CLIMATE-CHANGE

Facing the future: Worcester’s green plan to prepare for climate change

Over the next 30 years, Worcester aims to overhaul its energy and infrastructure

Veer Mudambi
Worcester Magazine
WORCESTER -  John  Odell, Energy Efficiency and Conservation Manager, outside of Sullivan Middle School, where solar panels are in use on Monday, November 9, 2020.

The Green Worcester Plan, which outlines steps toward making the city both more energy sustainable and climate resilient, was intended to have a thematic unveiling on April 22, Earth Day 2020. Because of COVID-related delays, however, a draft of the plan was made available for public comment on Oct. 27.

While COVID-19 may have derailed the plan’s dramatic reveal, John Odell, head of Worcester’s Department of Energy and Asset Management, has actually found it a reason to be optimistic. After seeing Worcester residents respond to the COVID crisis, he now feels even better about the GWP’s long-term success. “We had an amazing local response to the pandemic, a lot of people have worked very hard to keep people as safe as possible,” he said. “Worcester is capable of getting together and making significant improvements and we think that can translate well to the climate crisis.”

Preparing for a second crisis in the midst of the first one is not an ideal situation, but science tells us that cities like Worcester will face serious climate-related challenges unless they take steps to adapt.

Over the last year and a half, Worcester city officials have been doing just that — preparing for another crisis. By designing a broad initiative called the Green Worcester Plan, Worcester officials aim to make progress on two objectives: to significantly reduce the city’s overall carbon emissions as well as to ensure that the city is better prepared for the inevitable detrimental effects of climate change. These two objectives will power the forward movement on the main goal of alleviating the climate crisis and its impact on Worcester.  

WORCESTER -  John  Odell, Energy Efficiency and Conservation Manager, outside of Sullivan Middle School, where solar panels are in use on Monday, November 9, 2020. [T&G Staff/Christine Peterson]

Developed by the DEAM in partnership with the Green Worcester Working Group (a collective of city staff, environmental groups, residents and a consultant) the plan aims for Worcester to be “sustainable and resilient” by 2050. In terms of energy, the end goal is for the city to be 100% powered by renewable energy, implemented in the following three phases: municipal buildings by 2030; renewable electricity citywide by 2035; all sectors by 2045, including heating and transportation. Through this approach, the hope is that net zero building — the amount of energy a building uses being equal to the amount generated — will become the norm.

Paul Mathisen, Director of Sustainability at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, agrees that sustainability and resiliency are intrinsically connected and that “a sustainable society really needs to be resilient, in that it can make an efficient recovery from the impact of various weather events.” He believes that while it is an ambitious schedule and definitely not an easy goal, it is a commendable plan.

A member of 350 Central Mass, Paul Popinchalk, said “In general, I’m very impressed with the GWP” and it is doing all the right things, just not fast enough. 350 Central Mass was one of the entities represented in the GWWG. “[Climate change] is happening now,” emphasized Popinchalk, “not in the future. We cannot wait until 2045, we need this tomorrow.”

No time to waste

While it could be faster, Popinchalk believes that state and local policy is moving in the correct direction. “We have already seen a one degree Celsius rise in temperature and scientists didn’t understand why the atmosphere and land wasn’t heating up faster, before realizing much of the heat was being absorbed by the deep ocean.” He explained how this leads to a "violent purging" in the manner of extreme weather events, and once the storm begins, the warm ocean water just feeds it.

But what are we preparing for — what will climate change look like in New England? Alexandra Vecchio, Climate Change Program Director at Mass Audubon, said changes in precipitation will be most significant, with more extreme weather events throughout the year. The transition between seasons will fluctuate, such as fall to winter being later and winter to spring coming earlier.

Though a shorter winter may seem appealing, this will also lead to a “more hazardous winter storm effect.” Additionally, summer months will have higher temperatures and less rain with droughts such as this past summer becoming the new normal. Extreme heat can create real threats to public health, said Vecchio, “especially in New England since we’re not built for dozens of days over 90 degrees.” Individuals and institutions, from the average homeowner to city councils, she said, have to be prepared for this shift in weather patterns.

Upgrading for resilience and sustainability

Adapting Worcester’s infrastructure for sustainability and resiliency is a tall order, admitted Odell. Many of Worcester’s office buildings and residential homes date back decades at least, while schools go as far back as the 1800s. Though the historical character of these old buildings has always been a point of pride with the city, this does not lend itself well to the needed changes for the GWP.  “Worcester is an established industrial city,” said Mathisen, “with an infrastructure constructed a long time ago that definitely needs to be updated for today’s needs.”

Being built to last is usually a good thing, but it also means there is little incentive for change. While the longevity is impressive, it will inevitably break down and “will do so at a challenging time,” said Odell. Resistance to change in the name of preserving historic architecture is still to be expected but despite this, Odell believes that improvement and preservation are not mutually exclusive. A structure no longer has to be rebuilt from the ground up in order to be designated a green building.

