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COMMUNITY MEETING Join Sustainable Braintree at 7 pm on March 11 at Braintree Town Hall's Fletcher Hall (downstairs). Learn how to calculate your carbon footprint and then make easy energy-saving changes to save money with or without the help of a COOL MASS Eco-team. Call 781-794-8338 for info.
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Thank you all for making the Green Gala 2010 such a success!
Read about the Green Gala in the Braintree Forum
Sustainable Braintree works locally to fight climate change. Climate change is a serious, scientifically documented condition facing our planet that requires action on many levels. We look to the Federal and state governments to fund research, create incentive programs, and educate the public. Our local government, businesses, individuals, and civic and religious organizations can get involved in promoting behavior changes that include recycling, eating locally grown foods, planting trees, carpooling, conserving water and fuel and using clean energy and energy efficient appliances and vehicles.
Sustainable Braintree is doing this work through three task forces: Energy Task Force - The Sustainable Braintree Energy Task Force’s goals are to promote energy conservation and work cooperatively with local, state, and federal government agencies to encourage the use of renewable energy. Its responsibility lies with the consumers of energy, engaged with all stakeholders. It has exchanged over 1,000 Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFL's) for working incandescent bulbs. It has calculated the first Carbon Footprint Report for the Town of Braintree. It has launched the "Cool Mass" campaign to help residents make easy, inexpensive changes to save energy and money. Food Task Force – Sustainable Braintree successfully launched the Braintree Farmers Market on the Town Hall Green on Saturday mornings. The first market was held on June 27th, 2009 and ran through October 31st. A special Thanksgiving Market was held indoors in November. Purchasing foods that are grown and produced near where you live can improve your diet, conserve energy, promotes a cleaner environment, supports the local economy and helps family farms stay in business. People came for the delicious, fresh food, and enjoyed meeting old friends and making new ones. It plans to bring back the Farmers Market in 2010. Recycling Task Force - The Recycling Task force encourages all Braintree residents and businesses to recycle. They are available to present their "Trash Talk" to local organizations - expanding people's knowledge about how much we really can recycle. It consumes less energy to make items from recycled materials than to make them from new raw materials. Increased citizen participation in Braintree’s Single Stream Recycling program actually generates revenue for the Town at the same time that it reduces the cost of solid waste disposal. The Task Force organized October's Make a Difference Day to recycle and reuse items to benefit people in need. It also coordinated the effort to provide recycling receptacles at Braintree's Fourth of July Celebration. Sustainable Braintree holds bi-monthly Community Meetings. Guest speakers are frequently invited followed by a time for networking. Sustainable Braintree is a local chapter of Sustainable South Shore. Dues-paying members of Sustainable Braintree are automatically enrolled as members of Sustainable South Shore. More about climate change – why should we care? (Reference: Fight Global Warming Now, by Bill McKibben) Climate scientists agree that our increased use of fossil fuels begun during the Industrial Revolution has resulted in the warming of the earth by an average of one degree Fahrenheit. Although this seems to be an insignificant amount, it has already produced some alarming results. Glacial melting throughout the world, severe droughts and flash floods, and increasingly violent storm systems can all be attributed to this warming of the earth. When fossil fuels are burned, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. This carbon dioxide has a molecular structure that holds heat, as do other “greenhouse gases” such as methane. A gallon of gasoline weighs about 8 pounds, and emits about 5 ½ pounds of carbon dioxide when it is burned - about 2/3 of its total volume. Scientists predict that major changes will result if the warming of the earth is allowed to continue unchecked. Unless we take decisive action, the average temperature on the planet could increase another four to eight degrees in this century – creating a “totally different planet”, in the words of NASA scientist James Hansen. |
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