|
|
|
|
As we enter the holiday season we're reminded of how strange and different things are in our collective lives. First and foremost, LGN wishes everyone a safe and healthy season, including connections with family and friends that seem more like “long distance” even though they may be local. Disruptions in our lives can be made meaningful by noticing things we take for granted and valuing them anew… making change for the better. How do we want the world to look on the other side of the pandemic? What do we value?
|
As always we have great presentations/events to promote (now on Zoom). How do we protect our water? How do we celebrate while minimizing waste? How do we design our community to be less fossil fuel dependent? Our Green Team friends remind us that we can enter this season of giving and celebration with plans to take care of each other and the planet and “Simplify the Season”.
|
|
|
|
In This Issue–December 2020:
- Town of Lexington - green infrastructure event (tonight (12/1)!)
- Lexington League of Women Voters
- Lexington Sustainability Director's Report
- Lexington Global Warming Action Coalition
- LPS Green Teams
- Lexington Living Landscapes
|
|
|
Town of Lexington
Virtual Event on December 1st:
"Green Infrastructure: Protecting Our Water"
Tuesday, December 1, 7:00 PM
|
Join us for this virtual event to learn more about the exciting work being done to protect our clean water!
|
The Towns of Arlington and Lexington, along with the Mystic River Watershed Association, will present about the infiltration trench – an innovative, cost-efficient solution to water pollution that is invisible once constructed. Join us to learn more!
|
|
Project funded by Massachusetts Department of Coastal Zone Management.
|
|
|
|
|
“First Friday” Forum:
Understanding our Waste Problem and Ways We Can Take Action – presented by LWV and the Lexington Waste Reduction Taskforce
December 4, 2020, 9:30AM via Zoom
|
Join us, virtually, for an enlightening and critical discussion about our society’s waste problem and how we – Lexington’s government and citizens – can take action immediately to change our current course. Recycling costs continue to rise because of the increased volume of hard-to-recycle plastic packaging and single-use plastics thrust upon us by manufacturers. Food and organic waste – a valuable resource that should be used to create nutrient rich soil – continues to be sent to incinerators and burned. In this virtual forum, you will hear specifics about how to reduce the amount of incinerator waste you put in your curbside bins by reducing what you use, diverting organics and other valuable resources to be repurposed, and recycling right.
|
Members of the Waste Reduction Task Force, recently appointed by Lexington Town Manager and made up of Town Staff and residents interested in making an impact in this area, will be leading the discussion, including Cindy Arens and Diane Pursley, of the LPS Green Teams, and Robert Beaudoin, the Superintendent of Environmental Services for the Town of Lexington.
|
Cindy and Diane have been members of LPS Green Teams for the past five years, involved in establishing composting, waste reduction and improved recycling at the elementary, middle and high school levels. They have also presented and participated in a number of panel discussions over the last few years, promoting the concept of Zero Waste and the simple steps to get there.
|
Robert Beaudoin has been in his position with the Town of Lexington for over 16 years and has been involved in introducing and promoting a number of waste reduction and diversion efforts in that time, including greatly expanding the yard waste compost operations at our Hartwell facility and increased opportunities for hard-to-recycle items around town, most recently the “Pink Bag” Textile Recycling Program.
|
Due to the closing of Cary Memorial Library and restrictions on group meetings, this First Friday forum will be offered as a Zoom meeting, hosted by the Lexington League of Women Voters. This is the third First Friday public forum in the 2020-2021 season. All League forums are free and open to the public.
|
The League of Women Voters is a non-partisan organization dedicated to the principles of self-government established in the Constitution of the United States. The League works to promote political responsibility through informed and active participation of citizens in government. For more information, contact our League convener Margaret Coppe at [email protected].
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hartwell Rezoning Initiative Discussion: Sustainability
December 7, 2020, 7-9PM (see Zoom info below)
|
The Hartwell Innovation Park rezoning is a community-based planning process. The community’s Hartwell vision will be realized using a rezoning process involving a series of public engagement sessions that started in October 2020 and continues through January 2021. The draft document lays a foundation for the future of Hartwell over five, ten, and even twenty years after the rezoning.
|
Join Town of Lexington Staff on December 7th, 7-9pm, as we discuss sustainability in the Hartwell Innovation Park District, as we continue to develop the rezoning of this commercial district. We would love to have your input!
|
Or join by phone:
Dial (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
US: +1 312 626 6799 or +1 646 558 8656 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 669 900 9128 or +1 253 215 8782
Webinar ID: 926 5510 1561
International numbers available: https://zoom.us/u/ac2UTErv5j
|
|
|
Lexington Community Choice Aggregation
|
Join Lexington Sustainability Director Stella Carr and Marlana Patton from Peregrine Energy to learn more about Community Choice Aggregation and how we are working to Power Lexington in a greener way.
|
December 10th 7-8:30PM, free on Zoom.
