Category Archives: Climate

Wellfleet Bay

Speak Up On Climate Change Legislation

Posted on January 23, 2018 by Daniel Brown

A key climate change preparedness bill is being discussed in the Massachusetts House this week and it needs your support. The Comprehensive Adaptation Management Plan (CAMP) will:

  • Help protect people and wildlife from climate change
  • Safeguard our infrastructure
  • Set an example of responsible climate action for the rest of the country to follow

Take action by calling your state representative in the House and tell them to support CAMP (HB2147).

Why Support CAMP?

Climate change is already affecting Massachusetts. Many of our communities are unprepared for rising seas, stronger storms, more dangerous heat waves, and myriad other challenges. CAMP would help them prepare.

CAMP will require the state to identify our people and places that are most vulnerable. It will help us prepare for a greater risk of natural disasters. It will establish new ways for municipalities to prosper in the face of climate change, and will encourage communities to work with willing landowners to reclaim and protect threatened areas.

The Massachusetts Senate has already passed the CAMP bill, the first of its kind in the United States, and it’s time for the Massachusetts House to do the same.

Call your state representative and tell them to send the rest of the country a powerful message that Massachusetts intends lead in the fight against climate change.

 

HQ Goes Solar

Posted on January 17, 2018 by Hillary T.

It was something that we have wanted for a long time. Many of our wildlife sanctuaries already have them. And yet, our headquarters didn’t. But, now, we are happy to share that we have a new photovoltaic (PV) solar array up and running at our central offices in Lincoln.

As a leading conservation organization, it’s imperative that our power come from renewable energy. We generate more than 37% of own our electricity needs with PV arrays. We purchase the rest in renewable energy credits through the nonprofit Mass Energy. Our hope, though, is to continue growing what we generate on our own and reduce the number of credits we buy, freeing up more renewable energy on the grid for others to use.

The HQ array is another step in the right direction. A former estate donated to Mass Audubon in the 1955, our headquarters consists of five buildings. Staff across the campus already make every effort to reduce our footprint—we use energy efficient LED lights and equipment, and receive regular reminders to turn off lights and computers when not in use—but this new array will have, by far, the biggest impact.

Since it was turned on in November, it has already generated more than 4,600 kilowatt hours (kWh) of clean electricity, slightly more than we expected. On December 28, one of shortest days of the year, it generated about 1/4 of the electricity an average home consumes in a month!

See how much power this array is generating and learn more about Mass Audubon’s efforts to reduce our impact.

Slide to See it Go from Frame to Finish