City of Cambridge Climate Initiatives

• Alternative Fuels and Vehicles
• Energy Management
• Green Buildings
• Transportation Demand Management
• Urban Forestry
• Waste Management

Alternative Fuels and Vehicles

The City has been working to incorporate alternative fuels and vehicles into the municipal fleet. Most City-owned diesel vehicles are now fueled by B20 biodiesel. The City also owns 20 GEM neighborhood scale electric vehicles. The Water Department operates an compressed natural gas Ford F250 truck.

• City of Cambridge Biodiesel Conversion
• City of Cambridge GEM car fleet (PDF format, 116 KB)
• GEM cars product information

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Energy Management

The City Manager has established an Energy Management Workgroup to systematically assess City owned facilities and identify energy efficiency upgrade projects. The workgroup, chaired by the Public Works Department, is working with the federal government’s Energy Star Benchmarking Portfolio Tool and with NSTAR’s energy efficiency consultants.

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Green Buildings

It is City policy that all new construction and major renovation building projects will be “green buildings” as defined by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. The City Hall Annex, completely refurbished in 2004 has been retro fitted as a Green Building meeting the LEED Gold standard.

• Learn more about about the City Hall Annex, a LEED Gold Green Building.
• City Hall Annex Brochure (PDF Format, 2.5 MB)
• High Performing Buildings article
• Solar Energy Production at the City Hall Annex

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Transportation Demand Management

To encourage employees, residents, and visitors to travel by means other than driving alone, the City offers a variety of infrastructure enhancements, employee programs, annual events, and other programs highlighting and encouraging the use of transportation options.

• City of Cambridge Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Program

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Urban Forestry

Trees provide a number of environmental benefits including reduction of the urban heat island effect. The urban forest canopy reduces the amount of heat absorbed by impervious surfaces and buildings and thereby reduces the need to use air conditioners during the summer months. The Public Works Department’s Urban Forestry Program actively plants and maintains street and park trees.

• Go to DPW Urban Forestry Program

View the 2005 Tree Canopy Report. This file is in PDF format and requires use of the free Adobe Acrobat viewer. (870 KB)

Waste Management

The City is a partner in the 40% Recycling Challenge which involves institutions and businesses in raising their recycling rates to 40% by 2005. All City facilities recycle.

• Go to DPW Recycling Division

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