[Cities 1.5 main theme music]
David 00:04
I'm David Miller, and you're listening to Cities 1.5, a podcast by University of Toronto Press, produced in association with The Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy and C40 Cities, a global network of nearly 100 of the world's megacities, committed to accelerating climate action. C40's mission is to halve the emissions of its member cities within a decade, while improving equity, building resilience, and creating the conditions for everyone, everywhere to thrive. Join me, as I connect with leading mayors, experts, policymakers, and youth leaders who are helping ensure a 1.5 degree world by leading city-based climate action.
Each week, we delve into the necessary transformative solutions to today's most pressing climate challenges. The fight for an equitable and resilient world is closer than you think. [Cities 1.5 main theme music fades out]
[Urgent, percussive music] When we talk about cities, which of course we always do on Cities 1.5 and at C40, we usually think about large metropolises; cities like Johannesburg, New York, and São Paulo. Global cities like these are making huge strides in the fight against climate change, and that's in part because cities are responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the United Nations, cities generate up to 75% of global carbon dioxide emissions.
[Upbeat, energetic music]. But we also know that cities are the key to unlocking many of the much-needed climate solutions, and while larger cities with greater population densities have big ecological footprints, this 75% of global emissions are being generated by all cities from all around the world, which means we shouldn't just look to megacities to drive local climate action. We need to recognize that smaller cities have a critical role to play, as well.
In this first episode of season two of Cities 1.5, I speak with two leading mayors from smaller cities in the United States of America: Sausalito, California, and Beverly, Massachusetts. Even though they live on opposite sides of their country, both of these inspirational mayors are taking action to mitigate and adapt to climate change in their own edge cities.
While Beverly and Sausalito's larger urban neighbours of Boston and San Francisco may get more recognition for their efforts to address climate change, they're demonstrating how small—but mighty—cities can have a large impact in the fight to keep a 1.5 degree future alive. [Music fades out]
[Light, rhythmic music] First, you'll hear from the Mayor of Sausalito, Melissa Blaustein, followed by the Mayor of Beverly, Michael Cahill. Both of these small city mayors are proving that there's a lot that can be done when it comes to addressing climate change, and why all cities—large and small—need to play a critical role in developing and implementing solutions. [Music continues]
Mayor Melissa Blaustein was elected to council in 2020, and as Mayor in 2023. Since becoming Mayor, she's pushed for Sausalito's own climate action plan, which is vitally important for cities of any size, especially when you're as close to the ocean as Sausalito. From addressing sea level rise to electrifying the city's operations, Sausalito is proving, beyond a doubt, that they can keep up with their C40 neighbour, San Francisco.
Mayor Blaustein sat down with me for a live discussion at the Cities Summit of the Americas in Denver, Colorado, on April 28th, 2023. [Music fades out]
I'm delighted today to be joined by Sausalito, California Mayor, Melissa Blaustein who, not only is a leader in her own right, leading a small edge town near a great global city, but she's also swum the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and I find this mind-boggling. I don't think I could even paddle it. Mayor, you're obviously determined, fit, when you have a goal, you succeed, and I believe you're the record holder in the time it took to swim the Strait; an amazing accomplishment. And thank you, in the middle of all of that, for finding time to join us on the podcast.
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 05:07
Thank you so much for having me. It's an honour to be here, and it's been so great to get to know you and all of the incredible work that you're doing at C40, and I have the directional record from Washington to Canada, but there is someone who did faster from Canada to Washington, so I want to make sure I'm not cheating. [Both laugh]
David 05:21
Well, okay. You hold 50% of the records. That's still impressive. And for listeners who don't know the Strait of Juan de Fuca, it's about 12 miles …?
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 05:31
Something like that, roughly.
David 05:32
.. of ocean that's got very difficult currents between Washington State and the province of British Columbia, Vancouver Island. It's very tough, treacherous waters to swim in; iin fact, even to navigate large vessels. So it's quite an accomplishment. Congratulations.
