About Sustainable Milton and our Community
Our Mission
We aim to create a community that acts to preserve our ecosystem as a whole. We raise awareness, educate and motivate residents, town government and businesses to reduce waste of all forms and create a healthy, vibrant future for all.
Our History
2006
Laurie Macintosh created Sustainable Milton. The first meeting was held on Oct 18.
2007
The Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth was shown at Milton Academy of Feb 8.
2008
Sustainable Milton’s Articles of Organization were approved on April 1 officially making it a 501-c-3 tax deductible charity organization – please join.
Sustainable Milton convinced over 400 Milton residents to support the New England Wind Fund Challenge,being awarded over $50,000 for a 10 panel solar array and weather station for the roof of Milton High School.
Sustainable Milton created the Eco Team Challenge and over 50 families worked in teams beginning in Dec.
2009
The ceremonial ribbon cutting for the New England Wind Fund Milton High School Solar Array and Weather Station took place at the May Town Meeting.
Sustainable Milton hosted its first Green Homes Fair on April 24.
2010
Sustainable Milton worked together with the town to get a wind turbine in Milton. Despite a year of work and grant money awarded, a threatened lawsuit by Granite Links Golf Course squashed the deal.
The Town of Milton was designated a Green Community on Dec 15.
2011
Sustainable Milton showed the film Energy Crossroads: A Burning Need to Change Course on Feb 8.
Sustainable Milton showed the film Gasland on March 23.
Sustainable Milton hosted Green Homes Fair #2 at Cunningham Hall on April 23
Sustainable Milton participated in the DPW Open House on May 21. Sustainable Milton showed the film No Impact Man on June 29.
2012
Sustainable Milton showed the film Forks Over Knives on March 7.
Sustainable Milton hosted Green Homes Fair #3 at Cunningham Hall on April 21.
2013
Sustainable Milton showed the film Queen of the Sun: What the Bees Are Telling Us
2014
Sustainable Milton hosted Green Homes Fair #4 at Cunningham Hall on April 26.
Sustainable Milton participated in the DPW Open House on May 17.
Sustainable Milton participated in the Brookwood Community Farms plant sale and pancake breakfast May 17 and 18.
Sustainable Milton in conjunction with Sustainable South Shore and Bio4Climate present Can Cows Save the Climate? – a program of short films and discussion at Milton Public Library. Sustainable Milton began to have a table at Milton Farmers’ Market that summer. Sustainable Milton had a table at Celebrate Milton on Oct 5. Sustainable Milton with Milton Alternative Energy Committee and Next Step Living presented the program Green Homes Milton at the library on Nov 13.
2015
Sustainable Milton began its support for Safe Routes to Schools project in Jan.
Sustainable Milton presented the program Bees, Biochar and Butterflies at Milton Public Library on April first.
Sustainable Milton and Milton High students worked together to clean the Milton High School grounds as part of the DPW Milton Clean Up Day on May 2.
Sustainable Milton showed the film Dirt! The Movie on Aug 3.
Sustainable Milton participated in the DPW Open House on May 16.
David Kelman of Sustainable Milton held an open house at his home on Aug 15.
Sustainable Milton participated at Celebrate Milton on Oct 6.
Members of Sustainable Milton participated in the Air Noise Hearing at Milton High School on Dec 3.
2016
Sustainable Milton hosted Green Homes Fair #5 at Cunningham Hall on April 23. For the first time Sustainable Milton presented its Green Student Leadership Award to two graduating Milton High school students –Alexis von Metzsch Belash and Chris Jean Baptiste on May 31.
2017
Milton Cleanup Day was hosted by Sustainable Milton on DPW on April 29.
Sustainable Milton showed the film Dirt! The Movie at Milton Public Library on June 12.
Sustainable Milton presented the Green Student Leadership Award to graduating Milton High School student Maia Adleyon May 30.
Sustainable Milton participated at Celebrate Milton on Oct 1 and for the first time presented Electric Vehicles.
Sustainable Milton became part of Milton Change Makers in Sept.
Sustainable Milton showed Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power at Milton Public Library on Nov 2.
2018
The new monthly series Sustainably Speaking began in the Milton Times in April.
Sustainable Milton together with the Town of Milton and Solar Flair began a three month program Solarize Milton in April to encourage more solar townwide.
Sustainable Milton presented the Green Student Leadership Award to graduating Milton High School student Nicholas Ruiz on May 29.
