Green New Deal Dashboard (beta)
Learn more about Boston's Green New Deal key priorities and metrics.
Boston’s Green New Deal (GND) is a vision for tackling the climate crisis in Boston — with policies that address economic, social, and racial inequities, while advancing health, livability, and justice throughout our neighborhoods for all Boston residents.
This GND Dashboard serves as a resource to track progress towards advancing Boston as the greenest, most family-friendly city in the country:
- Building Decarbonization: The City is focused on decarbonizing and electrifying new and existing buildings to drastically reduce carbon emissions and promote healthy home and work environments.
- Transportation: We’re committed to ensuring all residents have easy and affordable access to an efficient, carbon-free transportation network.
- Clean Energy: We must purchase and generate renewable energy so we can power our city on carbon-free electricity as soon as possible.
- Resilience & Nature: From rising sea levels to hotter summer days, Boston is already experiencing the impacts of climate change. We are working to strengthen Boston’s 47-mile coast, while ensuring all residents benefit from trees, parks, and nature in our city
- Workforce: The City and our partners in education, labor, and the private sector are developing our green workforce to ensure a just transition to a green economy.
Boston's Green New Deal
About this Dashboard
Boston’s Green New Deal is putting into action projects, programs, and partnerships that make visible changes in our daily lives. Each section below features data on one key indicator of progress the city and our residents can see and track. These data points are being tracked to inform and measure tangible progress as we work to advance projects and set policies with the Green New Deal that enhance the climate, justice and quality of life in our neighborhoods. Where possible, we break the data down by neighborhood.
In each priority area of the dashboard, we include additional data sets and information on what the City is doing to make progress on our goals. You can also explore resources and find actions that residents can take directly.
The Green New Deal Dashboard is best viewed on desktop - mobile-friendly version coming soon!
Green New Deal Dashboard Metrics
List of Metrics
Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance
Municipal Building Energy Savings
Renew Boston Trust is a City initiative to make our municipal buildings more energy efficient and resilient. The program focuses on energy conservation measures, such as heat pump and chiller installations, that guarantee annual energy savings and emissions reductions. This dashboard reflects Phase 1 and 2 progress - Phase 3 data will be added when it becomes available.
Get Involved
Even though the City has been working to make our buildings more energy efficient, it is not the only way to achieve our net zero climate goals. Check out these resources to learn about how you can get involved:
- Review Boston’s Retrofit Resource Hub to find out more about technical and financial resources for owners, tenants and contractors.
- Explore how you can take advantage of Mass Save incentives and programs.
- Explore your heat pump financing options through Mass Save and MassCEC.
Learn More
- Learn more about BERDO, review past years’ data, and see a more detailed map view of buildings and their statuses here.
- Read about Renew Boston Trust, Boston’s program for energy efficiency and decarbonization of our City buildings.
- The Green New Deal for Boston Public Schools is a $2 billion investment in healthy, sustainable facilities for Boston’s 50,000 students.
- The Mayor’s Office of Housing started the Large Building Green Energy Retrofits Program, offering up to $10,000 for large building owners to learn more about their energy use.
Public transportation, cycling and walking are core to Boston’s zero-carbon transportation future. We must also rapidly transition away from cars, trucks, and buses that rely on fossil fuel energy sources. There are many ways you can get involved to help us achieve carbon-free transit!
List of Metrics
Public Access EV Chargers
Increasing availability of publicly accessible electric vehicle charging infrastructure is key to eliminating fossil fuel use in vehicles. We’re tracking our progress on bringing new chargers for public use at City lots and streets. By 2030, the City aims to have each resident be within a 10-minute walk of a publicly accessible EV charging station.
Public Transit Ridership
Transitioning from single-occupancy vehicles to public transit – trains and buses – is important for improving air quality, reducing traffic congestion, and increasing access to affordable and reliable transportation options. Go Boston 2030 aims to improve local and regional transportation systems to promote the use of public transit.
Bluebikes Ridership
Transitioning from single-occupancy vehicles to public transit – trains and buses – is important for improving air quality, reducing traffic congestion, and increasing access to affordable and reliable transportation options. Go Boston 2030 aims to improve local and regional transportation systems to promote the use of public transit.
EV Registration
Even with increased investment in expanding access to public transit, there will continue to be vehicles on the road. We are actively working to build out our publicly-accessible electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure to ready for accelerated electric vehicle adoption and reduce air pollution and emissions from the transportation sector.
Municipal Fleet Electrification
The City owns a light-duty fleet with over 700 vehicles across all of its departments. As the City continues to build out its EV charging infrastructure at municipal lots and buildings, gasoline-powered vehicles will be replaced with electric or hybrid vehicles.
Get Involved
Take a look at these resources to learn about how you can participate in carbon-free transit:
- Explore Recharge Boston, the City’s transportation electrification resource hub, for resources related to electric vehicle and e-bike purchasing and charging
- Use the Department of Energy's EV Charging Stations Map to locate a charger near you
- Looking to learn or pick up new bike skills? We offer free learn-to-bike workshops to adult women and gender-diverse people.
Learn More
The City has laid out ambitious goals to ensure all Bostonians have equitable, efficient, and affordable access to multiple transit options.
