Green Beverly
From Zero to Sustainable in Three Years
Case Study - Green Beverly
Beverly, MA has a population of ~41,000 residents. With a Mayor that sits on the steering committee of Climate Mayors, Beverly is fairly progressive from a climate action perspective. The City has Green Community status, has a very active Clean Energy Advisory Committee (CEAC), and has completed a Climate Action Plan jointly with neighboring city, Salem.
The Challenge
Beverly’s challenge was that very little time and attention was focused on residential sustainability.
The limited resources within the City and the CEAC were focused on municipal upgrades (LED street lights, upgrades within the public schools, electric school busses, public parking solar canopies, a new net zero police station, etc.).
Of the 72 actions in the Climate Action Plan, 27 were related to residential and local business education and engagement. Unfortunately the City did not have the resources to tackle this major component of the Climate Action Plan. And, with 65%-85% of the city’s GHG emissions coming from the residential sector, this presented a big gap in the city’s mitigation strategy.
A website (greenbeverly.org) had been developed, by two insightful individuals in 2017, in an effort to educate residents about sustainability. These insightful individuals also started to host bi-annual sustainability fairs in an effort to build awareness. But, that was far from being enough to move the needle on residential emissions.
The Solution
In the spring of 2021, two members of the CEAC approached Green Community Catalysts (formerly Path To A Green Home) to see if we could build a fully functioning, nonprofit organization that could aggressively drive residential engagement and action. It was time to address the bulk of the city’s GHG emissions.
Green Community Catalysts (GCC) helped to create the nonprofit organization, Green Beverly (greenbeverly.org), based on the Green Transition Model. This is a model that was developed by GCC after studying successful models in Europe and other parts of the US. This model combines the “best of the best” from other successful citizen engagement initiatives, programs, and organizations.
The Model includes 11 core modules:
Mission
Audience
Engagement & Implementation
Assets
Partners
Team
Systems
Brand
Business Plan & Budget
Key Performance Indicators
Organizational Structure
In the first 6 months, Green Community Catalysts focused on setting up the organizational structure and driving community awareness in parallel. Upon getting nonprofit status in November of 2021, Green Beverly was able to focus on fundraising and grant writing. Upon being awarded several project grants, Green Beverly was able to start the implementation of community projects in addition to residential engagement.
The Results
As of June, 2024 (3 years after incorporation), Green Beverly has become a well known entity in the Beverly community. Not only has Green Beverly achieved a fairly significant following and coached hundreds on various sustainability topics, but has also implemented a number of high impact projects in the community.
Some of Green Beverly’s accomplishments thus far include:
Residential Engagement
3550 newsletter subscribers and social media followers
23 Annual Events with the flagship event being the Great Pumpkin Smash that draws 2,000+ people and 2500+ pumpkins
6 Schools, 80+ Businesses, City Hall, and City Council fully engaged
Community Projects
Food Diversion – rescuing edible food that would normally be thrown in the trash
Home Energy – shifting habits and heating systems
Urban Ag Research – finding innovative ways to increase local food production
Restaurant Compostables – help the shift to compostable take-out containers
Car Chargers – promoting EV adoption with a $500 car charger rebate
Clean Energy – guiding residents on buying renewable energy from their supplier or through rooftop solar
Carbon Reduction
Based on direct and indirect measurements, Green Beverly is reducing the community’s carbon footprint by more than 5,000 mt CO2e annually
