ECAC Nears Completion Of Climate Action Resiliency Plan

The Energy Climate Action Committee (ECAC) convened last Wednesday (3/10) in accordance with their biweekly schedule. Topics of discussion included the finalization of their Climate Action and Resiliency Plan (CAARP), a detailed and comprehensive document that outlines Amherst’s carbon reduction roadmap to 2025 and includes specific subsections, such as transportation and recreation, that serve as environmental reference points for other Town policymakers.The CAARP document can be found in the Committee’s meeting packet beginning on page 10. 

ECAC will convene on the afternoon of March 13 to review comments and suggested revisions to the current document. 

CAARP was described as “a menu list of strategies” by Committee member Steve Roof, and will serve as a reference document for various Town organizations in the coming years. “Some of the strategies that are presented perhaps need to be a little more generalized, and not too specific, in the Climate Action Plan because they will be made more specific through a process that involves collaboration and negotiation with different entities,” he said. 

“When I had building assessments two years ago, when we were starting out,” said Amherst Sustainability Coordinator Stephanie Ciccarello “[CAARP] was the document that I went to. Every time there was a green communities funding cycle, I would open up the document and say, ‘What can we tackle this time, what do we have the capacity to do?’”

Due to the Climate Action plan’s versatility, ECAC hopes to develop separate annual reports with specific implementation reports, based on priorities found within the CAARP. 

“I do like the idea of a concerted effort, on an annual basis, to write an annual action plan of the priorities,” said member Dwayne Breger. “[We should] make sure that our action plan is lined up with the roadmap and the progress that needs to be made, but that annual action plan has to be much more action-oriented, specific, doable, and measurable.” 

ECAC also briefly discussed the potential for climate research on Amherst’s proposed Jones Library reconstruction project. 

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to say we’re pro or against the project in general, but I think we could say intelligent things about it — that no matter what happens to it, it should be the best version of whichever direction it goes from a climate perspective,.” said member Jesse Selman. The group might discuss the project in more depth at an upcoming meeting. 

Committee members Andra Rose, Steve Roof, and Ashwin Ravikumar are continuing to look into a potential Amherst rental property “energy benchmarking and performance requirement” in collaboration with the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). RMI is notably one of five finalists for a federal grant to help provide support to municipalities to do retrofits of affordable housing.