|
Lexington’s Community Choice program, the Town’s electricity program, will offer lower prices to participants for two of the three program offerings starting in January. In addition, the default 100% Green offering will include 20% additional renewable electricity from New England, on top of the minimum amount required by the state, which is four times the 5% additional that is currently included. The changes are the result of a new electricity supply contract with Constellation.
|
The price for Lexington’s 100% Green offering, which is the offering that most Lexington customers are enrolled in, will drop to 10.80 cents/kWh, which is 0.824 cents/kWh lower than the current price.
|
The price for the New England Green option, which provides 100% renewable electricity all from within New England (MA Class I RECs), will rise 0.791 cents/kWh to 13.219 cents/kWh. The increase is largely because of an increase in the cost of renewable electricity.
|
The price for the Basic option, which provides only the minimum amount of renewable electricity required by state law, will drop to 9.935 cents/kWh, which is 1.559 cents/kWh lower than the current price.
|
In addition to providing some savings when compared with current program prices, the new prices for 100% Green and Basic will also be lower than Eversource’s winter 2021 residential Basic Service price of 11.882 cents/kWh. However, it should be noted that Eversource’s winter Basic Service price is a short-term price. Eversource’s prices change every 6 months for residential and small business customers and every 3 months for large business customers, and future prices are not known. As a result, future savings compared with Eversource’s prices cannot be guaranteed.
|
Current participants in Lexington’s Community Choice program do not need to take any action to participate in the new electricity supply contract. All active program participants will be automatically enrolled into the new program with their end-of December meter read, and they will see the new prices on their Eversource electricity bill in late January or early February. The new prices will apply to all rate classes, including residential, small business, and large business.
|
Customers who wish to enroll in the program as a new participant, opt up to New England Green, or opt down to Basic, may do so via customer support at 1-844-379-9935 or online at MassPowerChoice.com/Lexington. Lexington’s Community Choice participants always have the right to leave, or opt out, of the program at any time with no penalty.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Report from Town Meeting: A Win for Building Electrification
As many of you know, the Town of Lexington is working on a plan to support intelligent growth and development in the Hartwell avenue commercial area. What many may not know if that zoning is part of what will make this project environmentally sustainable and forward looking. To this end an article has been passed by town meeting to encourage electrification of building's heating and cooling systems. It turns out that natural gas heating and cooling emits CO2 and Methane, adding to global warming gases that we need to get down to "net zero". Here is an explanation of how the passing of article 16 will promote cleaner HVAC systems in new buildings that come to the Hartwell district.
|
Article 16, an incentive zoning by-law to attract more businesses to Hartwell Ave., passed at Town Meeting including the following language: 1) Buildings which are not designed to meet the requirements to demonstrate certifiability at the Silver level using the LEED v4 for Building Design and Construction: Core and Shell checklist, as outlined by the United States Green Building Council, are limited to 65 feet in height; 2) Buildings utilizing on-site combustion for HVAC system operation are limited to six stories; and 3) The Planning Board in its regulations may establish additional standards for site plan review incorporating sustainability principles that result in a plan that is responsive to the environment and actively contributes to the development of a more sustainable community.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Zero Waste Holidays
As we plan for unique holiday celebrations this year, we can still be thinking about Zero Waste! Curbside pick-up service such as Black Earth will take your food scraps, leftover cooking oil and all organic waste. Even your pizza boxes!
|
|
Still wondering why compost soil is so awesome? Check out this NOVA special on reducing carbon. Recent studies show using compost topsoil in our farms captures 37% more carbon!
|
Plans for holiday shopping? Consider some Zero Waste gifting ideas:
|
- Arts and theater organizations all around the world are offering live performances you can enjoy from the comfort of your home;
- Subscription based gifts like an online news, classes, or a virtual experience like a shark dive; and
- Old fashioned wish list with links!
Of course, a Black Earth subscription is always a great gift idea! In the spring, they will be offering gift certificates for raised beds, compost, soil blends and mulch.
|
|
|
|
Lexington Living Landscapes is an exciting new program to promote sustainable landscapes in Lexington, MA. Next month, they will be co-hosting an important online Cary Library talk:
|
"Nature's Best Hope" - a virtual talk by University of Delaware professor Doug Tallamy
|
Thursday, January 28, 2021, 7-8:30PM
|
|
|
|
Recent headlines about global insect declines and three billion fewer birds in North America are a bleak reality check about how ineffective our current landscape designs have been at sustaining the plants and animals that sustain us. Such losses are not an option if we wish to continue our current standard of living on Planet Earth. The good news is that none of this is inevitable. Professor Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home and Nature's Best Hope, will discuss simple steps that each of us can - and must - take to reverse declining biodiversity and will explain why we, ourselves, are nature's best hope.
|
For more information and to register, click here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Would you like to submit an environmental event or activity?
|
|
Please forward to your network!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
