use decisions are made at the local land level by individual landowners acting in accordance with municipal rules and regulations. This workshop will describe and model a new program by Mass Audubon that works at the local level to ensure the development of green and livable communities before urbanization occurs.

Room 4-037 | Youth Conservation Corps for Greener Cities: How Do We Maximize the Impact?

• Presented by Andrea Freeman, Putnam Conservation Institute Director, The Trustees of Reservations; Wilbur Bullock, Educator, The Trustees of Reservations Linton Harrington, Outreach & Education Coordinator, The Trustees of Reservations Candice Cook, Program Manager, Boston Natural Areas Network
• Like several other organizations in Massachusetts, The Trustees of Reservations and Boston Natural Areas Network sponsor ‘urban youth conservation corps’ in Massachusetts. How can we maximize the positive impact for these youth while they work to green their cities? What are the short-, mid-, and long-term goals for the youth who participate in an urban YCC? Come prepared to share your thoughts and experiences.

Sunday, November 8, 10:30 am–11:50 am

• Presented by Dr. Deniz Zeynep Leuenberger, Associate Professor, The Institute for Regional Development at Bridgewater State College
• Sustainable development can draw on existing tools and concepts to develop projects with achievable goals and measurable outcomes. Assessment instruments can help to increase citizen and stakeholder participation, to build social capital, and to improve civil society in sustainable development. This workshop focuses on theoretical models of participation and assessment and translates them for application by practitioners of sustainable development.

• Presented by Lilah Glick, Community Outreach Manager, Cambridge Energy Alliance; Deborah Donovan, Executive Director, Cambridge Energy Alliance
• This workshop will share the work of a first-in-the-nation citywide energy use reduction model that aggregates and develops community resources to transform the energy efficient market in the city of Cambridge. (CEA) The Cambridge Energy Alliance is a city-sponsored organization working with residents, businesses, and institutions across Cambridge to achieve unprecedented levels of energy savings and to expand cleaner energy sources.

• Presented by Kim Kilcourse, Urban Ecology Institute; Andrew Trossello, Brook Farm Academy—Boston Public Schools; Jeff Goodman, Madison Park Tech—Boston Public Schools; Lisa Henderson, TechBoston Academy—Boston Public Schools; Tommy Hayes, Charlestown High—Boston Public Schools
• For 10–plus years the Urban Ecology Institute has worked with Boston-area school teachers to sustainably integrate urban ecological field studies into classrooms and make relevant connections to the scientific world. UEI Education staff and Boston Public High School teachers will share aspects that make this partnership successful and how to become involved in this collaboration.

• Presented by Kathryn Prybylski, Project Manager, Groundwork Lawrence & Nancy Bernhard, President, Groundwork Somerville
• During this workshop you will learn how Groundwork Trusts in Lawrence and Somerville are building healthy, sustainable communities and empowering residents to improve their quality of life through environmental and open space improvements, community food programs, youth initiatives, and educational programming and events. Join us for an interactive discussion on how to build sustainable communities.

• Presented by Linda Jonash, Director of Planning and Design, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy
• The Greenway park system, built as part of the BIG DIG project, opened to the public nearly two years ago. In February of 2008, the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy assumed responsibility for park operations, public programming, and fundraising. The Conservancy is committed to integrating sustainability strategies in all aspects of its stewardship role. This workshop will focus on some of the challenges, key lessons learned, and innovative approaches the Conservancy is applying to make the Greenway a model of environmental and economic sustainability. A brand new type of public park experience is beginning to emerge. We welcome and need your feedback to transform the Greenway into a uniquely engaging civic space in the heart of downtown Boston.

• Presented by Reed Schuler, Baltimore Neighborhood Energy Challenge
• Drawing on the lessons of the Baltimore Neighborhood Energy Challenge, a nine neighborhood pilot program of Baltimore’s Office of Sustainability and the Baltimore Community Foundation, as well as the experiences of workshop participants, this workshop will explore communication and community mobilization strategies for helping diverse communities reduce their energy usage.