By Lolly on Wed, Dec 3, 2008 2:59 pm
At the conclusion of this year's week-long Green Build Conference, local green business executives attended a swanky brunch held at the EMC Club at Fenway Park. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, dubbed by Boston Redevelopment Authority Director John Palmieri “the greenest mayor in America,” kicked off the brunch by boasting Boston's status as the third greenest city in America (according to PopSci.com) and declaring that Beantown was “open for business.” He also courted the executives. “Boston provides a great place to open a business and to grow,” he said. “We want you here, we want you to grow here, we want to grow with you on this issue because…this is about the future, it’s about our environment…and for too long we’ve neglected those issues that are important to us.”
So, why locate your green business in Boston? David Brewster, founder and president of the Energy Network Operations Center (ENOC), said he decided to settle his business in Boston “predominantly based on the wealth of intellectual horsepower that this city provides … There is a tremendous number of top universities in this area that are just churning out generations of young people that are excited to address some of the worlds greatest challenges, especially with energy and climate,” he said. Chuck Lewin, the executive director of New Generation Energy, a newborn business hoping to invest money from note sales in solar and wind power as well as biomass, called Boston “a great place to start.” “In terms of clean and green it’s really become a hub for a couple of areas that are important to us [including] renewable energy technology, renewable energy investing and socially responsible investing in general,” he said. “Boston really has a lot going on in all those areas.”
Brewster also addressed Boston’s welcoming of the green tech revolution. “It’s sort of a nexus of the economy and job creation. It’s the nexus of our environmental concerns, it’s the nexus even of national security,” he said. “I really am excited to see the city of Boston galvanizing behind this force. Green technology [is] something that can really position Boston for a century to come as a real leader in this amazingly important challenge that we have in front of us.”
Not only does bringing the green tech revolution to Boston position the city as a hub of economic and environmental change, it creates jobs for residents. Jim Hunt, secretary of the mayor’s Environmental Department, stated that city agencies are helping create “good paying green jobs that local residents can latch on to [in order to] ride that green wave [and] connect people to the great green economy.”
With the mayor in attendance, it was almost mandatory that the praise be redirected back to him at some point during the presentation. “These issues, while they’re on the forefront of the newspaper and at the national level frankly do not show up on the map with respect to the residents of Boston,” Hunt explained. “This is not something that is a grassroots driven issue for this city. It’s really been the leadership of Mayor Menino pushing through the first-in-the-nation green building zone here in Boston at a time when the real estate community was very skeptical.”
Eventually, we may have to ditch our old moniker and adopt a new one. As Mayor Menino puts it, “The city of Boston will continue to stay focused on making this change from Beantown to Greentown.”
Pictures from Green Executives on the Green Monster:
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By Lolly on Wed, Nov 12, 2008 12:16 pm
On Monday, November 10, the Irish Immigration Center presented their annual Solas Award to two distinguished members of the Black & White Boston project. The project, created in 1989 by Diddy Cullinane, hoped to improve the racial climate in the city, especially between black and white business owners. The Solas Award was presented to Tom Stemberg and Beth Williams, two entrepreneurs whose important partnership would not have been possible without the Black & White Boston project. Tom Stemberg, founder of Staples, Inc. and managing general partner of the Highland Consumer Fund, met Beth’s father Archie Williams, owner of Roxbury Technology Corporation, at the Black & White on Green Golf Tournament in 1990. After her father’s sudden death, Beth Williams took over the company and kept her father’s dream, according to the company’s website, of “the economic and social development of the minority community” alive.
At the Solas Award presentation, held at the ornate Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, approximately 500 guests watched a video documenting the history of the Black & White Boston Project. When accepting her award, Beth Williams reflected on racial issues of Boston’s past depicted in the video. “Boston, for that matter, this country, has come a long way,” she gushed. Williams continued by thanking Diddy Cullinane and an absent Tom Stemberg for their support, “You and Tom gave me and my father [a] chance.” A chance, in fact, that has led to revenues of over $14 million annually.
The Black & White Boston project will officially end this year and the Irish Immigration Center’s award ceremony was a celebration of its contributions to the city. Many speakers reflected on how the city itself has transformed since the launch of the project. Some, referencing the recent presidential election, also touched on how the nation as a whole has come a long way. Emcee Peter Meade concluded the program with a salute to Black & White Boston, “It’s made it [Boston] a better place to be, it’s made a difference.”
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By Lolly on Thu, Nov 6, 2008 1:46 pm
Tuesday marked an incredibly important moment in the history of our nation, and I'm glad I was able to be a part of it. For the first time in my adult life, I voted!
To be honest, I feel a little guilty about not having climbed into the sack with all the other poll-goers earlier. However, being from California and studying in Mass, I wasn't sure which state I should lose my voting virginity to. Finally, I decided to stop using this tired excuse and register already!
Wanting to actually have the whole poll-going experience as opposed to sending something in the mail for my first time, I registered in Beantown.
On Tuesday, I was so excited about voting all day and couldn't wait to act like a grown up and cast my first ballot! However, the experience proved to not be as mind-blowing as I had expected, as many firsts are.
The polling place at Myles Standish Hall at Boston University was ridiculously chaotic. After being checked in, I was still not given a ballot, and when I asked for it, I was snapped at. Simply brushed aside, ballotless, I proceeded to stand in another line, the destination of which I had NO idea. After standing like a stupid idiot in a line for no reason I finally asked someone what the f*ck I was doing there. She looked at me like the stupid idiot I was, told me to grow some balls and grab a ballot, and vote goddamnit!
A little taken aback, I followed her orders and proceeded to my little voting cubicle, filled in my bubbles and felt a great sense of satisfaction.
I had done it! Finally lost my voting virginity!
And I wouldn't have lost it to anyone but Obama. :)
