The new year brings planning and excitement as TownGreen, Inc. prepares to engage and ready Cape Ann citizens for the Harvard Graduate School of Design (HGSD) Climate Study and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Technical Assistance Grant PLUS an additional project, funded by Cape Ann municipalities, called The Voices of Climate Action Project, an ethnographic study led by Professor Gareth Doherty, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at HGSD. The Voices of Climate Action Project will collect personal stories from Cape Ann citizens with special attention on those citizens who face environmental justice issues and who have largely been left out of the dialogue on climate.  
 
The Voices of Climate Action Project
Professor Doherty and two research associates will plan their detailed scope of work in January 2022. The two research associates will live on Cape Ann for three months (February to April 2022) to observe patterns of behavior, movement, and will conduct a series of formal and informal interviews with representatives from diverse sectors varying by age, income, neighborhood, and vulnerability to climate change. Questions will focus on how residents see the area’s future in light of rising temperatures and changing climates.
 
Participate in TownGreen’s local outreach 
TownGreen is planning its own series of interviews during this same time period (February to April 2022) organized and led by volunteers in each Cape Ann community. These interview sessions will ask questions designed to uncover the values and priorities of diverse populations, how these populations will be affected by coastal storms and flooding threats, and preferences for policy solutions. Others we will be cooperating with in this endeavor are the Cape Ann Climate Coalition Community Building and Education Workgroup and the City of Gloucester Climate Action and Resilience Plan project, led by Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) and Gloucester’s Clean Energy Commission (CEC). 
 
Starting in January, TownGreen will recruit and train volunteers. Please contact Dick Prouty (dick.prouty@gmail.com) if you are interested in being trained as an interviewer. 
 
Findings from The Voices of Climate Action Project and TownGreen’s local interview sessions will contribute to the EPA workshops planned for April and May 2022. Participants in the EPA workshops will prioritize coastal threats and potential solutions regionally and by each Cape Ann community. 
 
Looking ahead 
2022 is going to be a pivotal year in our climate work to understand the true nature of existing climate threats and the options we have to prepare, mitigate, and adapt to these threats. Your continued financial support through donations, showing up at our awareness sessions, and spreading the word to your networks of friends and associates are valued and deeply appreciated. We thank you for your continued support in 2022 as we enter another phase of growth. TownGreen, Inc. will be a fully independent 501(c)(3) by January 15, 2022. Here’s to a successful 2022 for advancing our climate work on Cape Ann to another level of effectiveness.
 
About TownGreen, Inc.
TownGreen, Inc’s mission is to act as a catalyst in assisting the greater Cape Ann region in becoming a vibrant and inclusive model of sustainability that is fossil fuel free and prepared for the impacts of climate change.
 
TownGreen, Inc. is a local volunteer-led organization that has been promoting climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, including clean energy, since 2015. For more information, visit us at the TownGreen website. The website will be under renovation in early January and should be fully updated by January 15.

Our Corporate Sponsors

Many thanks to Corporate Sponsors:
Geoffrey H. Richon Company, Resonant Energy, and Revision Energy & Action, Inc.

We are looking for financial support for this important study conducted in collaboration with the Harvard Graduate School of Design. There are three levels of corporate sponsorship. If you are interested, please visit our website for more information. We greatly appreciate your gift in any amount.