Page 33 - BusinessWest July 21, 2021

Sarita Hudson says local officials began paying more attention to climate change, and the people it affects, after the freak weather of 2011.
overcome challenges created by societal issues. With this funding, residents in partnership with Live Well Springfield can advocate for policy changes as they have done before on different issues like community gardening and Complete Streets. Springfield is a model for this type of action.”
As part of the three-year, grant-funded initia- tive, the Live Well Springfield Climate Justice Ini- tiative will advocate for the city of Springfield to adopt the Community Choice Energy program
and a race and health-equity impact assessment requirement for city development, aiming to address the climate crisis, systemic racism, and their resulting impact on health for communities of color, particularly black and Latinx.
Community Choice Energy addresses how
a city sources the energy that fuels homes and municipal buildings. “The goal is to work with municipal government,” Bilal said. “We’re the City of Homes, so why not be the city of energy- efficient homes? So, when you turn on the light- bulb, you’re making a conscious decision that your energy is being sourced with renewable or clean energy.”
As for the race and health-equity impact assessment, when the city is involved with build- ing new infrastructure or development, “how
do we assess the equity impacts and health impacts of these ideas?” Bilal said. “We’re hold- ing builders and developers accountable for making sure that we are representing the voices that would say, ‘hey, you’re pushing my commu- nity out by building this here,’ or ‘we would love to have this building here, but can you build a community center as part of this infrastructure development?’
“That makes it possible for us to build bet- ter communities and be more thoughtful in our building,” she added, “so we’re not dispropor- tionately pushing aside certain groups of people by building something in a place that would dis- enfranchise someone.”
Stormy Weather
In 2019, the coalition was awarded a plan- ning grant by Kresge to identify one or two policy ideas that could significantly impact greenhouse
gas emissions, health, equity, and racism. The coalition partners worked closely with about 160 stakeholders, resident advocates, and residents, representing every neighborhood in the city, to narrow down 156 possible policies to two. The partners created a variety of engagement proj- ects like community conversations, surveys,
and workshops to gain community input and feedback.
Hudson’s involvement in climate-justice ini- tiatives goes back to her work with the Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition at PHIWM, which asked the city in 2013 to create a climate-resilience strategy in the wake of the multiple freak weather events that struck the region in 2011, includ-
ing a tornado, floods, and the pre-Halloween snowstorm.
Finalized in 2017, that project was titled Strong, Healthy & Just: Springfield Climate Action & Resilience Plan, and plenty of city residents were engaged after experiencing the effects of that string of events, Hudson said. “It was all
part of extreme weather that is related to climate change. And when we look at who the popula- tions are, who is it that are most impacted, it’s people with asthma, people with respiratory dis- ease, people with cardiovascular disease, elders, and children.”
Asthma, as an enviromental and health issue, has been a major problem in Springfield for a long time. Just this year, the city relinquished its two-year reign as the nation’s number-one asth- ma capital, and is now ranked by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America as the 12th-most-
Climate
Continued on page 41
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