The Springfield City Council will discuss an amendment to the Court Square Urban Renewal Plan, proposed by Mayor Domenic Sarno Monday in a public hearing. The amendment would expand the area included in the renewal plan to include 192 acres, which would cover most of the downtown area.
Mercy Medical Center has long collaborated with other hospitals, organizations, and agencies to offer new and more integrated, sustainable pathways to behavioral healthcare. Such collaborative planning, the health system notes, is essential in developing creative and effective ways of matching patient needs with available resources.
The Greater Easthampton Sustaining Small Business Grant (SSBG) program is part of a larger collaboration between the Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce and the city of Easthampton, within the Blueprint Easthampton initiative. The initial intent of the SSBG is to provide local small and micro businesses, as well as the nonprofit community, with short-term, immediate financial aid to those who have sustained economic loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so that businesses may continue their operations.
The Baker-Polito Administration today announced that an additional 25 Massachusetts cities and towns have been designated by the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) as Green Communities, committing to an ambitious renewable energy agenda to reduce energy consumption and emissions. With today’s designation, more thanhalf of the Commonwealth’s municipalities have earned their Green Communities designation and 68% of residents live in a Green Community. The 25 new Green Communities are now eligible for grants totaling $4,3 million to complete renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in their communities. Since the program began in 2010, DOER’s Green Communities ...
The Sustainable Business Network (SBN) of Massachusetts named PeoplesBank the 2017 Massachusetts Sustainable Business of the Year for mid-sized business in Western Mass. The bank has been a long-time leader in environmental sustainability, having built three LEED-certified offices and financed more than $145 million in wind, hydroelectric, and solar-energy projects.
Rick Sullivan, the CEO of the Western Mass. Economic Development Council added that “western Massachusetts and our colleges and universities can supply the workforce in these new and growing sectors.” Sullivan told 22News that there are plenty of jobs available in the green technologies sector and that schools like UMass are critical to training the workforce. Tuesday’s conference keynote speaker was Matthew Beaton, the state Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
The School of Earth and Sustainability and the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council will host “Innovations and Opportunities in Green Technologies,” a program of business and employment opportunities, on Tuesday, Oct. 17 from 8:30 a.m.-noon in the Design Building. State Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Matthew Beaton is the keynote speaker.
Join UMass Amherst and the Economic Development Council of Western Mass for an event to be held at the Design Building at UMass Amherst, 551 N. Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003 October 17, 2017 from 8:30AM – 12PM. Green technology sectors offer business and employment opportunities stemming from clean energy, climate change mitigations, water innovation, and green building technologies. Join UMass Amherst and Western Mass EDC for an event on innovations in new sectors, their potential for growth, and how Western Mass and UMass Amherst are taking a lead in green tech developments. Network and make connections between UMass Amherst ...
The Baker-Polito Administration recently awarded Green Communities designation grants totaling $1,446,675 to Agawam, Blandford, Chicopee, Granville, Ware, Warren, and Westfield. The awards will fund clean-energy projects and were presented by Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Matthew Beaton and Department of Energy Resource (DOER) Commissioner Judith Judson in a recent ceremony at Chicopee City Hall. Earlier this year, 30 Massachusetts cities and towns were designated by DOER as Green Communities, committing to an ambitious renewable-energy agenda to reduce energy consumption and emissions.
Massachusetts energy officials have awarded $1.4 million in grants to seven Western Massachusetts communities to fund clean energy projects. The grants will go to Chicopee, Agawam, Blandford, Granville, Ware, Warren and Westfield. The largest grant, $266,000, will go to Westfield, followed by $208,000 to Agawam. The grants were part of the "Green Communities" program, in which communities make certain commitments related to energy and the environment, such as reducing municipal energy consumption by 20 percent over five years, and are then eligible for state grants and assistance.
The implementation of energy-saving measures that don't impact the city's bottom line are projected to save West Springfield around $4 million over the next 20 years, according to Mayor Will Reichelt. This fiscal year alone, West Side saved around $140,000 because of the city's commitment to "go green," Reichelt said. The savings are a result of improved efficiency and net metering credits from the community's investment in solar fields in Southwick and Montague, he said. "These energy efficiency improvements did not affect the city's operating budget," Reichelt said. The city, a designated "Green Community ...
Mayor Brian P. Sullivan and City Advancement Officer Joseph Mitchell announced Tuesday the process will begin with a $7,500 grant received from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. Sullivan will ask the City Council for formally accept the grant allocation when it meets Aug. 22. That will allow the city to proceed with application for additional funding to conduct an inventory of city buildings that can benefit from energy use upgrades and eventually for as much as $350,000 in state funding to complete the targeted upgrades.
