Northampton’s sustainability initiatives earn national recognition

Mass Innovations, From the Beacon, June 2014

Northampton has placed first in a national ranking of communities that embody “sustainability” in their environmental, economic and social policies.

More than 70 municipalities and counties took part in the process, which was organized by STAR Communities, a national organization created two years ago to promote a framework for policies that promote sustainability. (STAR stands for Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating Communities.)

According to Lacey Shaver, the outreach coordinator for STAR Communities, Northampton was the only community to score high across the board in categories including climate and energy, the built environment, the economy and jobs, and health and safety.

It took roughly a year for Northampton to gather the required information, which was spread among hundreds of separate data points, said Planning and Sustainability Director Wayne Feiden.

“Part of the whole point of sustainability is thinking about all the things that make a community livable, and make it sustainable in the long term,” Feiden said. “Just being environmentally sound isn’t enough. You have to think about the economy, about where people work, and social equity.”

STAR Communities staff explored, for example, the extent to which economic benefits were going to all, rather than being concentrated among workers in “creative class” occupations such as information technology and graphic design, Feiden said.

Northampton officials were also asked about job-training programs and the availability of government-sponsored loans for new businesses.

One category in which Northampton scored particularly high was natural resources protection, thanks to its ample farmland and conservation land, some of which has been protected by using Community Preservation Act funds.

Northampton officials, according to Feiden, also pay close attention to the location of new housing. Even before the city adopted a formal sustainability policy, he said, planners sought to ensure that a majority of new housing would be built within walking distance of either downtown or one of the city’s villages.

Greenhouse gas mitigation was another strong area – although, Feiden pointed out, a good deal of the credit goes to the state, which requires municipalities to include alternative fuel sources, either directly or indirectly, in their energy portfolios.

Feiden also noted that not every proposed environmental proposal is a wise one.

“On paper, you can be ‘sustainable’ because you don’t allow gas stations and you don’t allow fast-food places,” he said. “And as a result, everyone drives to the next town, to have those things.

“We want to be sustainable while also offering all those services, and not pawning them off on someone else,” Feiden added.

Northampton was the only community to receive a “five star” rating from STAR Communities. Communities that reached the four-star level were Austin, Texas; Tacoma, Wash.; Evanston, Ill.; and Broward County, Fla.

For more information, contact Wayne Feiden at (413) 587-1265.