About the Event:

Join GRI Faculty Affiliates Joan Fitzgerald and Ted Landsmark, along with the Boston Foundation, and the Boston Green Ribbon Commission for an important conversation about the findings of the inaugural Boston Climate Progress Report. After a presentation of the findings, researchers will share the methods they used to evaluate Boston’s ongoing progress toward the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, their ideas about how to make Boston climate ready, and their recommendations for ways that everyone, from government officials to residents, can collaborate and contribute to meaningful change. Following the data presentation, there will be a panel conversation with experts in the field.

AGENDA 


Joan Fitzgerald is a Professor of Urban and Public Policy at Northeastern University. She focuses on urban climate action and strategies for linking it to equity, economic development, and innovation. In her fourth book, Greenovation: Urban Leadership on Climate Change  (Oxford Univ. Press, 2020), she argues that the climate strategies of most cities represent random acts of greenness rather than integrated and aggressive action. She points to leading cities in North America and Europe and offers strategies for cities to accelerate their action. She is leading a team at the Dukakis Center that is conducting an assessment for the Boston Foundation’s Boston Climate Progress Report. The report will assess Boston’s progress on its climate action and resiliency plans with particular focus on equity. She is co-authoring a new book, Cities and the Struggle for Climate Justice. Fitzgerald blogs on urban climate action on Planetizen. She teaches The 21st Century City, Cities, Sustainability & Climate Change, and Intro Environmental Science & Policy.

Ted Landsmark has been a civic planner, civil rights and equity advocate, higher education administrator, arts and culture researcher, and community-engaged social activist in Boston and nationally. He serves on the leadership committee of the Northeastern University Faculty Senate. As Director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, Professor Landsmark oversees inter-disciplinary research on urban policy matters, including housing, gentrification, economic development, civic engagement, school design, comprehensive services, transportation, resilience, and public service.