There are green technology options that were not available even six years ago, said Odell, and can now be implemented on a wider scale with simpler and increasingly cost-effective measures. For example, solar power no longer means solar panels on every building but can still supply an entire community, said Odell, allowing people to lower their carbon footprint simply by changing their energy supplier.

“Society in general has no idea what goes on behind the wall where we plug our appliances,” commented Popinchalk, who built his career working in energy generation and facilities management, indicating that a change is often easier when it does not impact the end user as much.

Obstacles are not only logistical but bureaucratic as well since the building code is long out of date. However, Worcester cannot unilaterally change the building code to better fit sustainability and resiliency guidelines since that comes under state jurisdiction. While a bill has been introduced in the state Legislature to create a statewide net zero building energy code, until it passes, the city must do what it can on the municipal level.

Working with the MVP plan

To that effect, it is helpful to note that in 2019, Worcester completed a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Plan, a state program to help towns identify and address specific vulnerabilities to climate events. The MVP focuses exclusively on resilience while the GWP takes a more holistic approach by working to “prevent the problem in the first place,” said Odell.

The broader GWP goals are complemented by the MVP’s more specialized focus, such as decreasing parking lot sizes and expanding green areas to prevent flooding in places such as the Green Island neighborhood, Odell said. Green Island is located in a vulnerable floodplain and could benefit from changes such as an underground Blackstone Canal. While instances of precipitation will decrease, when they do occur they will be substantially more extreme, with more water in a shorter amount of time. “Without enough permeable surfaces like fields and forests,” said Vecchio, “there is nowhere for the water to go.”

The stormwater systems, having been built in the turn of the century, can no longer handle the increased runoff. This leads to street flooding in many areas and what Popinchalk referred to as “chronic basement flooding” in homes such as those situated near Beaver Brook — which also empties into the Blackstone River.

Mathison agrees that flooding is a serious concern. He pointed out that there are options that imitate natural infiltration systems such as permeable pavements, roads designed with smaller impervious areas, and spaces for water filtration that lead to subsurface basins for water storage. However, the challenge is to implement these in developed areas like Worcester.

Situated in Central Massachusetts, one thing that is not on Worcester’s list of concerns is coastal flooding. Being farther from the ocean means rising sea levels will have less of an impact than in cities like Boston. While the potential for flooding and drought issues remain, such incidents may be easier to contain. 

More Trees, Less Pavement

Cities like Worcester and Boston with significant areas of developed surfaces will be affected not only by flooding but heat. The MVP assessment also highlighted the risk posed by the urban heat island effect, when certain neighborhoods become pockets of consistently higher temperatures. As three- to five-day heat waves become more common, heat absorbed by the pavement suffuses the area.

Tree cover can often counteract the heat island phenomenon, but as storms have increased, trees have been cut down. Branches can bring down power lines leading to widespread power outages, and many areas in the city do not have sufficient back-up systems. Cutting back trees to protect power lines (and by extension, residents) must be balanced with maintaining the proper tree cover in a tightrope act for the city.

In other parts of the city, it is the opposite situation where there is a lack of trees and an excess of asphalt and cement. A few years ago when Popinchalk and his wife volunteered as data collectors for a heat island assessment project, they were assigned to the Burncoat neighborhood. A 2008 infestation of Asian Longhorned Beetles had resulted in massive tree clearing in Worcester neighborhoods, including Burncoat. While volunteering, Popinchalk reported as much as a 10 degree difference in temperature between Burncoat and adjacent neighborhoods — which on the whole, possessed significantly more tree cover.

Beyond planting more trees and expanding green spaces, the GWP aims to remedy this through establishing an incentive program for “cool roofs” and “green roofs” to not only reduce building temperatures for the urban heat island effect, but also, in the case of green roofs, help in stormwater management.

One of the points of the GWP that Popinchalk is most excited about is the notion of promoting alternate avenues of transportation. The concept of "micro mobility" — designated corridors connecting residential areas to commercial districts and office centers — will make it easier to bicycle and scooter safely as opposed to the current narrow bike lanes. Mathisen emphasizes that micro mobility is valuable for the residential populations in terms of providing a healthy city, since commuting concerns are significant so there would be value in trying to provide these options.

Hope for the Future

In terms of going green, an advantage Worcester has is its residents, said Odell, who provide an educated and relatively young workforce. “A lot of kids coming out of college and grad school are choosing to stay here,” he said, “which wasn’t the case even 20 years ago.” This younger population will be more invested in combating climate change and more open to the necessary changes.

Local response like this is key, Popinchalk emphasized. Residents and local businesses need to take advantage of the incentives offered by the city, they need to respond during the public comment period, and bring about a lasting change in how they view the environment and Worcester’s place in it. “The city [officials] can’t do this themselves,” he said, “they can only enable us. We the people need to own this and respond now.”