September 16, 2023 • 14 mins
The city of Boston has lofty goals when it comes to climate, including a push to become a completely carbon-neutral city by the year 2050. There are several initiatives underway to work toward that goal, including a brand new program by Climate Culture Boston called "SHINE": Solar Helping Ignite Neighborhood Economies. Frank Lowenstein from Climate Culture Boston, a spinoff of Rare, returns to the show to talk about this new push to bring green jobs and renewable home energy to marginalized neighborhoods with the help of established community organizations.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston.This is New England Weekend, where each
week we come together talk about allthe topics important to you and the place
where you live. Great to beback with you again this week. As
always, I'm Nicole Davis. Well. The state of Massachusetts has some pretty
ambitious climate goals in place, butso does the city of Boston. In
fact, the city has its veryown department at City Hall focusing solely on
(00:30):
climate change. There's a Climate Readyteam working on strategies to mitigate the environmental
impacts of climate change. And alsothe city has a plan called Carbon Free
Boston. And what this is isa push to become a completely carbon neutral
city by the year twenty fifty,and twenty fifty is not that far away,
so this could be seen as kindof a lofty goal. How exactly
(00:51):
do you get there? Well,a group called Climate Culture Boston says it's
got at least a few ideas,starting with the power of the sun.
Frank Lowenstein's been on the show beforeand he's back now to talk about this
brand new initiative. It's called SHINE, which stands for Solar Helping Ignite Neighborhood
Economies. Frank, it's really goodto have you back with us. Listeners
might not have caught your last interviewhere, so we'll start here. Give
(01:12):
us a quick rundown about not justClimate Culture Boston, but you are a
spinoff of a bigger parent organization,Rare, so tell us more about that
too. So Rare is a fiftyyear old nonprofit organization headquartered out of Arlington,
Virginia that focuses on human behavior andhow people can shift their behavior,
(01:34):
both to help their community and helpthe environment. Much of our work has
been with what our CEO likes tocall the poorest people in the richest places
around the world. So we workin the Philippines and Mozambique and Brazil and
many other countries around the world.We've done a total of five hundred behavior
change campaigns in sixty countries. Ourfirst community based program in the United is
(02:00):
our Climate Culture Boston program, andwe started that in twenty twenty one,
focusing on how can we all collectivelyshift our behavior to help avert the climate
crisis or reduce its impact. AndI think that's a question a lot of
us are asking these days, becauseyou could argue it's really the bigger corporations
(02:21):
and that we as the human beingcan't really do much. You could argue
this, that, and the otherthing, but at the end of the
day, I think many of usjust want to know how we can make
an impact to try and change theway that things are going. Obviously,
we single handedly cannot change climate change, but all of us can have a
part. No, it's a climatechange is a collective problem, and it's
(02:42):
going to need a collective solution.But there is power in each one of
us. Each one of us isso influential, more influential than we realize,
with our friends, our relatives,our neighbors, our social networks,
and what we choose to do iswhat others choose to do as well.
And so you know, Rare's perspectiveis, yes, government action is needed.
(03:04):
Yes, corporations need to take actionand have a role, and have
had some less fortunate roles in thepast. How are we going to change
that? Are we gonna march throughthe streets and demand that they change,
or are we going to change andcreate the demand that government and corporations are
going to respond to. We thinkthat collective impact is super important both for
(03:27):
that larger social change, but alsofor you know, it may not matter
what you and I drive or whatyou and I eat, but it matters
what four and a half million Bustoniansdo. Absolutely, And when you want
to talk about collective impact, thisnew pilot program of yours, this has
a lot of potential. I feel. It's called Shine and it's the Solar
(03:50):
helping Ignite Neighborhood Economy's pilot program.And I like the whole Shine and solar
thing. Very nice correlation. Theregive us a bit of a rundown as
to where this came from. Wheredid the idea for Shine come from?
Well, really rare. When westart a climate culture program, we first
analyze which behaviors we're going to makethe most difference on climate change. And
(04:12):
you know, they came up infour areas, food, transportation, energy,
and supportive nature. And so westarted saying everyone should get solar power,
everyone should, you know, movetowards electric vehicles, everyone should eat
less meat. You know, it'sa sort of progress in certain directions.
