Green Ribbon Commission

A group of Boston’s top executives and community leaders are helping lead the city’s fight against climate change. Climate change is an urgent issue. Yet addressing it requires sustained, long-term vision and leadership. A city can make big strides with strong leadership in city hall. But how far could it progress if its business and philanthropic leaders sign on to address climate change and lead by example in their sectors? In Boston, we’re starting to find out.

The Green Ribbon Commission (GRC) brings together diverse Boston leaders to collectively address climate change. Using the City of Boston’s Climate Action Plan as its guide, the GRC strives for change sustaining beyond any term in City Hall. This long-term perspective is one of Barr Foundation’s core values and inspires Barr’s ongoing support of the GRC.

Barr Foundation co-founder and trustee Amos Hostetter teamed up with former Boston Mayor Tom Menino in 2010 to rally more than 30 top executives in real estate, health care, higher education, and finance to join the GRC, and financial support from Barr and six other foundations to fund the group’s operations. Now led by Amos and co-chair Mayor Martin J. Walsh, the GRC plays three important roles; it:

• Provides input to the City’s climate plan and accountability for performance.
• Organizes key sectors to align their goals with the climate plan’s goals.
• Celebrates and spreads examples of success.

While the GRC maintains expansive goals, it executes in targeted ways. Members encourage their industry peers to adopt clean-energy practices. They do so by initiating green practices at their own enterprises and then promoting best practices among peers. This industry-focused approach has yielded significant results in several sectors:

• The GRC Heath Care Working Group helped catalyze and track a six-percent reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the health care sector over three years.
• The Commercial Real Estate Working Group, in partnership with A Better City’s Challenge for Sustainability, has documented an 18% reduction in GHG emissions over four years for the 85 participating facilities.

The City of Boston still has a long way to go to reach its climate goals, especially considering its growing energy needs. But, recent progress on carbon reductions is largely attributed to the GRC, praised by Menino as “the biggest team effort in our city’s history.” In addition, four recent reports from the GRC offer guidance for how to continue moving towards these goals while addressing energy needs.

Learn more about the GRC report series

Read the Washington Monthly's Successes in Philanthropy Profile of the GRC

See the GRC Case Study: A City at Work

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