WRSE in the News

 

 

 


West Roxbury Saves Energy Helping Environment at Parkway Soccer Family Day

Wicked Local Parkway Blog

Posted on June 14, 2010, by David Ertischek


West Roxbury Saves Energy gave away more than 200 reusable water bottles last Saturday at the annual Parkway Soccer Family Day event at Millennium Park. WRSE’s “Water Table” was meant to encourage people to buy fewer sports drinks and bottled waters and use tap water instead and was sponsored by Waves Car Wash.

 

Parkway Residents Make Boston Shine

West Roxbury Transcript, April 29, 2010

by Joe McGonegal

Roslindale Village’s Adams Park looks a little brighter and well kept this week, thanks to a community-wide effort last Saturday to clean up and beautify the park and the areas around the square.

Just down the road in West Roxbury, the West Roxbury Saves Energy organization planted flowers along Centre Street, beautifying the area, too.

But ask any of the volunteers or organizers who attended any of the events throughout part of Mayor Menino’s Boston Shines campaign, and they were quick to point out Roslindale and West Roxbury’s year-round efforts at environmental awareness.

Whether that be through Roslindale Main Street, the Roslindale Litter Posse or Roslindale Green and Clean, the borough’s parks, green spaces and municipal areas are well taken care of and advocated for all year long.

“We truly care about Roslindale and want to keep it clean,” said Adrianna Cillo, founder of the Litter Posse, who greeted volunteers in Adams Park on Saturday morning with Marna Persechini.

“We used to call this the ‘Roslindale Clean Up,’ and now we call it Boston Shines. But we’ve done this every year,” said Persechini.

Part of Boston Shines’ focus in Roslindale this year was Adams Park, the caretaking of which has recently fallen back to the city.

“We’ve talked this year about making some long-term improvements to the park,” said Jody Burr, executive director of Roslindale Village Main Street. “The idea this year was to do more maintenance and pruning — simple things that all the neighbors could get involved in.”

Nearby, a neighbor, Diane Carter-Duggan, was pruning the lilacs, which were crowding each other out and behind many of the city’s lilacs in growth. “These should be blooming, and you should smell them [by now],” she said.

Jamie Basto was helping Roslindale Village Main Street board member Tom Donahue clean up the municipal lot behind Citizens Bank, along with fellow volunteers Bill Hogan, Sam Warren and Betsy Hinkle.

“We’ve been doing this every year, trying to reduce the volume of trash,” said Basto. “It’s a little work we can contribute that will help make big strides for the neighborhood.”

Cynthia Donnelly, who helped found Roslindale Green and Clean after the 2004 House and Garden Tour, was also in Adams Park Saturday to help organize volunteers. “For the last five years, we’ve had a ‘green garden exchange,’ to provide local things that residents can do to help sustain their community,” Donnelly said.

As a result of its efforts, Green and Clean were named winners of the 2010 American Horticultural Society Urban Beautification Award.

“It’s great to see these three organizations working together on this, trying to educate people in terms of cleaning up their neighborhoods,” said Donnelly.

    

 

"Two Opportunities to Go Green"

The Roslindale—West Roxbury Bulletin, October 1, 2009

by Vinaya Saksena


Parkway area businesses will have not one, but two opportunities to learn how to make their operations a little "greener" in the next few days.

On Friday, October 2nd, West Roxbury Main Streets will host a "Go Green" roundtable discussion. That will be followed on Monday, October 5 with a "Green Business Forum" hosted by West Roxbury Saves Energy.

The events feature some of the same key guests, and share some common purposes. However, the organizers maintained that their events offered some different features as well, and would be held at different times of day.

West Roxbury Main Streets will hold its event at the West on Centre Restaurant, located at 1732 Centre Street, from 7:30 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. on Friday. West Roxbury Saves Energy, meanwhile, will hold its forum in the West Roxbury Branch Library Meeting Room, located at 1961 Centre Street, from 6:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. on Monday.

"What we (are doing) is providing information for the community that will help individuals and businesses save money while going green," said Rickie Harvey, Chairwoman of the steering committee for West Roxbury Saves Energy. "This is our attempt to help them do this."

West Roxbury Main Streets will be attempting to perform a similar task at its event on Friday, but in a way that is more specifically focused on helping local businesses through networking and information on tax incentives and grants for "green" expenditures. According to the group’s executive director, Joni Walter, they, like West Roxbury Saves Energy, will also be attempting to provide information that will encourage something seldom seen among neighborhood businesses: recycling.