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 05:49
Well, you need resilience to fight climate change, so it proves necessary and helpful in my other endeavours, as well.
David 05:54
Yes, you've built resilience.
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 05:57
[Laughs] Exactly.
David 05:56
So, we'll speak about resilience in a minute, but first, can you just tell our listeners a little bit about Sausalito?
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 06:02
Absolutely. I'm incredibly proud and honoured to be the mayor of Sausalito, California. It is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, in my humble opinion. We are just next door to San Francisco, so we're the first city north when you cross the Golden Gate Bridge. We're a waterfront community. We have just about 7,500 residents but, because of our beauty and our proximity to the city of San Francisco, we see thousands of visitors every year. We've got a working waterfront. We're one of the few places that remains in the Bay Area where shipyards and ships are still being hauled out and built and worked on, so we really honour our history, while trying to maintain a resilient future for Sausalito.
David 06:40
So, you know, being a small place on the edge of a larger place has many, many challenges, including, I'm sure, in climate planning. So maybe we can start from that perspective; has Sausalito been working on its own climate strategy? If so, how has it done that? What are the challenges that it's facing in building resilience? And how is it approaching its obligation to be part of the solution?
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 07:07
Absolutely. So, there are negatives and positives to being close to a large city. There's the challenges that we have massive transportation back and forth, and folks who are commuting from the city. There's also the positives of that; there's a lot of innovation happening in San Francisco. It's a huge capital of tech, as we know, and so some of the most exciting new technologies to mitigate climate change are being developed right in our backyard.
What I like to say is we're actually a small—but mighty—community with regards to our efforts for climate action. So, our Low Emissions Action Plan in Sausalito has already demonstrated immense results. We established this plan in 2019, and I'm really proud to say that emissions in Sausalito are down 26% since 2005, and the Low Emissions Action Plan looks at several different areas. So one key area is transportation, because transportation is 61% of our emissions, so we're doing more to create accessible EV charging sites, we're doing more to encourage bike riding, bike lanes, purchasing of electric bikes, and we're doing more to look at our overall vehicle miles travelled, and, "What can we do to reduce congestion and be a more friendly city from a transportation standpoint?"
We're also starting to work with our local utilities to try to get sponsorship to electrify our ferries. We're uniquely located on the waterfront and our ferries are a huge piece of our emissions, and if we could get our ferries electrified, that would have a huge impact on our carbon footprint. So, one area we're doing that is transportation in this Low Emissions Action Plan. We're also looking at energy. Of course, we're taking really large, ambitious steps to get us to electrification of all new construction, but we're going a step further right now and working with the Sustainability Commission to get us up to tier one reach, which means not just new construction, but also remodels and some adaptations and changes to existing construction. [Light pizzicato string and percussive music] So, we're really lucky because we have partners like Marine Clean Energy, who help us provide incentives for 100% electrification, and they teach consumers about the benefits of changing your appliances in your home. So, that's another area.
And then, we've done things that sound very ‘small town’, but I think are important and have a huge impact. So, for example, this year, we passed a ban on gas leaf blowers and some people spoke to us about it saying, "Well, some of our workers, for instance, who come in, don't have the ability to buy an electric leaf blower." Well, we solved that problem by adding a rental space in our library where you can come and rent an electronic leaf blower, and so you can abide with our ordinance and also do well for the planet. I like to think about the small town solutions, as well.
California has just adopted some new laws around composting and waste. [Music fades out] Waste doesn't seem like a sexy topic, right? But it has a huge impact.
David 09:38
Oh, it's really important.
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 09:39
It's really important. It has a huge impact on our footprint, as well, and we have some really basic issues around waste that we're not addressing, like we have back yard pickup. Our community, the average age is about 53, so we offer back yard pickup for our trash. Carriers will come and they'll take the trash from the yard, but we don't offer back yard pickup for recycling, so we're deincentivizing recycling. So we're taking a look at all of our waste patterns, and, "How can we do a better job?" We've improved our composting, we're improving access to bins in downtown, and these are simple, everyday measures that you can take as a small town community.