- Learn more about Go Boston 2030, the City’s plan to equitably improve transit
- View Boston’s Zero-Emission Vehicle Roadmap, our long-term strategy for accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles and other zero-emission transportation
- Review the Transportation Department’s progress towards projects that improve local and regional transit services
List of Metrics
Boston Community Choice ELectricity: Green100 Enrollment
Boston Community Choice Electricity (BCCE) is a municipal aggregation program that allows the City to buy electricity at a competitive rate. By using the City's collective buying power, we aim to provide affordable electricity that is greener than the utility-provided alternative. BCCE offers three products to help serve all its customers: Standard, Optional Basic, and Optional Green 100. The Green 100 package guarantees that customers power their homes and businesses with 100% renewable energy. To date, there are 224,517 customers subscribed to one of the BCCE product offerings, and we’re tracking how many households are using 100% renewable electricity. Since the program launched in 2021 through March 2023, BCCE has saved its customers $164 million on their electricity bills.
Renewable Energy in Boston
Renewable energy is procured by purchasing electricity through the BCCE program, which started in 2021. As the BCCE program continues to grow, more data will be added to the chart below.
Solar Capacity on Municipal Buildings
The City of Boston is committed to producing as much renewable energy as possible on our municipal assets. This helps increase the amount of renewable energy on our grid.
Get Involved
Take steps to power your home with clean energy!
- Need help navigating BCCE? Book a 15-minute conservation to learn more about your energy savings options.
- Read about how you can install solar panels on your roof.
- Looking for other ways to power your home with renewable energy? East Boston residents can learn more about and sign up for Solarize Eastie.
Learn More
The City is working to expand access to clean energy.
- Learn more about each Boston Community Choice Electricity product offering.
- Read about Renew Boston Trust, now in its third phase with a focus on expanding solar panels on municipal buildings, or explore this map with additional information on each project
Expanding our urban tree canopy, building up our green infrastructure, and constructing a more resilient coastline will help secure a sustainable future for Boston. There are many ways you can get involved with greening our city!
List of metrics
Climate Ready Boston Project Progress
Climate Ready Boston has completed flood resilience plans for Boston’s entire 47-mile coastline across our five coastal areas: East Boston, Charlestown, Dorchester, Downtown/North End, and South Boston. The Coastal Resilience Project Tracker maps projects by type, urgency, and project status. One of our immediate next steps is to close off near-term flood pathways that could reach inland neighborhoods as early as 2030. In addition, we are working to ramp up support for coastal property owners who may need to adapt their property in the near term to address potential flooding. The map below highlights these areas, tracking our progress towards “ready-to-build” and completed projects in each of Boston’s five coastal areas.
Green Infrastructure Projects
Increasing the amount of green space throughout Boston provides numerous benefits, such as expanding our urban tree canopy, combatting the urban heat island effect, and managing storm water.
Curbside Composting
In August 2022, Boston launched a free, curbside food waste collection service for residents in partnership with Garbage to Garden. Food scraps collected by this program are used to make nutrient-rich soil and clean energy. To participate, residents must live in units with 6 units or less.
Get involved
Check out the resources below to get involved in resiliency projects in your community:
- Sign up for AlertBoston to stay in-the-know in case of an emergency
- Find out how you can keep cool in the heat
- Register for curbside composting
- Download the trash day app to search any item and learn the best way to dispose of it in Boston
- Suggest a location for green infrastructure or express interest in volunteering to upkeep existing green infrastructure by emailing green.infrastructure@boston.gov
Learn more
Explore how the City is preparing for the short and long-term impacts of climate change:
- Read about Climate Ready Boston, the City’s resilience initiative
- Read about the City’s various food waste diversion programs.
- Learn more about Project Oscar, a city-run pilot initiative of composting drop-off sites
- Read about the types of green infrastructure the City is constructing.
List of Metrics
Green Jobs
We estimate there were approximately 6,800 jobs in Boston in 2021 that directly contribute to energy efficiency and removing fossil fuels from buildings (construction labor, envelope/insulation, lighting/wiring, plumbing, HVAC, buildings engineering, and facilities management). To achieve Boston’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions in our 86,000 buildings, we will need between 1,194 and 2,123 additional full-time workers per year for 30 years. The Office of Worker Empowerment is currently conducting a study to expand this analysis across all GND goals to inform new training and education programs, and these data will be updated.
City Discretionary Spend to M/WBEs
The City purchases its goods and services through bidding processes governed by state law. Our Strategic Procurement and Supplier Diversity Departments are focused on developing policies and programs that support and provide underrepresented businesses with opportunities to engage in the procurement process, ensuring minority and women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs) have equitable access to City contracts. We track discretionary spending to certified businesses to understand progress towards MWBE participation.
Get Involved
Explore how you can engage with our green and diverse workforce programs and initiatives:
- Apply for certification with the City's Supplier Diversity Program.
- Apply for PowerCorpsBOS, our green jobs training program for young adults.
- Explore MassCEC’s programs for job seekers of all education levels and interests.
Learn More
Read about how the City of Boston is helping build the workforce of the future
- Explore workforce development funding opportunities provided by Office of Workforce Development
- Learn more about what the City is doing to support MWBEs.
Federal Climate Funding
To accomplish our climate and equity goals, the City is actively pursuing federal funding opportunities as they become available—including from the American Rescue Plan (ARPA), the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The visuals below demonstrate the potential impact that each federal funding opportunity has on our five GND Dashboard priority areas and tracks what we have applied to, and won, so far. While we cannot provide a dollar amount of potential impact until after we have been awarded funds, we can share what opportunities the City of Boston is pursuing and the relevant categories of impact.
Additional Information
Boston’s climate change plans
Boston’s Climate Action Plan and Climate Ready Boston reports have laid the foundation for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and building climate resilience. We report on the progress of the recommendations in these plans through an annual progress report. We also conduct annual GHG tracking to measure trends toward our 2050 carbon neutrality goals.