Companies involved in U.S. construction plan on intensifying their involvement in green building over the next three years, according to the new World Green Building Trends Study from Dodge Data & Analytics, conducted with support from United Technologies Corp. and its UTC Climate, Controls & Security business. The U.S. is also one of the global leaders in the percentage of firms expecting to construct new green institutional projects and green retrofits of existing buildings.
The Springfield Regional Chamber — formerly the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield — has been issuing annual lists of its largest-revenue and fastest-growing members since 1990, documenting, over time, the businesses that keep the region running. “There’s a reason we break it down by Revenue Growth and Total Revenue,” said Jeffrey Cuiffreda, Springfield Regional Chamber president. “I think it shows we have a lot of mature industries on the largest-revenue list, and to get to that level, you have to be around a long time and have a stable base, and that shows the good foundation of our economy.
With the approaching fourth anniversary of the June 1, 2011, tornado, site work for the $800 Million MGM Springfield resort casino project is in full swing in the city's South End, which sustained significant damage as a result of the storm. Jersey barriers are being installed along Main, State and Bliss streets and plans are pending to demolish the 19 buildings in the 14½-acre site plan to make way for the massive entertainment complex.
Northampton touts a new initiative called “Pleasant Futures,” which Narkewicz describes as a “community re-visioning process for Pleasant Street,” and a number of public meetings have been held to get input from residents in surrounding neighborhoods about what needs to be done to increase density and expand the downtown area in the neighborhood in a way that is pleasing to everyone. It kicked off last May and is a collaborative effort between the Office of Planning and Sustainability and the Ward 3 Neighborhood Organization. “The concerns expressed in the meetings focused on pedestrian safety and vibrancy along the corridor,” Narkewicz ...
Geen Night is a project of the Western Mass. Green Consortium (WMGC), a social network dedicated to sharing information about and promoting environmental sustainability, green building, energy efficiency and renewable energy in accessible and fun social events. In this presentation Paulson helps participants visit the realm where high performance building and sustainable landscape design intersect, to learn about a design methodology that supports best performance of both systems, according to the news release.
The town has received $165,539 from the Green Communities Division of the Massachusetts Department of Energy for four projects that will ultimately cut energy consumption by nearly 2 percent overall. The town applied for funding for five projects but received funding for four, said. Stephanie Ciccarello, sustainability coordinator. The return on the investment on the fifth project - attic insulation at Town Hall was determined to be too long, she said.
Over the past two years, said the city’s 24-year-old mayor, “we’ve been doing some excellent planning, laying the foundation for things we’ll be pursuing in 2014. And we have a lot of projects happening this year. Residents, and people visiting Holyoke, have been noticing the changes in the city.” Added Marcos Marrero, Holyoke’s planning director, “where 2012 was a big year for planning, and in 2013 we took steps to bring things to fruition, we’ll actually see that fruition in 2014.”
A new “sustainable” master plan that will carry the town through at least the next 10 years includes suggestions for preserving open space and agricultural land, promoting energy efficiency throughout town, and encouraging more use of pedestrian and bike paths, as well as public transportation, to reduce the town’s carbon footprint. The words that came up again and again as a 35-member Sustainable Master Plan Advisory Committee met over the last 13 months to write the sustainable master plan were: resilience, vibrancy and quality (of life). Now, the sustainable master plan, which will go to the town’s Planning ...
With helmets in hand, a cadre of local bicyclist s gathered in the Sixteen Acres neighborhood on Monday to celebrate the official opening of the first bicycle lanes in Springfield.
City and state officials, including Mayor Domenic Sarno, thanked the volunteers and TD Bank and the nonprofit organization Regreen Springfield for their replanting efforts. TD Bank donated labor as well as $20,000 for costs related to the tree-planting efforts.
Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Richard K. Sullivan Jr. and Energy Resources Commissioner Mark Sylvia this week awarded $3.7 million in grants to fund scores of clean energy projects in 20 communities across the state. The Green Communities Competitive Grants are awarded to existing Green Communities which have successfully invested their initial designation grants. Awards are capped at $250,000 per municipality.
“We view our efforts to license to Anellotech this important technology developed at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and our efforts to support the company as part of the University’s core economic development mission. We have worked closely with Anellotech’s management from the outset in order in ensure this innovation will bring economic, environmental and social benefits for the Commonwealth and the country.