But, as I said, we have a big picture for, "How do we have an impact on the future of climate?" And so, we're also, as a waterfront community, working to build a blue economy hub. We just launched a nonprofit called Sea Futures in Sausalito—seafutures.org—that's focused on bringing companies that are working specifically on innovation with regards to climate and being on the waterfront. So, we might be small, but we've got ambitious goals, we're taking real steps, we're making a real impact, and we're doing everything we can to get us to 1.5 degrees.
David 10:41
I just want to pick up on several things you said, because it's very interesting to me that Sausalito, essentially, in its Low Emissions Plan, is addressing the same things that a big city does.
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 10:51
Exactly.
David 10:51
How we generate electricity, our buildings, transportation, and waste, and you made a comment that I think is very apt, politically; you said that waste isn't sexy. You know, electric vehicles are sexy.
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 11:04
Right?
David 11:04
But climate solutions also come from a lot of practical things that a city or town can lead on, and one of those, your tool library, that's incredibly innovative. I wanted to talk a bit more about the building electrification.
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 11:17
Great.
David 11:17
It's an issue a lot of mayors are facing. How do they ensure that their residents support this direction, given how essential it is we get off gas? Can you just speak a bit more about the art of educating people, persuading them, so they know it's the right thing to do?
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 11:33
Absolutely. I'm sure that your listeners are very aware that gas is a huge, huge, huge emissions issue and there's been this idea of gas as a clean fuel, and it's not a clean fuel. [Chuckles wryly] It's got a real impact on our climate crisis. So, the reason that we need to start addressing electrification head on and more seriously is because we've been fighting this idea that, for some reason, natural gas is clean, and it's not.
And so, that's something that we can bring up with our residents. I'm very lucky to live in a community that is incredibly concerned about our climate. Folks want to be part of the change, and I think, once you help inform them and you give them the tools to understand, "Hey, this is going to have an impact on our climate, but also more specifically, as we learned from your report that C40 put out around, 'This is a fossil fuel and why it's critical', this is going to have an impact on your bottom line, your cost, and the health of you and your children". So, that's something really, really important to think about.
But when I'm talking to residents about building electrification and they're hesitant, you know, one thing that we, as small mayors, have been talking about a lot is that people are saying, "You're coming for my gas stove and I love my gas range cooking!" and, [Driving music] … look, we're not going to come into your house and rip out the gas appliances, but we are trying to create a roadmap and a plan so that our future can look better and we can get to where we actually have a future to share in. So, I think talking about it from the perspective of, "You can be on the right side of things if you help us move forward," this electrification ordinance really helps and, if you help people maintain their choice, because no one wants to feel like you're banning something or you're taking something away. Rather, "Hey, don't you want to be part of the change that we're making by helping us to get our buildings electrified, because if you do the right thing, you can be part of the change and the solution, instead of part of the problem?" When you talk to people that way, it has an impact.
David 13:19
A couple of issues you've mentioned here – one of them is housing.
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 13:24
Yeah. [Music fades out]
David 13:24
You know, the Bay Area has a huge housing need. As a small town, I'm sure you're under the same pressures. You're under pressures of affordability, equity, you know, "How do people who work in Sausalito afford to live there?" How do you accommodate growth in a way that's climate friendly? It's a challenge, and I wondered what the thinking about that is, as California has set targets for even small places like Sausalito to grow.
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 13:50
Yeah, and California, in response to our affordable housing crisis - and our housing crisis, in general - has set very ambitious and aggressive targets for building affordable housing and housing across the board, in small communities and in large communities, mostly because, frankly, we weren't doing enough. And I don't really think you can talk about the climate crisis without talking about the housing crisis because the two are intertwined for a variety of reasons.