"We thought it could be a great program for West Roxbury, because none of the businesses recycle," Walter said. "So they could probably organize their waste better and recycle more."

Walter said that West on Centre was the only business she knew of in the neighborhood that routinely recycled. Both she and Harvey noted that recycling bins are not distributed to businesses by the city, as they are for residents.

Both groups’ events will feature presentations by a representative of Save that Stuff, a waste management company that helps New England businesses recycle. Walter noted that it was through this company that West on Centre had been conducting its recycling efforts.

Other presenters at the West Roxbury Main Streets event will include: Frank Gorke, Director of the Division of Energy Efficiency at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs; Peter Crowley, Acting Director of the non-profit Sustainable Business Leader Program (SBLP) and representatives of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 103 and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Renewable Energy Trust.

The West Roxbury Saves Energy event, meanwhile, will see Jim Hunt, Chief of Environmental and Energy Services discuss the Renew Boston Initiative, which Harvey said had been allotted $6.5 million in federal stimulus funds intended to assist small businesses financially in the process of going green. The group will also give out its first annual Green Business Awards. Harvey said that while her organization had initially been geared toward helping individual residents find environmentally friendly alternatives to products or services they used, the group’s unexpected success has made it feasible for them to assist local businesses as well.

"I thought it would be a much longer process- that we’d still be reaching out to residents. We don’t even mention business in our mission statement. However, it makes sense to reach out to them."

One of the key factors in both groups’ efforts was making "green" alternatives financially feasible for small businesses. Harvey said that while the current economic downturn had definitely been felt locally, she felt the neighborhood had been somewhat lucky in this regard compared to other communities, which positioned West Roxbury well for green endeavors, and economic activity in general, in the near future.

"I think it’s a great community to be (working) in. There’s a lot going on, a lot of businesses opening up. It’s been a good year for 2009."

Neither event has an advertised admission fee, although West Roxbury Main Streets has noted that space is limited for their event. More information on West Roxbury Main Streets can be found online at: www.wrms.org. The West Roxbury Saves Energy web site is located at: www.westroxburysavesenergy.org.

 

"Low-Carbon Diet Good for West Roxbury, and the World"

West Roxbury Transcript, March 5, 2009

by Greg Kwasnik

Several West Roxbury households are undertaking a belated New Year’s resolution, vowing to reduce their ecological waistlines in the coming year through an environmentally friendly, low-carbon diet.

Dozens of community members met for a “Smart Energy Party” at West on Centre restaurant last Monday night to learn how to reduce personal energy consumption. West Roxbury Saves Energy, a community group dedicated to helping the residents make informed choices about energy use, organized the event.

The event challenged West Roxbury households to reduce their carbon footprints by 5,000 pounds in 2009. A carbon footprint is the measurement of carbon dioxide, in pounds, that a person or household releases into the atmosphere over the course of a year. The average American household produces 55,000 pounds of carbon dioxide in a year; the average Kenyan household produces just 400 pounds.

Households that commit to the low-carbon diet will join together in small community-based support groups that will meet several times over the next three months. The groups are intended to ease the transition to greener living through teamwork and collaboration.

“We’re trying to build small communities by creating low-carbon diet groups,” said Gretchen O’Neill, a member of the West Roxbury Saves Energy steering committee and an organizer of the event.

She explained that the low-carbon diets are effective because of their simplicity and low cost that makes it easy for many people to participate and make a difference.

“We’re not crusading for high-end energy-savings strategies,” O’Neill said. “Our object is low-cost ways to save energy.”

Presentations by steering committee members Ray Porfilio and Dave Newbold taught various strategies to reduce carbon footprint size. To ease a household’s impact on the environment, Porfilio suggested that residents limit the amount of trash they generate, reduce in-house energy consumption and buy carbon offset credits from their local electric utility. He explained that winterizing a house, or even unplugging unused electronic devices, could add up to big energy savings over the course of a year.

West Roxbury resident and City Councilor John Connolly attended the Monday meeting and promised to follow the low carbon diet. Connolly, who chairs the Boston City Council’s Committee on Environment and Health, said that community involvement is an essential component to solving the world’s environmental problems.

“The key to reversing global warming starts with the individual and goes neighbor to neighbor,” Connolly said. “People getting together to reduce energy and carbon consumption is the key to sustainability, and a sustainable Boston.”

City Councilor John Tobin also attended the event, noting that reducing the size of household carbon footprints isn’t just about helping the environment. He said that being green means the average homeowner will see more of a different kind of green.

