building a climate-friendly new high school

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

(Crossposted from my own journal by request of ron_newman)
I got this email yesterday from a group called Mothers Out Front, a climate justice advocacy group. Local folks who care should definitely read this and take action, and feel free to spread the word:

ENSURING A CLIMATE-FRIENDLY, “NET ZERO” DESIGN FOR THE NEW HIGH SCHOOL

We're asking you to make a few quick phone calls to ensure Somerville meets its climate goals for our children’s future. Also, feel free to send this letter to all your friends, and mark your calendar to come to a meeting this Monday, Dec 12 at 5:30 at the Somerville high school.

Here’s why YOU making these calls (See below for phone numbers and a script) and ATTENDING the meeting is important:

As you know, the City of Somerville is building a new high school. However, we think the current plans are short-sighted. Under the current plans, the new school will be built with HVAC systems that burn fossil fuels, which harm our health and climate. To guarantee our kids’ safety and well-being in the face of climate change, business as usual is no longer acceptable.

Right now, while the design window is still open, we must call on city leaders to make wise decisions about how the new high school is designed, thus ensuring the vision of a sustainable Somerville can be achieved. Now, more than ever, Somerville and the state of Massachusetts have an opportunity and a responsibility to demonstrate leadership on climate justice. What better way to do so than to build a public high school that serves as a living lab for all of our students, a demonstration project for our City, and a physical space that expresses a positive vision of our community’s future, and indeed puts us on a path to that future?

We are proud of Somerville’s sustainability efforts and grateful for its goal of net zero carbon emissions, city-wide, by 2050. To get there, we need any new building to use renewable energy instead of carbon and methane emitting fossil fuels. We want a “Net Zero” high school. A Net Zero building is one with zero net energy consumption, meaning that the total amount of energy used by the building is about equal to the amount of energy it generates on site or from regional renewable sources. This can be done by using existing technologies such as solar, wind, geothermal, electric batteries and other renewable energy sources, as well as energy efficiency being built into the design. The City of Cambridge is already building a Net Zero school (designed by the same architects working on our high school), so we know it can be done.

Upfront costs are important to consider, but should be done so in relation to the very real likelihood that expensive furnace retrofits will soon be required to meet the climate standards anyway. And, of course, if cities don’t take steps now to curtail carbon emissions, then we will all pay the really high price of damage from the flooding, droughts, fires and severe storms associated with climate change.

Please make the calls and come to the meeting on Monday if you can!

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Mothers Out Front, in partnership with Somerville Climate Action, Fossil Free Somerville, and other concerned citizens.



Please call Mayor Curtatone (617-666-3311), High School Building Committee Chair Tony Pierantozzi (857-247-6599), Mary Jo Rosetti (617-623-0092), and your Alderman: find their contact info here: (http://www.somervillema.gov/departments/board-of-aldermen)

Here’s an idea of what to say (you'll probably be leaving a voice mail):

My name is _______, and I live in Somerville. I am calling because I want to see the high school designed with net zero carbon emissions for the health of our children and for their climate future. As a first step toward that goal, I request a total lifecycle cost analysis of the high school that is consistent with the city’s 2050 climate goals.

I care about this because __________ (examples: I have a kindergartener and want them to have a climate friendly high school. OR I worry about the climate for all children and know we need to take steps now for that future. OR I want Somerville to meet its climate goals, and don’t want to have to pay for a costly retrofit in a few years if we are short sighted now...etc.)

Thank you.

Your name.



We also hope you will be able to attend the next high school building committee meeting on December 12th at 5:30 at the high school (use the front door, to the left). Your presence is essential for making a strong impact.

Comments

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

I called and, frankly, was schooled for quite a while by Tony Pierantozzi. He says, in short, that the high school building committee wants the school to be as low-carbon as possible; that they've been working for a year on the design, starting with an almost-zero-carbon design that clocked in at $330 million, have fought it down to $257, and have to get it under $200 million; that their priority goal is to get the building built, and that the design has to be submitted in January, and that he wishes that concerned citizens had gotten involved earlier.

Expect, if you show up on Dec 12, that you will be told these things in much greater detail, as I was.