One of them has to do with, generally, where we put dense housing. We typically put dense housing in communities that are disenfranchised. If we look at the history of redlining and the connection between equity and housing, it's those buildings which are, you know, typically, perhaps government-made, affordable housing – those buildings aren't electrified. Those buildings aren't created with green energy in mind. Those buildings are dilapidated; they haven't been retrofitted, they're missing key drivers, right? [Pensive music] So, we need new housing that will be resilient and sustainable, and we need housing that will provide for our entire community, because I firmly believe that, if you're serving our community, you deserve to live in our community.
So, right now, I'm working on a 100% affordable project in what was previously our city—well, it still is our city Corporation Yard—but, in our latest housing element, we've zoned it for affordable housing. So, working in partnership with the state, we're hopeful that we'll be able to put a 100% affordable project there for seniors and teachers. It's flat land, so it's climate safe. It's in an area that's flat for walking, it's in an area that's far enough back from the waterfront that it makes sense for housing, and it's a real opportunity for us.
So I think we're doing a lot of things. We're identifying the sites. So, the state asked us, in Sausalito, to add 724 new locations for housing. We can't just put housing in places that aren't climate safe. We have to be mindful of the impacts of sea-level rise, and we have to think about, "If we build this year, will it still be here 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now?" So, the sites that we're identifying need to make sense in regards to climate change and what our community will look like. And we need to be pushing for as many affordable units as possible so that, for instance, our city workers who now drive 60, 70, 90 miles, two hours to get to work every day, can walk. Imagine the impact. Our climate plan, and our reports show that something like, I think, 64% of our emissions in our footprint are transportation, so we can significantly change that by electrifying our ferries and creating more housing. It's changing our transit and it's just developing a more comprehensive housing strategy that makes our community more inclusive, more resilient, and more climate friendly, and really a great model for the future.
David 16:23
And I'm assuming that housing is also built strong environmental standards?
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 16:27
Absolutely. All new build's 100% electrification and we're going to go beyond that to have remodels, as well. And I think that's thinking about electrification, it's thinking about retrofits, it's thinking about LEED certified. I mean, beyond that, why can't we be resilient hubs? Why can't all of our new housing have solar panels? Why can't all of our new housing also have EV charging plugins, which is going to be required, as well? So, we're thinking about, "How do we create these model standards for housing that will last for decades, and will help mitigate our climate crisis?"
David 16:55
Extremely powerful. I mean, it's very interesting to hear you talk about the practicality of a place like Sausalito today, having to plan for sea-level rise.
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 17:08
Mm-hmm.
David 17:08
Can you just tell us a bit more about the risk that Sausalito faces in the future, if we don't keep to a 1.5 degree trajectory?
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 17:18
So, Sausalito is a waterfront community. We are directly impacted by sea level rise, and we've been impacted. For some people, it's a future thought because the water hasn't yet risen to the expected capacity, but we have an area along our Marinship Waterfront called Gate 5, Gate 5 Road; it floods consistently and regularly. A new building that's going in there established a floor that rises and falls for sea-level rise to plan for that. So, we actually have a Sea Level Rise Task Force in Sausalito, and the Sea Level Rise Task Force has done a huge … basically, taking a look at, "Where do we have the largest risk?" We did a GIS assessment and basically a sample modelling of, "Where will the water rise to and what's our action plan?" And thanks to former mayor of Sausalito, [pensive music]I worked with her to get us up to a million dollars of funding from the state, and that's dedicated, specifically, to sea level rise, and we are in the process of doing a vulnerability assessment We're just about to launch our RFP to start looking at that and taking steps. So, we don't have a choice. People are impressed, "Wow, you're a small town and you have a Sea Level Rise Task Force", but the thing is, if we didn't have a Sea Level Rise Task Force, we'd be in a lot of trouble.