“It’s not only good for the planet, but selfishly, its good for the bottom line,” said Tobin.

For Parker Newbold, 19, reducing carbon footprints is serious business. Newbold, who will attend Brandeis University next fall, has already worked to reduce his family’s carbon footprint. What motivates him is the fact that preventing irreversible climate change is sure to fall on the shoulders of his own generation.

“It’s going to be our problem soon,” he said. “It’s already our problem, but if we don’t do something to raise awareness, we’re going to continue to see dire consequences.”

 

"The Low-Carbon Diet?"

The Roslindale—West Roxbury Bulletin, March 5, 2009
by Scott Wachtler

 

Despite a heavy March snow, a good number of West Roxbury residents, including city councilors John Tobin and John Connolly came out to West on Centre to hear just what a Low-Carbon Diet Group is. The Smart Energy Party was held Monday night by the community based non-profit organization West Roxbury Saves Energy.

"The idea behind this is to spread the word to people about what they can do to save energy and reduce their carbon foot print," Ray Porfilio, who along with his wife Rickie Harvey found the group, said. "The goal is to get households to take steps to reduce 5,000 pounds of carbon a year from their diet. That doesn’t sound like much, but if we can get 20 households to join in, that becomes 100,000 pounds. By getting more and more people to take part in the community, then suddenly you have a bigger number."

Dave Mahoney and Liz Morian share a house on Beech Street — the home Mahoney grew up in. Since it’s an older home, drafts are a big issue for them when it comes to energy conservation. They came to the Smart Energy Party to meet up with other residents to see what they were doing to save energy.

"West Roxbury is a prime place to hold a meeting like this because we have a lot of larger older and drafty homes here so any information is needed... It’s crazy how expensive it is to heat a home here," Mahoney said. "We have a 115-year-old stained glass window and we know we’re losing heat from it, but what can you do? You don’t want to get rid of it because it’s beautiful, but you also know that it’s costing a lot of money."

West Roxbury Saves Energy provided flyers with 10 simple ways people can save energy and save money in the long run. Mahoney and Morian were happy to see that they were already doing a lot of things on the list, but they were also happy to see that there were other suggestions they had not thought of.

"I’m glad to say that I’ve been taking my own bags to Roche Bros. for over a year to pack my groceries," Morian said. "But I never even thought of recycling wire hangers from the cleaners. I’ll be honest: we’ve just been throwing them away."

Roche Bros. will refund customers five cents for each bag you bring for your purchases. Prime Cleaners in West Roxbury will also take off 5 cents from your cleaning bill for each wire hanger you return.

Ultimately, Mahoney and Morian said they’d love to do an energy audit in their home to see where they’re losing the most heat and energy. They recently converted all the light bulbs in the kitchen and living room with energy efficient Compact Fluorescent Lights.

"It was more expensive and at first I was worried that the light would make the rooms in our house look like an office building, but the CFLs have gotten better,’’ Mahoney said.

Becoming a smart energy user comes down to consumption, cost and carbon reduction, Porfilio said. He said Americans consume an average of 55,000 pounds of carbon per year and use 2 million plastic water bottles every five minutes,

"That’s 30 million in an hour!" he said. "That’s a staggering number so we have to look at our consumption, using less is better. It saves money and saves resources."

Porfilio said cost comes into play because sometimes it will cost more to take part in greener programs. Last year he and his family offered to take part in NStar’s Green program which allows customers to choose to have their electricity come from either 50 or 100 percent renewable energy sources.

"It comes out to about an extra $7 or $14 on your bill to get your energy from them," Harvey said. "But it’s worth it to our family."

Porfilio encouraged those who came out to do their own carbon audit and provided a worksheet to everyone who attended. He used his family’s carbon audit to illustrate how they were able to cut 6,000 pounds off their carbon diet.

In 2007, Porfilio and his four-member family became interested in reducing their carbon footprint. By taking a carbon audit, they calculated that they where consuming 87,000 pounds of carbon — well above the 55,000 pound U.S. average.

Porfilio attributed the high number to the fact that his home and many of the homes in West Roxbury are older, larger and less energy efficient that newer homes. Harvey also works from home which means the house is "in use" all the time.

In 2008, Porfilio and his family began to get serious about reducing their carbon output. The City of Boston’s recycling program that started last summer has helped them cut down on their trash and joining NStar’s Green has helped them further lessen their carbon impact. Switching to CFLs also helped them to reduce their energy usage.