(04:32):
And Shine is really about helping bringsome of those behaviors, in particular the
solar energy behaviors within reach of communitiesand neighborhoods. That may not have had
access to them. You know,it's really easy to put solar on your
roof if you can afford to layout the money ahead of time, and
if you own your roof, ifyou're renting, if you're living in a
(04:56):
condo or an apartment building, it'sharder. And that's where a community solar
comes in. But how do youmake that accessible people? How do you
make it do it in a responsibleway? So that was really the origin
of the Shine program, and reallywe were framing it up from the beginning
is this is putting these climate behaviorsinto an anti poverty program. So we're
(05:20):
working with low income communities. Howdo we make these climate behaviors from their
point of view and economic development antipoverty program. Yeah, and it's also
an environmental issue as well, becauseinner cities you have these heat deserts right
where you have these areas where treesand shrubbery and green space are at you
(05:41):
know, they're at a premium.You really can't find them. And I
was talking with somebody a few monthsago about exactly this energy costs to cool
down homes in these heat deserts,to heat up these buildings that are oftentimes
not in great shape during the winter. I mean this could be game changing
for those areas. Yes, ifyou look at the Department of Energies map
(06:03):
of what they call energy burden,how much of your how much of it's
of the median income does each neighborhood, each census block spend on energy?
These neighborhoods, like many parts ofDorchester and Roxbury are paying twice the statewide
average to for energy and they don'thave that money to begin with. So
(06:24):
you know that's not just no,certainly not. So how will Rare and
Climate Culture Boston, How are youplanning to go about this? What's your
role out here? Well, firstof all, we're working with community organizations,
you know, so that we areworking, we're making sure we're listening,
we're making sure that we're bringing somethingthat the community wants. And then
(06:48):
the program that we've developed with thosewith those partners is really structured around four
pillars. Initially, we're going tobe offering job training as solar technicians drawing
from these neighborhoods. Then we wantto work with local nonprofits to build community
(07:08):
solar facilities in the neighborhoods using thosesame workers as part of the crew to
put the solar in place. Thatalso, so that's helping make this idea
of community solar salient. You know, your neighbors who are working on it.
You see the facilities going up inyour neighborhood. The next piece is
how do we get people to signup for community solar which can lower their
(07:31):
utility bills. That's something that's accessibleto everybody in Massachusetts, but a lot
of people don't know about it.So how do we you know, maybe
have testimonials from some of the workerswho built these facilities, from some of
the nonprofit leaders who have helped tosustain them on their facilities. You know.
So there's local folks who are helpingendorse and make credible this now more
(07:58):
salient communities. And then the finalpillar is electrified transportation. How do we
make it easier to charge your ebike, ORR e scooter or implement ev car
sharing in these communities so that peoplecan get to new jobs more easily,
get to shopping more easily. Andthen we are also we aren't ready to
(08:22):
launch it yet, but we arealso thinking about that heat desert that he
spoke to, and how do weget more trees into these communities. Were
working with local groups on that aswell. That's really good to know because
that's definitely been an ongoing issue obviously, not just in Boston, but in
metros around the entire country. Sothat's really encouraging. Actually. But I
love this program because you're you're touchingall these different pain points that we're seeing
(08:48):
when it comes to implementing solar,which you know, like you said,
it's not so easy. It's justplopping a couple of solar panels on your
roof and calling it a day.I love the idea of this electrified transportation
because there's a little bit of aquabble about electric vehicles and charging and are
they really worthwhile and if we shouldmake the change. Solar Ebike charging though,
is something I have never seen beforeand that could really that could change
(09:13):
how a whole neighborhood gets around.Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And you
know you've got to be able todo it in a way that works for
people. Nobody's going to carry theirfifty pound e by four flights of steps
to no no. And you knowyou've got the MBTA that you could work
with. I mean, there's somany possibilities when it comes to transportation,
(09:33):
and I know that transportation discussions havebeen big in the areas that would be
impacted by this, making you know, transportation justice, so on and so
forth. So in that vein,who have you been working with when it
comes to the transportation side. Well, so our partners are our lead partners
are Action for Boston, Community Developmentand Children's Services of Roxbury. We're also
(09:56):
working with Resonant Energy which has beenwhich we do a lot of the community
solar development and Power fifty two,which is a job training program originally developed
and rolled out in Baltimore, andone of the co founders of that has
been advising us on how to dothe job training here in a way in
building on the lessons learned from Baltimoreon We're still working out the electric transportation
(10:18):
and the partners there. We've beenworking with ev Good to go out of
Framingham and but you know, wehave ways to go on the electrified transportation
piece. We have received grants tostart moving forward on the community solar facilities
and the job training, and sothose will be the first pieces out the
door. Very cool. So whereis the job training going to take place?
(10:39):
Are we talking about trade schools oris it going to be at ABCD.