David 18:25
There are so many lessons to learn from what Sausalito is doing, and you said it's small but mighty, and it's pretty clear that it's got a mayor with a mighty lot of energy and passion for these issues. It's been a delight to speak with you today and I really appreciate, not only your work in Sausalito, but taking the time to come share it with our international audience. It's really appreciated. Thank you so much, Mayor.
Mayor Melissa Blaustein 18:51
It's an honour to be here with you, and thank you for all the amazing work that you're doing on climate and to inform other mayors, and yourself being a real pioneer for climate in your work as the Mayor of Toronto, so I appreciate so much getting the opportunity to get to know you.
David 19:03
Well, thanks very much. [Music continues then fades out].
[Gentle music]. Mayor Michael Cahill was elected as the 34th mayor of the city of Beverly, Massachusetts in 2013. Beverly might be a smaller, quieter suburb to the C40 city of Boston, but the city is driving some big, sustainable ideas. From harnessing solar and geothermal technology to petitioning the state to support much needed green infrastructure, they're another shining example of a small—but mighty—C40 neighbour who is leading the way on city climate action. [Music fades out].
Mayor Cahill sat down with me, live, for our conversation at the Cities Summit of the Americas in Denver, Colorado, on April 28th, 2023.
Welcome to Cities 1.5.
Mayor Michael Cahill 20:01
Thanks, David. Great to be with you.
David 20:02
Well, thank you very much for making the time to be on our podcast. First of all, for people who don't know, can you speak a bit about Beverly, where it is, the kind of city it is, and what it's like being Mayor?
Mayor Michael Cahill 20:14
We're a small city, about 43,000 people, north of Boston and Massachusetts on the East Coast of the USA, about 20 miles north. We've got about 13 miles of coastline, similar vulnerabilities there, a long, proud manufacturing history, so we've got a lot of older infrastructure.
David 20:30
So, as the Mayor of a historic, smaller, but very important city, adjacent to one of the world's great cities, can you speak about why climate change matters to you, personally, how you came to the issue, and why it matters to the people of Beverly?
Mayor Michael Cahill 20:49
You know, personally, the environment and issues around environmental degradation led me to get into politics in 1992. I was a school teacher at the time and just started seeing the challenges we were facing. Now, people weren't talking about climate change so much, or the climate crisis, until more recently, but that's really what led me to get into politics, initially. You know, now it's of critical importance to everybody, and it's important to the people of Beverly because we all want for our kids and our grandkids to live on an Earth that continues to be conducive and friendly to human life.
David 21:21
You mentioned the significant amount of coastline that Beverly has. Is that an issue, from a climate change perspective?
Mayor Michael Cahill 21:27
It definitely is. I mean, we're blessed in that we've got a good amount of rocky coast that should be good with sea-level rise, but we also have a couple of tidal rivers. Our downtown is on a peninsula with the open ocean on one side, our harbour, and then one of the tidal rivers behind, and that's probably the most vulnerable place we've got. We've got some significant housing and businesses that are very much at risk when you look forward to the 2070 sea-level rise, and the biggest problems will be always during storms at high tide with storm surge. And so, it's a real concern now. We're in the middle of conducting a vulnerability and resiliency planning process for that Bass River Waterfront.
David 22:06
And you spoke about resiliency. One part of that is planning for, and adapting to, the challenges that are coming, like sea-level rise, like an increasing severity and frequency of storms, but there are other aspects of resilience. Are you experiencing other challenges and/or opportunities in Beverly to help reduce the impact of Beverly on the planet from a greenhouse gas emission perspective?
Mayor Michael Cahill 22:35
I mean, you know, when you look at resiliency and vulnerabilities to sea-level rise, in our case, that's anything we do there is treating symptoms. Mitigation, cutting our greenhouse gas emissions is what we're trying to put great focus on. If you ask me, "What's the most important work we do?" That's what it is. It's about trying to do our part to cut our emissions, both as a municipal government and as a community. And, along with cutting emissions, we made a decision and set a policy when I first became mayor trying to host every last solar panel that we could squeeze onto city property, because being part of providing the clean energy that's going to replace the fossil fuels that power our life has been a real priority of ours.
