Deep Dialogues

Rashid Shaikh is a scientist who lives in Cambridge. In 2000, he retired from working as the director for science at the Health Effects Institute. Previously, he worked as the director for science at the Health Effects Institute, an independent non-profit organization, jointly funded by the EPA and the auto manufacturers, which has provided some of the most critical science to inform air pollution policies in the US and abroad. His presentation, titled “Air Pollution and Climate Change: A Tale of Twin Challenges,” focuses on the effects and magnitude of air pollution on human health, the impact of regulations, and the disproportionate burden on EJ and underserved communities from mobile sources. He also discusses the (major) contribution of the transportation sector to GHG emissions and the co- benefits of policies to address climate change.

Click here for the video of the presentation.
Click here for the slides from the presentation.

Massachusetts has mandated that we have 5.6 GW of offshore wind power under contract by mid-2027. Does this mean we can now move on to the next challenge? Commitments to offshore wind up and down the eastern seaboard herald the beginning of the offshore wind industry in the US, but do we have the manufacturing plants, the supply chain, the workforce, the installation vessels and the transmission lines that we will need? This presentation provides insights into these questions. It covered the basics of why offshore wind power is so important, what it takes to get an offshore wind power project permitted and built, and the challenges facing the state and project developers that need to be addressed to translate our offshore wind power commitments into power flowing into the New England grid.

Tony Rogers was a researcher in the UMass Wind Energy Center for many years, co-wrote a book on wind turbine design and engineering, was the lead technical author of the state’s successful proposal for the Wind Technology Testing Center in Charlestown MA, and worked for an international wind energy consulting firm for seven years.

The slides for the presentation are here and the video is here.

Elaine Strunk, Senior Director for Global Sustainability-Food and Planet Impact at MacDonald’s Corporation speaks about the corporation’s environmental goals and progress made toward achieving those goals.  She notes the scope of MacDonald’s business operations: 38,000 restaurants, mostly franchises, in over 100 countries and the supply chains that serve these businesses.  This means that MacDonald’s actions have major impacts globally.  She describes science-based climate initiatives in a broad range of areas.  Among these are reducing emissions in the restaurant buildings and efforts to minimize waste in packaging, especially reducing single-use or hard to recycle plastics and other materials.  She notes problems encountered in these efforts, including customer preferences for less green products such as plastic straws and Styrofoam.  Other areas include making transportation more efficient to minimize emissions and reusing or recycling fry oil and cardboard. She discusses efforts to eliminate deforestation in sourcing core items such as beef, oil and other agricultural products and to encourage regenerative farming.

The presentation gives insight into how this large corporation seeks to become greener, while also dealing with customer reaction to changes in MacDonald’s products and cultural differences in many different countries or regions within the U.S.  Elaine notes working with many organizations and other corporations to define and implement better environmental practices.  She also noted that legislation on issues such as banning the use of Styrofoam packaging would make it easier to implement better practices by reducing competition with other companies.

In addition to Elaine’s formal presentation there are informative exchanges based on numerous questions from the audience. Watch the video here.

In the final installment of the grid series, Phil Hanser returned to present the evolution of the grid and grid governance which led to the deregulation of the utilities and the formation of RTOs such as ISO-NE.  Phil discussed the various electric markets and the participants in these markets.  During the presentation, Phil paused for thought provoking questions from meeting participants.

With over forty years’ experience in the industry, Phil Hanser is an expert in the energy industry – including principal emeritus of the Brattle Group and serving as an expert witness with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). 

The video for the presentation is here and the slides are here.

Existing commercial buildings offers significant potential on climate action.  But existing large buildings have special considerations due to the need to meet the building constraints of their HVAC systems, particularly in northern regions.  This presentation addresses the technical, financial, and policy challenges in achieving substantial decarbonization.  Some of us are familiar with the technologies and tradeoffs for decarbonizing residential buildings.  As shown in today’s presentation, large commercial buildings present significantly different challenges.   

Michael Gevelber, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Boston University, will present his findings on decarbonizing the major buildings on the BU campus.  Mr. Gevelber has an undergraduate degree in Physics with from Brown University and a Masters and Ph.D from  M.I.T. in Mechanical Engineering.

The video for the presentation is here. The presentation slides are here.

In the second part of the series on grid operation and governance, Meredith Angwin, author of Shorting the Grid, discusses the difference between the “Physical” grid, the “Policy” grid, and the “Could” grid.  She then described the two major forms of grid governance – traditional vertically integrated utilities and the deregulated RTOs – such as ISO-NE – along with a discussion of energy auctions and load balancing.  For all utilities the importance of baseload power is stressed.

For the RTOs and ISO-NE in particular, Meredith argues that no one is ultimately responsible for grid reliability, and this can lead to rolling blackouts or worse.

The video for Meredith’s presentation and discussion are here.  The slides are here.

The grid and “grid modernization” is key to achieving our emissions reduction targets as we replace the use of fossil fuels with clean electricity.  The grid is more than physical wires and electric generation.  It must be operated so that electricity is delivered reliably and affordably on a moment to moment basis.

With over forty years’ experience in the energy industry, Phil Hanser provided an informative and lively introduction to the grid.  Mr. Hanser’s presentation sets the stage for two more in-depth presentations on grid operation and governance scheduled over the next month.

The slides from the presentation are here and the video is here.

Take a narrated visual tour of Miyawaki method forests planted around the world with Mini-Forest Revolution author Hannah Lewis. Learn something about how this proven method allows us to reforest even small urban plots to grow trees for shade and other ecological services faster than we ever thought possible. The first Miyawaki forest in the Northeast, planted in Sept. 2021, is thriving in Cambridge at Danehy Park and several are now in the works in Brookline and Somerville. The questions and discussion were also very instructive. Hannah and her book may inspire you to plan one too! 

The slides from the presentation are here. The video for the meeting is here.

Our speaker for the November Deep Dialogue was Erica Gies, an independent environmental journalist who authored the recent book Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge. Erica covers the work of “water detectives” studying the way water works on earth, how our efforts to control water have created problems worsened by climate change and how water problems can be mitigated by restoring natural, slow water cycles. In her presentation Erica offers examples of how innovators in the “slow water” movement in many parts of the world have restored water environments, improved the well-being of people and helped heal the earth

See a review of Erica’s book in our August ECA Mass newsletter.

Watch the video here.