How are you going to make thatwork? It'll be at ABCD at
one of their one of their buildingsin Dorchester. We're going to be working
with them over this fall to buildout a lab that's set up to so
that people can practice the skills thatyou need to install community solo. Simultaneously
(11:01):
be recruiting our first class of twentytrainees, aiming to start training in December
January, so then you're going tohave this new workforce on the streets in
a matter of months. Really,yes, the first graduate should be coming
into employment in March or April oftwenty twenty four. That is so exciting
and it's such an economic boom aswell for these neighborhoods. I mean,
(11:24):
it all just kind of meshes together, doesn't it. It does, and
it's the future that we all need. You know, the latest assessment out
of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Centers thatwe're going to need thirty eight thousand more
clean energy workers by twenty thirty,which is like around the corner. So
you know, this is the workforcethat's needed for the electrification of everything,
(11:46):
which is the key to avoiding theclimate disasters that we don't want in the
future. Sure, How has thereception been on the community level over on
Beacon Hill? What are you hearingabout your plans so far? It's very
positive, you know. I thinkour partners are extremely well respected. You
(12:07):
know, they have been just superbto work with. We've heard great things
from the community so far. Fingerscrossed, so good, wonderful. So
what can we the public do tohelp you out? You know, anybody
who's listening who's curious about learning moreabout this or wants to help make shine
a reality? What can we dowell? First of all, I encourage
(12:28):
you to go check out Rare dotorg slash Boston. That's our site where
we you know, we have aconnection to our Action Hub, so you
can be part of these solutions too. You can sign up for Community Solar
yourself, or find out where youcan go to like explore evs. I
personally rented an ev for two weekson my vacation this summer and that was
(12:52):
kind of fun, A nice wayto test it out and see if it's
for you or not. So,you know, the Action Hub is a
useful place to go. Obviously,we're we're pulling this together with the support
of both individuals, philanthropic individuals andfoundations and government, and you know,
(13:18):
if anyone has connections those there's alwaysmore to do, so I think.
But taking on these behaviors yourself,talking them up to your friends and relatives,
recognizing that you have a superpower inyour influence on the people who care
about you and care about what youthink. That's the key to move forward.
Absolutely, and that is what Ithink we all need to hear sometimes
(13:39):
that yes, we can, indeedmake a difference, even if it seems
really overwhelming at times. Yes,absolutely, I love it. All right.
Well, Frank, it's so goodto have you back on the show.
Thank you so much for your timeand good luck with this New Shine
initiative, and I can't wait tosee where it goes. Yeah, thank
you so much, Nicole. Allright, that's the show for the week.
(14:00):
Thanks again for joining us as always, and please have a safe and
healthy weekend. Join me again nextweek for another edition of the show.
I'm Nicole Davis from WBEZY News Radioon iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston.This is New England Weekend, where each
week we come together talk about allthe topics important to you and the place
where you live. Great to beback with you again this week. As
always, I'm Nicole Davis. Well. The state of Massachusetts has some pretty
ambitious climate goals in place, butso does the city of Boston. In
fact, the city has its veryown department at City Hall focusing solely on
(00:30):
climate change. There's a Climate Readyteam working on strategies to mitigate the environmental
impacts of climate change. And alsothe city has a plan called Carbon Free
Boston. And what this is isa push to become a completely carbon neutral
city by the year twenty fifty,and twenty fifty is not that far away,
so this could be seen as kindof a lofty goal. How exactly
(00:51):
do you get there? Well,a group called Climate Culture Boston says it's
got at least a few ideas,starting with the power of the sun.
Frank Lowenstein's been on the show beforeand he's back now to talk about this
brand new initiative. It's called SHINE, which stands for Solar Helping Ignite Neighborhood
Economies. Frank, it's really goodto have you back with us. Listeners
might not have caught your last interviewhere, so we'll start here. Give
(01:12):
us a quick rundown about not justClimate Culture Boston, but you are a
spinoff of a bigger parent organization,Rare, so tell us more about that
too. So Rare is a fiftyyear old nonprofit organization headquartered out of Arlington,
Virginia that focuses on human behavior andhow people can shift their behavior,
(01:34):
both to help their community and helpthe environment. Much of our work has
been with what our CEO likes tocall the poorest people in the richest places
around the world. So we workin the Philippines and Mozambique and Brazil and
many other countries around the world.We've done a total of five hundred behavior
change campaigns in sixty countries. Ourfirst community based program in the United is
(02:00):
our Climate Culture Boston program, andwe started that in twenty twenty one,
focusing on how can we all collectivelyshift our behavior to help avert the climate
crisis or reduce its impact. AndI think that's a question a lot of
us are asking these days, becauseyou could argue it's really the bigger corporations
(02:21):
and that we as the human beingcan't really do much. You could argue
this, that, and the otherthing, but at the end of the
day, I think many of usjust want to know how we can make
an impact to try and change theway that things are going. Obviously,
we single handedly cannot change climate change, but all of us can have a
part. No, it's a climatechange is a collective problem, and it's
(02:42):
going to need a collective solution.But there is power in each one of
us. Each one of us isso influential, more influential than we realize,
with our friends, our relatives,our neighbors, our social networks,
and what we choose to do iswhat others choose to do as well.