David 23:13
And as a smaller city near a big metropolis, are you having an impact? And, can you talk a bit about the impact you're having in Beverly? You mentioned the solar panels, which was very bold at the time—and some of the goals and some of the challenges you're facing?
Mayor Michael Cahill 23:29
You know, in terms of hosting solar, we've got about 12.5 megawatts that have gone up—some before I became Mayor—but we put up a 5 megawatt array at a former landfill a few years ago, and then this year, we're just going live with another 4.5 megawatts on six different sites. We've got some rooftops and parking lot canopies. In terms of whether we, as one small city, are making a difference, one of the things—and you know, having been a mayor of a really great city—mayors listen, we work together, we learn, we try to take each other's ideas and, you know, we've done a couple things that I think are proving out and other communities are looking to us.
We built a new police station a couple of years ago, and it's being heated and cooled entirely with geothermal. We're doing an HVAC replacement at our main library branch and we're doing that as a geothermal project. Not easy, but it's a great technology, and it's a technology that was here before fossil fuels, right? It's taking the temperature of the earth from well below the ground, and you're just running water through pipes, and that earth is the same temperature year round; it's about 55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. And so, you run water through those pipes and, in the winter, it warms up the building because the water becomes the temperature of the ground, and you run it back through the building. In the summer, it cools the building. So that's one that we talked a lot about with other communities.
Another one is that we're electrifying our school transportation fleet. We have our own school system. We own our own transportation fleet. It's about 50 vehicles, and by this August, we'll have five full-size electric school buses, taking kids to school. We are about two and a half years in with the first one, about almost two years with the second, and they're proving themselves out. They're reliable, they're staying on the road, and so we are about to do a request for proposals, that's, "How do we procure our equipment?" We're putting out for two minibuses and two full buses. [Gentle music]. So, by a year from now, we should have nine electric school buses in our fleet as we're moving in that transition.
One of the key things that we do is, during the summertime, when the buses are in less use and they're sitting in the bus yard, fully charged, we're selling electricity to the grid from those fully charged batteries, during those high demand times when everybody's using their air conditioning. You mentioned that Boston's a great big city. It is, and we've got a 400-plus-mile-long set of tracks in our regional rail system. It needs modernization desperately. We've been pushing hard to electrify that system.
David 25:53
To do that, you need to work with the Regional Transportation Authority, which I'm sure has its own challenges, political and otherwise. My understanding is the utilities in Beverly are private. [Music fades out]. Can you talk a bit about how you work with the utilities, because they obviously have a say over whether your school buses can put electricity into the grid, whether, you know, the city can take its buildings off the grid, whether you can work on community-based emissions, not just the ones that are under your direct control? Is that a challenge in a city the size of Beverly? How have you been able to overcome it?
Mayor Michael Cahill 26:30
Yes, we have the same utility for both gas and electric and we work with them every day of the year on things, small and large. Their motivations aren't always what we hope they are, and yet we need them. When you talk about a neighbourhood issue, where a resident wants to put solar on their rooftop, and then they're told by the utility, "Well, you just triggered the need for a new transformer on your street," so you, the homeowner, have to pay the full cost of it, and then you move up from there. And that multi-site 4.5 megawatt set of arrays that we're going live with this spring, we ran into a lot of challenges with the utility. They were saying, "You're increasing the demand here for two-way distributed generation. You're going to be creating electricity with your solar. You've got to put that into the grid. You're still going to need to take electricity from the grid for some of your uses".
And so, there's a lot of infrastructure that needs to be invested in. It's not so much that we can't do it. Right now, one of the greatest problems is, "Who pays for that needed infrastructure?" And so, it's a local issue, and we worked through it with our utility. You know, they were trying to put over a lot of the cost onto the city and we were able to convince them, "It's really not ours. We're not a for-profit entity. We're trying to do the right thing and host this clean energy that you and we both need."
