Twenty-four of us met on Wednesday to discuss our projects. There’s a lot we can be doing right now, and not everyone can take every action, but here are some things you can do to help – maybe you will find something you would like to engage.

Hingham Climate Action Plan: the Town Administrator is ready to move on creating the promised Task Force which will figure out how the Town can create a climate action plan.
ACTION ITEMS: Attend the Monday, April 27 at 4 pm Zoom  meeting of the Town’s Energy Action Committee (details below). They will discuss roles and activities for the Task Force, and start on a task list. They will also consider possible members of the group. All these would be recommendations to the Town Administrator.

Also, can you recommend someone to serve on the town’s Task Force? Please tell Brad Moyer, chair of the Energy Action Committee: brad.e.moyer@gmail.com

Hingham Light Board Citizen Engagement: Roger Freeman, light commissioner, reported on his unsuccessful bid to maintain the level of renewable energy in our portfolio. Unfortunately, our light board voted last week to return to the practice of selling the Renewable Energy Certificates which identify the renewable energy we buy as renewable. Now someone else gets to use those certificates to cover some of the fossil fuel energy they buy, and we have dropped significantly in the amount of renewable energy that we can claim in our portfolio.

Many members were upset by this move, and we decided as a group to increase our level of our engagement with the light plant. The first thing we can do is start attending the light board meetings, whether they concern renewable energy issues or not, because the light board needs to know we’re watching. Second, we formed a subcommittee for light plant engagement who will plan publicity efforts and keep us apprised of what we all can do to make our wishes known to our democratically-elected light board.

ACTION ITEM: Would you like to be part of the light plant engagement group and plan our efforts to influence affairs at our light plant? Please contact Turner Bledsoe – turnerbledsoe1@verizon.net

Hingham Net Zero Zoom Chat: Electric Vehicles happened this Thursday. The first fruits of our forum subcommittee, this online informational video chat about the advantages of electric vehicles had sixteen attendees, including our three presenters, and we hope we convinced some folks! More virtual engagement to come.

ACTION ITEM: would you like to help plan future online events, or do you have a great idea for one? Get in touch with Brenda Black, blackpollara@verizon.net

Hingham Net Zero Green Coaches: our forum subcommittee is recruiting now for people to help their neighbors as coaches on how to move their lives toward net-zero carbon emissions. We’re looking for people who’ve made these changes, or are knowledgeable about them, to be part of this effort.

ACTION ITEM: can you be a coach and help your neighbors make progress? Take a look at the attached description of the coaching role, and if you can help, contact Brenda Black, blackpollara@verizon.net

Hingham Net Zero Website: we’re looking for writers to create content for the website that would be helpful to our neighbors, and which could be publicized on social media. John Borger and Jen Hook volunteered to write, Laura Burns and Mike Reive to edit.

ACTION ITEM: can you write for our website? Let Brenda Black know: blackpollara@verizon.net

And finally,

NEXT MEETING OF HINGHAM NET ZERO:
Wednesday, May 20, 7 pm. Contact HNZ for Zoom details at HinghamNetZero@gmail.com