And so you know, Rare's perspectiveis, yes, government action is needed.
(03:04):
Yes, corporations need to take actionand have a role, and have
had some less fortunate roles in thepast. How are we going to change
that? Are we gonna march throughthe streets and demand that they change,
or are we going to change andcreate the demand that government and corporations are
going to respond to. We thinkthat collective impact is super important both for
(03:27):
that larger social change, but alsofor you know, it may not matter
what you and I drive or whatyou and I eat, but it matters
what four and a half million Bustoniansdo. Absolutely, And when you want
to talk about collective impact, thisnew pilot program of yours, this has
a lot of potential. I feel. It's called Shine and it's the Solar
(03:50):
helping Ignite Neighborhood Economy's pilot program.And I like the whole Shine and solar
thing. Very nice correlation. Theregive us a bit of a rundown as
to where this came from. Wheredid the idea for Shine come from?
Well, really rare. When westart a climate culture program, we first
analyze which behaviors we're going to makethe most difference on climate change. And
(04:12):
you know, they came up infour areas, food, transportation, energy,
and supportive nature. And so westarted saying everyone should get solar power,
everyone should, you know, movetowards electric vehicles, everyone should eat
less meat. You know, it'sa sort of progress in certain directions.
(04:32):
And Shine is really about helping bringsome of those behaviors, in particular the
solar energy behaviors within reach of communitiesand neighborhoods. That may not have had
access to them. You know,it's really easy to put solar on your
roof if you can afford to layout the money ahead of time, and
if you own your roof, ifyou're renting, if you're living in a
(04:56):
condo or an apartment building, it'sharder. And that's where a community solar
comes in. But how do youmake that accessible people? How do you
make it do it in a responsibleway? So that was really the origin
of the Shine program, and reallywe were framing it up from the beginning
is this is putting these climate behaviorsinto an anti poverty program. So we're
(05:20):
working with low income communities. Howdo we make these climate behaviors from their
point of view and economic development antipoverty program. Yeah, and it's also
an environmental issue as well, becauseinner cities you have these heat deserts right
where you have these areas where treesand shrubbery and green space are at you
(05:41):
know, they're at a premium.You really can't find them. And I
was talking with somebody a few monthsago about exactly this energy costs to cool
down homes in these heat deserts,to heat up these buildings that are oftentimes
not in great shape during the winter. I mean this could be game changing
for those areas. Yes, ifyou look at the Department of Energies map
(06:03):
of what they call energy burden,how much of your how much of it's
of the median income does each neighborhood, each census block spend on energy?
These neighborhoods, like many parts ofDorchester and Roxbury are paying twice the statewide
average to for energy and they don'thave that money to begin with. So
(06:24):
you know that's not just no,certainly not. So how will Rare and
Climate Culture Boston, How are youplanning to go about this? What's your
role out here? Well, firstof all, we're working with community organizations,
you know, so that we areworking, we're making sure we're listening,
we're making sure that we're bringing somethingthat the community wants. And then
(06:48):
the program that we've developed with thosewith those partners is really structured around four
pillars. Initially, we're going tobe offering job training as solar technicians drawing
from these neighborhoods. Then we wantto work with local nonprofits to build community
(07:08):
solar facilities in the neighborhoods using thosesame workers as part of the crew to
put the solar in place. Thatalso, so that's helping make this idea
of community solar salient. You know, your neighbors who are working on it.
You see the facilities going up inyour neighborhood. The next piece is
how do we get people to signup for community solar which can lower their
(07:31):
utility bills. That's something that's accessibleto everybody in Massachusetts, but a lot
of people don't know about it.So how do we you know, maybe
have testimonials from some of the workerswho built these facilities, from some of
the nonprofit leaders who have helped tosustain them on their facilities. You know.