With just simple changes, the Porfilios were able to reduce their carbon footprint. Their goal is to further lower that number and reach the U.S. average within two years. To do that, Porfilio said he plans on winterizing his home this year and also purchasing carbon offsets which provides funding to support activities that save carbon.

"Although we have two teens, we’re committed to not becoming a three-car family," Porfilio said. "I’ll be cycling to work more. That will further lower our footprint."

Mahoney and Morian along with Connolly and his wife, joined with others in attendance to form two carbon diet groups which will work together to monitor their carbon consumption.

The groups plan on meeting regularly to discuss strategies for the next few months and then reconvene in late May or early June to discuss how it went.

"I’m excited to do the program," Connolly said. "I’ll admit that I have a lot to do. I think the first thing we’ll do is swap out our old light blubs and replace them with CFLs. We’re also planning on weather proofing our house. I’m embarrassed to say it, but we’re probably a high consuming house, but that’s got to change."

Tobin also felt like the carbon diet groups were a good idea.

"This wasn’t preachy at all, which was good," he said. "I felt like I was in an over consumers anonymous group."

Thanks to the city’s recycling program, he and other families have been able to cut down their garbage output to only two bags per week.

"I fill up two of those recycling bins!" Tobin said.

 

“New WR Group Wants to Make Saving Energy Easy”

The Roslindale—West Roxbury Bulletin, December 24, 2008
by Scott Wachtler

 

For a long time Rickie Harvey was frustrated with the federal government’s response to global warming. Instead of waiting for politicians to change, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

After seeing that many other Boston area neighborhoods and towns had community groups getting residents to thinking green, she decided to start her own.

About a year ago, Harvey created the non-profit organization West Roxbury Saves Energy. Starting in October, she and other members began distributing brochures and fliers throughout West Roxbury to show people that there are things that can be done on the grass roots level to help combat global warming.

“At first I wasn’t very educated about the subject. I thought since it was a big deal and we had to wait until the federal government stepped in,” she said. “But there are an endless amount of steps everyone can take. We decided to put together ideas that focus on saving money because that helps pull people in.”

Some of the ways WRSE recommends people can help save money and energy include, using public transportation or carpooling at least once a week to get to work. WRSE says it saves on gas and saves on parking.

Power strips suck up energy by consuming power the entire time they are plugged in. When not in use, WRSE suggests that you unplug any cords connected to electronics.

Another money saving tip is to wash laundry in cold water. According to WRSE, 90 percent of the energy used for the washer goes toward heating the water.

Harvey said the brochures and fliers have been a big success and have helped the organization grow. They currently have seven members and a number of energy saving ideas on their agenda.

“The goal was to raise awareness that there are simple things people can do to save money and help fight global warming,” she said. “Since the filers were distributed, over 300 people have visited our Web site.”

Earlier in the month, two members of their steering committee, Dave Newbold and Ray Porfilio, held a Winterizing Workshop at the West Roxbury Library. Porfilio is an architect who incorporates "Green" building technology into his designs. Both he and Newbold gave residents tips on basic ways to tighten homes against the cold this winter.

Harvey called the workshop a success with 25 residents attending the event. “I’m not an expert on any of this,” Harvey said. “I’m just trying to get like-minded people together and wade though the massive amounts of material that’s out there and then distill it into easy steps people can to help themselves and the environment.”

For now, Harvey is busy looking into ways the community can work with local businesses to help the environment. Currently, Prime Cleaners on 651 VFW Parkway will take 5 cents off your laundry bill for each hanger returned. Harvey would also like to see The City of Boston give the West Roxbury True Value permission to be a drop-off place for used Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL).

“CFLs have mercury in them and can’t be disposed in the trash or landfills,” Harvey said. “You can dispose your CFLs at any TrueValue in Cambridge or Home Depot, but we would like to have a local place here in West Roxbury. This is something I would really like to get done.”

Harvey said this will become more of a problem since people are starting to use CFLs more and more.

Another idea Harvey would like to work on for the future is to start a low-carbon diet group. By working with small groups made up of five or six families, Harvey said the group can work together to lower their carbon-footprint by lessening their carbon dioxide output through the choices they make.

“West Roxbury is the kind of place something like this could really work since there are so many families here,” she said. “What you do is make a promise as a group to lower your meat consumption and reduce your garbage output. You also get together to discuss strategies for how the group can succeed.”

For more information about West Roxbury Saves Energy, visit the group online at www.westroxburysavesenergy.org.

Corrections:

WRSE would like to note the following:

1) WRSE launched in October 2008

2) WRSE has seven Steering Committee members