Beverly, Cambridge, Canton, Chelsea, Framingham, Malden, Natick, Somerville, Wenham, Winchester and Woburn all awarded grants to address climate change

Eleven cities and towns across Greater Boston will soon be putting more than $1 million to work addressing climate change through local projects, thanks to a new round of grant funding.

The program, “Accelerating Climate Resiliency,” gave more than $700,000 in the latest round of funding, part of a partnership between The Barr Foundation and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) in Boston.

Grants awards will go to the Beverly Strategic Tree Planting Initiative; the Charles River Floating Wetland Expansion in Cambridge; the Canton Resilience @ Home project; the Chelsea ‘Neighborhood Grid’ Energy Resilience effort; the Framingham Lake Waushakum Resiliency Design; the Malden River Works project for Waterfront Equity and Resilience; Growing Food and Social Resilience in Natick; Solutions to Build a Heat-Healthy Community in Somerville; Development Regulations for Climate Resilience in Wenham; Winchester’s Climate Action Plan; and the Woburn Senior Center Community Garden.

Grants range in size from $50,000 to $150,000 per municipality and are designed to drive long-term transformative change by investing in impactful, short-term local projects.

“We are so pleased to be partnering with these communities and their local teams to be promoting climate resilience with an eye toward social equity, and can’t wait to see how these come together to shape a regional strategy,” said Rebecca Davis, Deputy Director of MAPC.

“The City of Chelsea is excited to participate in the MAPC’s Accelerating Climate Resilience Program. Through this program the City will be able to design and install a battery storage system at our Police Station, one of our most critical buildings. We will also work on energy efficiency programs in several affordable housing buildings in the City. This will bring significant short term and long-term benefits to our community,” said Chelsea City Manager Thomas G. Ambrosino.

“The City of Somerville is grateful to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the Barr Foundation for funding essential work to advance climate resilience in Somerville and in our region. Funding from this grant will enable the City of Somerville to work directly with members of our community who are most impacted by extreme heat to co-create and pilot innovative heat preparedness interventions. We are eager to further build capacity in Somerville to respond to climate change with human-centered and equitable approaches that protect the health of everyone in our community,” said Hannah Payne, Climate Change Program Manager for the City of Somerville.

“Winchester is very pleased to receive this MAPC grant for a Sustainability Director,” said Winchester Select Board Chair Michael Bettencourt. “The Select Board is focused on addressing the impacts of climate change and this position will make the implementation of Winchester’s 2020 Climate Action Plan a reality. Achieving the Plan’s dual goals of reducing carbon pollution and increasing community resilience will save lives, protect property and enhance the quality of life in Winchester for generations to come.”

“Thank you to MAPC for awarding Beverly an Accelerating Climate Resiliency grant for our citywide tree planting initiative,” said Beverly Mayor Michael Cahill. “The new trees will help mitigate heat island effects, improve air quality, sequester carbon dioxide and also enhance storm water management. Beverly is proud to have been recognized again for the 20th consecutive year as a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation.”

“Climate change resiliency is an ongoing priority for Canton. Through active leadership of a core group of stakeholders and the public, the Town built consensus around top-priority recommendations to improve resilience to mitigate climate related hazards. Canton recognizes its role in educating the community as a whole about the Town’s vulnerabilities to natural hazards and the impacts of climate change,” said Canton Town Planner Laura Smead, AICP. “This generous grant will allow Canton to build public knowledge of projected climate hazards and what homeowners can do to minimize the impacts, focusing on vulnerable populations such as elderly, low-income residents, and persons with disabilities.”

Every grant recipient will also become part of a new “community of practice,” which will convene grantees as a group every other month to discuss challenges or barriers to implementation that they may be encountering, and will also offer a companion public lecture series. Speakers from across the country will come to the Boston region to talk about advancing innovative solutions to climate change, eventually in person, but beginning virtually in 2021.

For a full list of local grant award amounts, timelines, project descriptions, and local partners, visit mapc.org/resource-library/accelerating-resiliency.

For more information and questions about the Accelerating Climate Resiliency program, please contact MAPC Senior Environmental Planner Darci Schofield at dschofield@mapc.org or 617-933-0794.