Sustainable Milton donated $2000 as part of the cost of a hydration station at Milton High School.
2019
At our annual board meeting in Jan Sustainable Milton began working with Quiet Communities and others to promote battery-operated land equipment to reduce noise, pollution and health hazards.
Sustainable Milton presented the first of four talks in the series Green Homes Conversations. This first was by architect Joseph Kennard – About a Milton Net Zero Home - at Milton Public Library on March 6.
Sustainable Milton and Milton Advisory Bicycle Committee presented Bikes,Barrels, Bags at Cunningham Hall on May 4 replacing the now defunct DPW Open House. The Bike Committee took in old bikes, sold repaired bikes, helped to repair bikes and gave helmets away free to children purchasing bikes.
Sustainable Milton had information about our organization and about rain barrels and compost bins. We sold our tote bags and for the first time mesh vege bags. We presented electric vehicles and with the help of Steve Wells of Blue Hills Power, battery-operated equip. There was also free music thanks to Chris Lee a performer with Musicians for the Greater Good.
Sustainable Milton donated $1750 as part of the cost of a hydration station at Pierce Middle School.
Sustainable Milton presented the Green Student Leadership Award to three graduating Milton High School students -Eliza O'Donnell, Isabel Caridad Smith, and Molly Baker on May 28.
2020
What will happen in the coming year? Get involved and help us decide.
Our Community
Our Community continues to expand our local and regional connections and common aspirations with the following organizations and groups, committed to a sustainable and just world, through ongoing mutually supportive projects and networking.
Blue Hills Trailside Museum / Mass Audubon
Mass Audubon protects more than 38,000 acres of land through out Massachusetts, saving birds and other wildlife, and making nature accessible to all. As Massachusetts’ largest nature conservation nonprofit, we welcome more than a half million visitors a year to our wildlife sanctuaries and 20 nature centers. From inspiring hilltop views to breathtaking coastal landscapes, serene woods, and working farms, we believe in protecting our state’s natural treasures for wildlife and for all people—a vision shared in 1896 by our founders, two extraordinary Boston women.
Brookwood Community Farm is a working farm located in Milton and Canton, MA. Brookwood Community Farm’s mission is to build a farm-centered community that members call their own. Farm members are united by a shared passion for sustainable agriculture, fresh local food, and a commitment to increasing access to healthy food. Brookwood grows food sustainably for members through a community supported agriculture (CSA) model, provides on-farm educational and community-building opportunities, and actively supports food access projects.
The Milton Change Makers is an alliance of 10 progressive groups with members in the Milton and Mattapan communities. Many have been long established,others more recently formed, some in response to the countries shift in leadership and regressive agendas. We started organizing in 2017 with the purpose of both coordinating and promoting progressive efforts towards change in our communities and in our local, state and federal governments. This website contains a directory of all 10 organizations, with descriptions and contact information for each, and a link to our community calendar of events involving these progressive organizations.
Neponset River Watershed Association
The Neponset River Watershed Association is a grassroots,member-supported conservation group working since 1967 to clean up and protect the Neponset River, its tributaries and surrounding watershed lands.Our goal is a clean, healthy, accessible river and watershed, from the smallest headwater stream to the wide-open brackish water of the estuary. The River has come a long way from its days as a severely polluted industrial river.Today, most streams in the Neponset River system meet swimmable standards during dry weather, and much of the river has been opened up for canoeing, bike paths and waterfront parks.
Sustainable South Shore was started in 2004 in Hull, MA and engages in:
Creating a vision of a sustainable-community; Research and analysis; Developing consensus through education, publicity,discussion, and events; Initiating, supporting, and implementing sustainable projects, including sustainable air, water, energy, and bio-system projects; Endeavoring to practice principles of global sustainability in our own lives. We seek common ground, helping people feel deeply connected to Earth, knitting together individuals, families, groups and institutions, and creating the emotional and spiritual support of true human community to achieve sustainability. (Chapter of MCAN since 2004)
The Mary M. B. Wakefield Charitable Trust promotes life-long participatory learning using the land and resources of the Wakefield estate.Through collaborative partnerships with schools and community organizations,the Wakefield Trust carries out this mission through providing educational opportunities, tours, presentations, workshops,hands-on training, internships and other programs covering a variety of subjects, including local history, ecology, horticulture, agriculture, archival work and historic preservation.
