Beverly, Salem Team Up To Tackle Climate Challenge

BEVERLY, MA — A historic joint meeting of the Beverly and Salem city councils discussed the practical challenges of meeting some aspirational joint environmental goals Wednesday night.

Representatives from each of the neighboring cities met remotely as part of the Resilient Together agreement that aims to reduce collective carbon emissions by half by 2030 as part of the state's directive to become carbon neutral by 2050.

"It is aggressive," Beverly Sustainability Director Erina Keefe allowed of the 2030 goal, "and it requires us to be moving right now in significant ways."

Keefe outlined a number of ways both cities have reduced the carbon footprint on a municipal level - including the new net-zero Beverly Police Station — but acknowledged that at this point when it comes to private construction, retrofitting for existing buildings and transportation habits the strategy is more incentive-based than enforceable requirements.

"All of this is a balance of sticks and carrots," she said, adding that she believes Beverly will be willing to adopt more stringent requirements as the state makes them available.

Keefe noted in her presentation that "climate change knows no regional boundaries so it made sense to work together on this plan."

"This is a reminder that climate change is urgent, it's immediate and it requires all hands on deck," she said.

On the municipal level, she pointed to the geothermal heat pumps at the police station as a case where an energy decision had a higher up-front cost, but will actually have the lower life-cycle cost of any heating and cooling option.

Beverly is also increasing its number of bicycle parking, while Salem has invested in the Blue Bikes program and The Skipper ride-sharing service. Beverly will plant more than 200 trees this year, and Salem more than 2,400 trees, as a way to reduce "urban heat."

Yet, it was acknowledged that municipal reductions can only go so far for so long. Keefe said Beverly will soon begin a small business outreach program with National Grid to convince owners to make the changes necessary, while also providing them with access to the resources to make it happen.

"We have to find ways to make that choice easy and obvious for people so it's not a financial burden," she said.

It was also noted that both cities face a housing shortage and must balance the desire to have stricter environmental building codes without discouraging development.

While environmentally sound choices have become more cost-effective in recent years, the task is still daunting.

According to the presentation, in order to achieve carbon-neutral status by 2050, Beverly will have to convert 10,287 homes from fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas to renewable energy and geothermal electricity, while Salem will have to convert 10,323.

"Removing fossil fuels from our roads, removing fossil fuels from our houses and buildings," Keefe said. "That's where we're going to see a lot of gain over the next 10 years or so."

Did you find this article useful? Invite a friend to subscribe to Patch.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)