Join Us As We Continue To Make Boston A Greener Healthier City

Greenovate Boston is Mayor Walsh’s initiative to get all Bostonians involved in eliminating the pollution that causes global climate change, while continuing to make Boston a healthy, thriving, and innovative city..

Carbon Free Boston

Carbon Free Boston is an initiative to prepare the City to go carbon neutral by 2050. The first step within the initiative, the Carbon Free Boston report, will analyze the costs and benefits of policies and technologies that could enable Boston to reach this goal. Our goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and our analysis will help inform the City’s next update of its Climate Action Plan.

Climate Ready Boston

Climate Ready Boston is an ongoing initiative to develop resilient solutions to prepare our City for climate change. The latest report was released in December 2016, and outlines recommendations to ensure Boston will be climate-ready. Boston residents are already affected by extreme heat, rain, snow and flooding. These trends will likely continue.

Zero Waste Boston

Zero Waste Boston is an initiative to transform Boston into a zero waste city through planning, policy, and community engagement. Zero waste is a transition towards material use reduction, repair, and reuse. Mayor Walsh has commissioned a technical study of Boston's waste management as part of the City's zero waste planning process. The process will inform Carbon Free Boston, and its results will contribute to the City's next update of its Climate Action Plan.

The Greenovate Awards recognize climate action leadership and environmental sustainability excellence in the City of Boston. Read this blog series to find out more about this year’s winners in the Alternative Transportation category.

Boston and its community continues to rise to the challenge of balancing our historic landscape with the need to adapt and evolve to our changing mobility needs. Public transportation, walking, biking, carpooling, car-sharing, and ride-sharing are all pieces of the puzzle that will help Boston meet its climate and sustainability goals.

PETER CROSSAN – BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS, DORCHESTER

About Peter Crossan – Boston Public Schools

Peter Crossan is the Boston Public Schools’-Department of Transportation’s fleet and compliance manager, and oversees the 800+ BPS school bus fleet.

What makes Peter Crossan – Boston Public Schools an outstanding leader in creating a green and sustainable future for the City of Boston?

Peter has made it his personal mission to reduce vehicle emissions in order to improve the health of students and the greater Boston community. Peter worked for three years with engineers at the bus manufacturer Blue Bird and Roush Cleantech, providers of bus propane fuel systems, to design and build the first half-size conventional propane-powered school buses. Boston’s buses were purpose built to Peter’s exacting performance specifications in order to provide a safer option for students who enter buses in the rear of the vehicle near the tailpipe.

Peter is relentless in his pursuit of continuous improvement – from actions such as improved fuel economy on existing buses, to new lower-emission vehicles like the propane buses, to fuel tracking software, to even the garages that BPS bus maintenance is done in having undergone building efficiency retrofits — such as new boilers, and building envelope/insulation. These initiatives have always been about the health of the students and air quality in the City of Boston, but it just so happens to also save the Boston Public Schools money on its transportation costs.

Simply said – Peter runs a tight ship with high standards and an obvious passion for what he does. So be sure that when you talk to him about these initiatives, block out an hour of time, because in addition to what BPS-DOT has already done, you’ll hear about the next 5 items on his list.

You can visit the site to get more info: https://www.greenovateboston.org

Greenovate works with the broader community to implement the City’s Climate Action Plan, which is a roadmap to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions 25% by 2020 and to become carbon neutral by 2050.