Community and Town Green Efforts
Green Community Effort
Milton became a Green Community in 2011 though the combined effort of the Milton Alternate Energy Committee (MAEC) and the Town of Milton, completing the Energy Reduction Action Plan in 2010, as part of the in-depth five step protocol required by then DOER for all Massachusetts Towns. Members of the Committee included Director William Clark at Planning and Community Development coordinated the program through the final hurdles, while Director Bill Richie and his staff at Milton’s Consolidated Services continues to enhance and expand the Town’s Green Community status relationship with the DOER and other utility grant opportunities. Since 2011, they have applied for and received DOER grant awards totaling close to $868,000,with four additional utility incentive grants over $200,000, poised to help save an additional $125,000 in utility costs in 2018 alone.
In 2015 architects JB Clancy and Henry MacLean presented the results of the extended efforts of The Milton Alternate Energy Committee (MAEC), which also included members Tara Manno Richer, Jay Beaulieu, Laurie Webster, and Philippe Genereux. The Committee also took on efforts to convince the Town to become a member of ICLEI /USA for a few years, to enable access to their tools looking for tracking the carbon footprint of the entire town, as an extension of the work we were tasked to achieve the Green Community Status, That work was presented publicly at the NESEA Building Energy 15 conference, and posted at this YouTube link. Members of that committee are now exploring the possibility of updating that report in 2020, as a way to track our overall Town’s progress towards carbon neutrality by 2050.
Solarize Milton Effort
Milton is now one of approximately 85 Massachusetts communities who approved and completed the Solarize program modeled by the Mass Clean Energy Center to promote Solar electric PV installations for homes and businesses. Solarize Massachusetts, now in its 9th year, has resulted in over 3500 solarized properties and 23.55 megawatts of contracted capacity ( as of December 2019).The great news about solar electric is that the technology is getting better even while the costs are dropping. As a result, buildings once considered marginal for harvesting the sun due to orientation and shade are now seen as viable investments.
The Solarize Milton program was officially launched on January 11, 2018 at the Milton Library broadcast by Milton Access TV. Through the joint efforts of the Solarize Committee Sustainable Milton and the Town of Milton, a leading solar installer located here in Massachusetts, Solar Flair Energy, was selected through this competitive bid process as the program’s solar installer. Town Administrator Michael Dennehy appointed Arlyn Zuniga, Chief Procurement Officer for the Town,working with committee members Laurie McIntosh, Patrick Morgan, Philipe Genereux and Henry MacLean.
The starting Solar PV tier price was $3.08 per watt in this program, but would decrease in steps as the number of homes increases, to a base of $ 3.00 per watt if the program reached was to reach 400 KW’s (or 100 homes with average of 4 KW per home). The more Milton contract commitments the lower the price. The program ultimately attracted 181 leads, with 28 homes receiving new PV systems will pay themselves back within 7 years. Collectively, the program added another 160 KW of renewable energy (15%) to Milton rooftops, equal to the 550 panels on the Glover School.
The average home in the program added 5.7 KWPV system providing over 60 % of their electricity that will be free after the average 6 year payback. The remaining percentage of the home’s electricity can be bought from a renewable energy company , easily selected from resources such as Energy Switch Massachusetts, or Green Energy Consumer’s Alliance, focused on New England green sources only. We also determined in this process that over 50% of homes in Milton were eligible for solar systems capable of returning a 15-20% ROI. After a 4 -7 year payback, you own the system and all the kilowatts produced.
Municipal Electrical Aggregation
This transition away from fossil fuels and towards electric heating and cooling with efficient heat pumps is right in keeping with the Municipal Electrical Aggregation program now underway in Milton. Also known as Community Choice Aggregation, this was approved in May 2018 when Milton Town Meeting authorized the Board of Selectmen to begin R &D and implementation.Currently in MA towns and cities, 34 of these plans are active with another 101 in the approval process. The objectives are threefold: to lower the cost of cost of electricity for residents and businesses, achieve longer term price stability, and offer more renewable energy options.
Milton being a member of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), a competitive RFP on behalf of the Town selected Good Energy L.P. as our green municipal aggregation consultant. The process is now progressing to a 2-3 month approval process with the Department of Energy Resources, to be followed by a 6-8 month review and approval protocol with the Department of Public Utilities. In the last few months of this process, Good Energy and the Town will begin a comprehensive information and marketing campaign in Milton, to explain the opportunities in the new competitive rates for electricity.
Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program.(Resilience)
The Baker-Polito Administration has awarded $12 million in grants to municipalities across the Commonwealth to plan for and implement climate change resilience projects through the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP)Program.
Of these funds, $1.7 million was awarded to 65 communities (including Milton) to pursue a community-led planning process to identify vulnerabilities to climate change and priority actions. The remaining $10.3 million was awarded to 34 communities that had completed the planning process and are ready to implement projects that build local resilience to climate change impacts.
The MVP program implements Executive Order 569, which established an integrated strategy for climate change adaptation across the Commonwealth. Local climate change vulnerabilities and actions identified through the MVP program inform the Statewide Hazard Mitigation and Adaptation Plan – a blueprint to protect residents, communities,and local economies. The funding available through the MVP program builds upon the Baker-Polito Administration’s continued commitment to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Our Team
Erick Ask
Erick Ask has lived in Milton since 2006. He is a scientist for a large chemical company. His sustainability interests primarily focus on active transportation (walking and bicycling) and he is a member of the Milton Bicycle Advisory Committee and a Safe Routes to School supporter. In addition he has placed solar panels on his roof, purchased an electric car, composts, uses rain barrels and tracks his carbon footprint.
Didi Emmons
Though Didi Emmons has been on the board for 1.5 years, she humbly fills the roll as Vice President.
She has been living in Milton for seven years. Didi, a chef, has founded four restaurants and written three cookbooks (some have sold better than others!). Her specialty is vegetarian cuisine. The last restaurant she founded is the non-profit Haley House Bakery Cafe in Roxbury, which offers access to healthy affordable food for those in Dudley Square and where some of the staff are trained from homelessness or incarceration.
Henry MacLean
Henry is an architect and educator who worked with several large architectural firms in Boston before opening his own practice, Timeless Architecture in 1988. He has been promoting and teaching Green Design since co-chairing the Committee on the Environment with the Boston Society of Architects in 1989. He has taught and developed ongoing curricula at the BAC’s Sustainable Design Institute and Wentworth Institute of Technology. An active SM member since 2010, he chaired the Milton Alternate Energy Committee between 2010-2015.
Louis Pierro
Louis Pierro was born in NYC and later lived in Eastern Long Island where he graduated from Riverhead High School in 1969. He attended Syracuse University before moving to the Boston area in 1974. In 1985 he and his wife Maureen Fahey moved to Milton where they have been since, and where both their children Joe and Cat graduated from Milton High. When first in Milton Louis worked with Loyola Sylvan, Martha Curtis and others to get recycling started in this town attending meetings at Loyola’s house. Louis became active in Sustainable Milton shortly after it was created in 2006 by Laurie Macintosh, and has been a board member most of the years since, with membership as his primary task. He urges you all to get involved and be both a financial and active member.
Tara Manno Richer
Tara Manno Richer bike-commutes year-round and has been active with Sustainable Milton since it was founded. A former President and Vice President of the SM board, Tara was part of the Milton Alternate Energy Committee that helped Milton gain Green Communities status in 2010. She is concerned about climate change and the standard American diet/farming practices. Tara enjoys many outdoor activities and cooking with locally grown, seasonal foods. Having worked for a MA environmental agency for many years she contributes to our knowledge base in many ways, notably managing and writing the newsletter as well as addressing solid waste issues such as recycling and composting.
Tucker Smith
Tucker Smith has been a Milton homeowner for 40 years and married to Hale (also climate-active) for 43.Personal priorities focus on: conservation, environment, horticulture, choral music, writing, walking, and nurturing family and community (after growing up abroad). An active member of many Milton non-profits for years, she worked at Blue Hills Trailside Museum when their two sons were young ("alumni" of Chickatawbut Hill's Norman Smith Education Center summer camp) and currently co-chairs First Parish Milton's Green Action Team, which is working to "solarize" its Meeting House.
Fred Taylor
Sustainable Milton Recording Secretary
Fred Taylor has been a member of Sustainable Milton since 2013 and in 2015 became an active board member. He served as President of the board in 2016 and from 2017 on has been the Recording Secretary. He has done work with mercury battery collection, recycling of all types, especially at sports fields, getting hydration stations in the schools, attending the SM table at the Farmers Market and Celebrate Milton, organizing Sustainable Milton’s participation in Milton Clean-Up Day, and helping with many of our events. He is also involved with Friends of the Blue Hills and The Milton Shade Tree Committee.