The Climate Adaptation Forum is a collaboration between the Environmental Business Council and the Sustainable Solutions Lab at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
New regulations and grant programs are increasingly requiring project teams to meaningfully engage with the people who will be most affected by their proposals, particularly when projects take place in environmental justice communities. What does meaningful community engagement look like, and how does it affect project outcomes?
This Climate Adaptation Forum will help new and long-term practitioners alike understand what skills and practices are involved and what benefits are possible when project teams and community members partner to identify both problems and viable solutions to climate challenges.
The program will also include an hour-long professionally facilitated exercise to engage participants (both in-person and virtual) in a challenging and fun interactive activity focused on community engagement in climate resilience projects. The exercise will be led by Carri Hulet of CH Consulting who previously taught at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
Forum Speakers
Vicente S. Harrison
Health, Safety, and Emergency Manager
Vibrant Communities Support Services
Parks & Recreation, City of Portland, OR
Crystal Johnson
Assistant Secretary
Office of Environmental Justice and Equity
Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Melissa Liu
Participatory Budgeting and Engagement Coordinator
City of Cambridge
Fidel Maltez
City Manager
City of Chelsea, MA
Bianca Navarro-Bowman
Climate Justice Manager
GreenRoots
Exercise Leader
Carri Hulet
Principal
CH Consulting
Forum Co-Chairs
Carolyn Norkiewicz
Regional Coordinator for Greater Boston
Municipal Vulnerability Program
Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
John Valinch
ESG Analyst
Boston Trust Walden
Julie Wormser
Senior Policy Advisor
Mystic River Watershed Association
Adaptation to climate change has emerged as an essential and permanent topic for professional, academic, government and public discussion.
Civil engineers, architects, building owners, real estate investors, insurers, planners, environmental regulators, transportation providers, emergency responders, public health providers, and many others are grappling with how to incorporate the evident need for adaptation and resilience into much of what they do. Academia is also deepening its involvement with this most important and fascinating set of public policy issues.
The growing body of experience and expertise in adaptation is not widely appreciated either within or across the traditional silos that define professions, disciplines and practices. At the same time, there is no regular, ongoing opportunity for adaptation professionals from various fields to meet in Boston to cross-pollinate ideas and share solutions to common problems.
The Environmental Business Council of New England (EBC) and the Sustainable Solutions Lab at the University of Massachusetts Boston have collaborated to establish a quarterly series of half-day Climate Adaptation Forums that will provide cutting-edge thought leadership on adaptation to climate change for environmental and energy professionals, policy makers, municipal officials, NGOs, and practitioners.
These quarterly forums will address everything from infrastructure and design solutions to communication challenges and barriers to implementation to policy solutions to the nexus of climate and equity. Local, national and global speakers will represent forward-thinking institutions, global firms, academia, government and other high level practitioners. Join the ever-growing group of professionals working to address the challenge of climate change adaptation and resiliency at the quarterly forums.
More about the Forum here: https://climateadaptationforum.org/