So, it worked well at the local level, with a lot of time and energy spent together, but the policies go right up to state and beyond the federal, and so, you know, as part of climate mayors, I've had the chance too, and really kind of dug in on trying to ask those questions and move that conversation around. "How are we, as a country, going to modernize our power grid?" And the reality is that either the ratepayers are paying for it, or the people building the projects are paying for it, and we need federal government help. We need public money in that, as well.
David 28:10
Both with the utility, with the regulators who decide whether it's the utility ratepayers, or not, who pay for it, and with the federal and state governments, what tools do you find most helpful and persuasive to help make the case and make change?
Mayor Michael Cahill 28:28
Obviously, it's forging relationships and kind of finding common goals, which we, I think, have all identified, but I think that brings us to research. You folks put this great study together last year, the Fossil Gas Study, and it's really a call to arms to vastly accelerate the move off of fossil fuel to power everything we do. And so, when it comes to electricity, you know, we still have a natural gas power plant in our vicinity; it's in the next community over, and that's part of our local to regional grid. We're trying to make the life of that plant short lived, trying to make sure that it's not used for anything other than resiliency at this point, and eventually, making sure we don't need it. That goes to policy, right? And the research, for me, whether it's a small issue or a big issue, I'm always chasing data, because changes are hard for people and, if you can't hold up the real data that proves out the need and that proves out the ability to do something different, then it's hard to really make those changes.
David 29:27
Well, I think, Mayor, you have an advantage in Beverly beyond good research, which is you're proving the case by real action, particularly with geothermal and solar. Do you find a change in how people appreciate the actions once they can see it, feel it, and touch it, and they know it works?
Mayor Michael Cahill 29:45
Absolutely, yeah. There are a lot of people who are already pushing hard in this direction in our community, and there are others who are really appreciative as they see the work getting done. So yes, as I said, change is always hard. Trying to get off natural gas quickly, get off fossil gas quickly, trying to make sure that we don't continue to make the mistakes of adding infrastructure when we really need to be electrifying, I think that's one of the hardest current challenges because people have been used to relying on it. And you're right. It's both research that helps drive that change, and then it's seeing and living through successes with other types of fuels. And we know that we can run all our appliances at home, electrically. We know we can heat and cool electrically. It's about making those changes in infrastructure and it starts with the ability to push policy shifts quickly.
David 30:34
And it sure helps to be able to see, feel, and touch it when you have a city like Beverly that is really taking every possible step, within its control, to help reduce our impact on the planet. Can you speak a little bit about how you help the public service change its mindset and culture so it realizes that they all have a role to play in addressing this challenge?
Mayor Michael Cahill 30:55
[Gentle music] Yeah, and you know, we've been blessed in that we've had some great leadership in our public services and they've always been focused on, you know, maximizing the efficiencies of the money that needs to be spent. When your book, “Solved”, came out a few years ago, we got over 20 copies of it and had all of our department heads read it, and we did some brainstorming sessions, and that really helped bring into focus just how much, and you know, as a former mayor, the infrastructure below the street that most people don't think about, day in and day out, it's critical.
David 31:29
Oh, oh yes.
Mayor Michael Cahill 31:28
We have 160 miles of roadway and what that is, is about 160 miles in sewer and water mains, and all kinds of connections and laterals, and one of the things is, you know, there's embodied carbon in every bit of infrastructure, so making sure that you build right and that things last really matters.
In Massachusetts, there was a law passed in 2008, 2009, the Green Communities Law, and Beverly, like most communities in the state now, opted into the Green Communities Law. We opted in early, and it made available state funds to help us build in lots of energy efficiencies into our buildings—our municipal and school buildings—and that really, it's been a learning curve. [Music fades out]
We built a new middle school five years ago, and the climate controls in that building are fantastic. You know, the delivery of oxygen into classrooms, when the students and teachers leave the room, the sensors just bring it right down so you're not wasting anything. The efficiencies in the systems are impressive and our team, right on through our local government, has been at the forefront of ensuring that we build the right efficiencies in, or we use less electricity every day of the year, because of what we've invested in. We've got great air transfer and handling systems in all of our buildings and, you know, some of it is for public health, and a lot of it is for ensuring that we don't waste.
