A Green Beginning: Cambridge, Harvard and MIT

By Kaya

Kaya and Eliza

On Monday, May 6^th, Eliza and I attended an early morning signing ceremony for the Cambridge Community Compact for a Sustainable Future. This joint effort is dedicated to creating a more sustainable future for the City of Cambridge.

Mayor Henrietta Davis with our quilt

Mayor Henrietta Davis had sent us an invitation to attend, which we accepted with excitement. The quilt we made and had donated to the City of Cambridge —  “Imagine a Sustainable Life” — had been hung in Mayor Davis’ reception room during March. Perhaps this was her way of saying “thank you” by including us. She knows we care about these issues, so we were happy to be there!

Representatives of the City of Cambridge, along with the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) signed the document that expresses their commitment to work together on climate change and energy sustainability. 

The four signatories were City Manager Robert Healy, Mayor Henrietta Davis, Harvard President Drew Faust, and MIT President Rafael Reif.  The city and these educational institutions had worked on drafting this resolution for more than a year.

Left to right: Harvard President Drew Faust, MIT President Rafael Reif, Cambridge Mayor Henrietta Davis and Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy

The signing ceremony — with remarks from each of those who signed it — lasted less than an hour. In her remarks, Mayor Davis emphasized the main points of the Cambridge Community Compact for a Sustainable Future, which holds each party accountable for making progress toward achieving certain goals. Broadly, those goals are:

·      Building energy efficiency

·      Climate change mitigation and preparedness planning

·      Renewable energy systems

·      Sustainable technology

·      Waste management

·      Water management

·      Urban natural resources

·      Public information and education

·      Green tech incubation and promotion

By signing the Compact, MIT and Harvard, as well as the city of Cambridge, are pledging their contribution towards creating an environmentally sustainable city. This is a big step for Cambridge, and it shows just how serious Cambridge is about increasing its sustainability by addressing the challenges of climate change. 

The Sprouts of Hope with the signatories and other invited guests.

 The Sprouts of Hope are glad to have witnessed such a remarkable event and can’t wait to see how the contract comes into play! Great job, Cambridge!