2025 Massachusetts Sierran - Magazine - Page 7
Advocating for a Green Bank in the City of Boston
By Michele Brooks, Senior Organizer & Christina Schlegel, Executive Director of the Global Center for Climate
Justice
Following the election of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu
in the fall of 2021, community members and leaders
from across the city gathered to discuss how we
could collaborate with her administration to realize
the vision of a Green New Deal in Boston. This vision
aims to transform the city into a more equitable and
environmentally healthy place to live by supporting
intersectional policies and programs that center those
most impacted by racial, economic, and environmental
injustices. The Boston Green New Deal Coalition was
formed soon after as a coordinating space for over 40
Boston-area organizations to collectively support a
Green New Deal for Boston, and the Massachusetts
Sierra Club became a member organization.
One of the key advocacy priorities the Coalition has
been organizing towards is the creation of a city-level
green bank. Municipal Green Banks are loan 昀椀nancing
entities that leverage an initial sum of public funding
to attract private capital to help communities invest in
the infrastructure necessary to reduce emissions and
transition to a green economy. By using a variety of
strategies, green banks lower the 昀椀nancial risks for
investors and increase the impact of public money to
maximize funding for green initiatives. Massachusetts
established a Community Climate Bank in 2023 with
an initial public investment of $50 million to spur
decarbonization of the building sector and affordable
residential housing. You can learn more about the
Massachusetts Community Climate Bank at https://
rb.gy/k61tx0.
To advance our goal of establishing a green bank for
Boston, our coalition tasked the Global Center for
Climate Justice with conducting in-depth research on
successful models of green banks from other states and
municipalities, outlining the various types of climate
projects that have been 昀椀nanced through a green bank.
Summaries of this research are publicly available at
our coalition website at www.bostongndcoalition.org/
resources. We presented a compelling case for a local
green bank to the Boston City Council this past March
at a hearing chaired by Councilor Gabriella Coletta
Zapata. Numerous leaders from member organizations
of the Boston Green New Deal Coalition turned out to
give testimony in support of a green bank.
In the months since the hearing, the City of Boston
has been focused on drafting its next Climate Action
Plan (CAP). This plan aims to identify high-impact
actions the city will take to reduce carbon emissions
Green Bank hearing at Boston City Council.
Photo by Michele Brooks.
and accelerate climate resilience by 2030. Thanks to
the advocacy of our Coalition, this draft plan includes
a section on funding and 昀椀nancing, which explicitly lists
the exploration of a “local climate fund” as a potential
strategy to 昀椀ll the city’s climate 昀椀nancing gaps and scale
impact. Our Coalition is thrilled to see the inclusion of
this strategy in the draft CAP, and we are organizing our
members to express their continued support for it as
the CAP is 昀椀nalized and implemented. You can join the
effort and share your support for the establishment of
a green bank in Boston through the public comment
process for the city’s Climate Action Plan. Visit http://
bit.ly/3KGIAby for more information, or contact
Michele at michele.brooks@sierraclub.org.
Testifying in Support of the
Bean New Deal
By Sara Sezun, Plant-Based Planet Team Lead
On Monday, Monday, May 5, 2025, the
Massachusetts Chapter testi昀椀ed in front of the
Joint Committee on Higher Education in support
of S.922, An Act relative to the Bean New Deal....
According to USDA statistics from 2022, average
per capita meat consumption in the United States
is 224 pounds per year. Meeting this demand uses
tremendous amounts of resources.
Continue reading: https://bit.ly/bean-new-dealtestimony
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