David 32:54
It's interesting to do the right thing for climate. You save money, at least on operating funds, and you have healthier buildings, and you can often address equity issues, if you get on the right path.
Mayor Michael Cahill 33:04
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Yeah.
David 33:06
Talk a wee bit about the relationship with other cities, including bigger ones, from the perspective of both mitigating and building resilience or adapting to climate. How do you facilitate those relationships? Which ones matter? And what works for Beverly?
Mayor Michael Cahill 33:23
We've got a great set of relationships, regionally, with our area mayors and town managers. We've got some great partnerships right on through the Greater Boston region, around the types of changes that are needed. And, with the advocacy, we love working together. If we work on climate regularly, we work on other issues, as well. It's a great set of relationships in Massachusetts and we've been fortunate in that way because it isn't that way in every state. When it comes to working on things from the local, all the way up to the national and international level, you know, we're blessed to have the Climate Mayors network. There are almost 500 mayors around the country who self-identified as climate mayors and have committed to doing all the right work in pushing to address the climate crisis in driving down our emissions as quickly as possible.
David 34:11
Well, I can't let you get away with being modest because you've also made a real point of learning from the best international practices.
Mayor Michael Cahill 34:18
Mm-hmm.
David 34:18
From my perspective, that's very important. You have local to global, Curitiba and São Paulo are here from Brazil, they can learn from what Beverly is doing, particularly around the buildings and police station, and I'm sure you take lessons from these international mayors and cities back to Beverly, and I think that's a great thing about local governments.
[Gentle music]. Mayor Cahill, on that note, I want to thank you for your ongoing work and for being with us today and taking the time out of your incredibly busy schedule to share some of your experiences with peer mayors, with practitioners, with academics and policymakers around the world, which is our podcast audience. We really appreciate the time.
Mayor Michael Cahill 34:55
Thanks, David. It's great to work with you.
David 34:58
It's a real pleasure. [music fades out]
[Pensive music]. Edge cities may not always get the recognition they deserve for their efforts to address climate change, given the shadows cast by their larger, big city neighbours. But the mayors of these cities are demonstrating that you can make a difference as a city of any size, and that we need to put our greatest efforts into collaboratively fighting climate change, because it doesn't matter how big or small you are – all coastlines are threatened by rising sea levels, and we all breathe the same air. We need to work together to develop, shape, and implement policies at every level, so they will benefit everyone. [Music fades out].
[Upbeat, energetic music]. On the next episode of Cities 1.5, we'll be tackling a groundbreaking topic which has the potential to accelerate cities' climate goals – climate budgeting. We'll discuss what climate budgets are, and how they're an essential tool to help cities achieve their climate targets. We'll be taking a deep dive with two special guests, Research Professor at Oslo Metropolitan University, Trond Vedeld, and C40's own Head of Climate Budgeting, Catrin Robertsen. Be sure to subscribe, if you haven't already. You won't want to miss it. [Music fades out]
[Cities 1.5 main theme music]. Thanks for listening to Cities 1.5. I'm David Miller, the Managing Director of the C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy. I was the Mayor of Toronto, Canada, and know, first-hand, the impact cities can have in solving the climate crisis.
Cities 1.5 is produced by Jessica Schmidt. Our executive producers are Isabel Sitcov, Peggy Whitfield, and Jessica Abraham. Our music is by Lorna Gilfedder. Cities 1.5 is a production of the University of Toronto Press and the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.
To find out more, visit the show’s website link in the episode notes. See you next time. [Cities 1.5 main theme music ends].