So there's local folks who are helpingendorse and make credible this now more
(07:58):
salient communities. And then the finalpillar is electrified transportation. How do we
make it easier to charge your ebike, ORR e scooter or implement ev car
sharing in these communities so that peoplecan get to new jobs more easily,
get to shopping more easily. Andthen we are also we aren't ready to
(08:22):
launch it yet, but we arealso thinking about that heat desert that he
spoke to, and how do weget more trees into these communities. Were
working with local groups on that aswell. That's really good to know because
that's definitely been an ongoing issue obviously, not just in Boston, but in
metros around the entire country. Sothat's really encouraging. Actually. But I
love this program because you're you're touchingall these different pain points that we're seeing
(08:48):
when it comes to implementing solar,which you know, like you said,
it's not so easy. It's justplopping a couple of solar panels on your
roof and calling it a day.I love the idea of this electrified transportation
because there's a little bit of aquabble about electric vehicles and charging and are
they really worthwhile and if we shouldmake the change. Solar Ebike charging though,
is something I have never seen beforeand that could really that could change
(09:13):
how a whole neighborhood gets around.Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And you
know you've got to be able todo it in a way that works for
people. Nobody's going to carry theirfifty pound e by four flights of steps
to no no. And you knowyou've got the MBTA that you could work
with. I mean, there's somany possibilities when it comes to transportation,
(09:33):
and I know that transportation discussions havebeen big in the areas that would be
impacted by this, making you know, transportation justice, so on and so
forth. So in that vein,who have you been working with when it
comes to the transportation side. Well, so our partners are our lead partners
are Action for Boston, Community Developmentand Children's Services of Roxbury. We're also
(09:56):
working with Resonant Energy which has beenwhich we do a lot of the community
solar development and Power fifty two,which is a job training program originally developed
and rolled out in Baltimore, andone of the co founders of that has
been advising us on how to dothe job training here in a way in
building on the lessons learned from Baltimoreon We're still working out the electric transportation
(10:18):
and the partners there. We've beenworking with ev Good to go out of
Framingham and but you know, wehave ways to go on the electrified transportation
piece. We have received grants tostart moving forward on the community solar facilities
and the job training, and sothose will be the first pieces out the
door. Very cool. So whereis the job training going to take place?
(10:39):
Are we talking about trade schools oris it going to be at ABCD.
How are you going to make thatwork? It'll be at ABCD at
one of their one of their buildingsin Dorchester. We're going to be working
with them over this fall to buildout a lab that's set up to so
that people can practice the skills thatyou need to install community solo. Simultaneously
(11:01):
be recruiting our first class of twentytrainees, aiming to start training in December
January, so then you're going tohave this new workforce on the streets in
a matter of months. Really,yes, the first graduate should be coming
into employment in March or April oftwenty twenty four. That is so exciting
and it's such an economic boom aswell for these neighborhoods. I mean,
(11:24):
it all just kind of meshes together, doesn't it. It does, and
it's the future that we all need. You know, the latest assessment out
of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Centers thatwe're going to need thirty eight thousand more
clean energy workers by twenty thirty,which is like around the corner. So
you know, this is the workforcethat's needed for the electrification of everything,
(11:46):
which is the key to avoiding theclimate disasters that we don't want in the
future. Sure, How has thereception been on the community level over on
Beacon Hill? What are you hearingabout your plans so far? It's very
positive, you know. I thinkour partners are extremely well respected. You
(12:07):
know, they have been just superbto work with. We've heard great things
from the community so far. Fingerscrossed, so good, wonderful. So
what can we the public do tohelp you out? You know, anybody
who's listening who's curious about learning moreabout this or wants to help make shine
a reality? What can we dowell? First of all, I encourage
(12:28):
you to go check out Rare dotorg slash Boston. That's our site where
we you know, we have aconnection to our Action Hub, so you
can be part of these solutions too. You can sign up for Community Solar
yourself, or find out where youcan go to like explore evs. I
personally rented an ev for two weekson my vacation this summer and that was
(12:52):
kind of fun, A nice wayto test it out and see if it's
for you or not. So,you know, the Action Hub is a
useful place to go. Obviously,we're we're pulling this together with the support
of both individuals, philanthropic individuals andfoundations and government, and you know,
(13:18):
if anyone has connections those there's alwaysmore to do, so I think.
But taking on these behaviors yourself,talking them up to your friends and relatives,
recognizing that you have a superpower inyour influence on the people who care
about you and care about what youthink. That's the key to move forward.
Absolutely, and that is what Ithink we all need to hear sometimes
(13:39):
that yes, we can, indeedmake a difference, even if it seems
really overwhelming at times. Yes,absolutely, I love it. All right.
Well, Frank, it's so goodto have you back on the show.
Thank you so much for your timeand good luck with this New Shine
initiative, and I can't wait tosee where it goes. Yeah, thank
you so much, Nicole. Allright, that's the show for the week.
(14:00):
Thanks again for joining us as always, and please have a safe and
healthy weekend. Join me again nextweek for another edition of the show.
I'm Nicole Davis from WBEZY News Radioon iHeartRadio.
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