Endicott College
EN-14: Participation in Public Policy

The College supports and is directly involved the City of Beverly's Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) program for city adaptation against the effects of climate change. This program helps determine focal areas and priorities to create public policies that address mitigating and adapting to climate change. Endicott directly advocates through the MVP program to create climate driven policies at the municipal level. The College administration and faculty are directly supporting and an active resource to advocate and develop necessary policies The Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant program (MVP) provides support for cities and towns in Massachusetts to begin the process of planning for climate change resiliency and implementing priority projects. The state awards communities with funding to complete vulnerability assessments and develop action-oriented resiliency plans. Communities who complete the MVP program become certified as an MVP community and are eligible for MVP Action grant funding and other opportunities. The program helps communities to: Define climate related hazards Understand how they may be impacted by climate change utilizing the latest science and data at http://www.resilientma.org/ Identify existing and future climate vulnerabilities and strengths Identify opportunities to take action to reduce risk and build resilience Implement priority actions identified through the planning process Endicott faculty, staff, and students participated in city-wide meetings and advocated to city committees to aid in Beverly's recent Coastal Resiliency Plan - http://www.beverlyma.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/2017-06-30-Beverly-Coastal-Resiliency-Plan_FINAL.pdf. Faculty served as subject matter experts and interacted directly with city staff to help form the plan. This plan will influence and inform policies moving forward as they relate to development, adaptation and climate mitigation throughout the city. Endicott staff attends Beverly Conservation Commission meetings and advocates for new development that maintains green space and properly manages our natural resources. As one of the largest property owners in Beverly, the College plays a major role in advocating for policies as they relate to conservation and new development. The Office of Sustainability also has regular meetings with City of Beverly planning staff and the Mayor and his team to advocate and be a resource for policy formation related to energy, waste, and climate.

Endicott is directly advocating through the MVP program to create climate driven policies at the municipal and state level. The College administration and faculty are directly supporting and an active resource to advocate and develop necessary policies. Staff and faculty have presented at public meetings and to committees to advocate climate adaption, mitigation, and resiliency minded policies. The municipal level MVP Program noted above is now required at a State level for all municipalities in Massachusetts to inform statewide policies. http://www.resilientma.org/ The resilient MA Climate Clearinghouse. This website, and the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) program it supports, are cornerstones of our administration’s efforts to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard residents, municipalities and businesses from the impacts of climate change, and build a more resilient Commonwealth. While a changing climate knows no geographical boundaries, cities and towns across Massachusetts are on the front lines of climate change. Launched in 2017, the MVP program grew out of a strong desire to work with cities and towns to prepare for the impacts of climate change and build more resilient communities. We are proud that in our first year 71 communities have joined the program and are taking a leadership role using their local knowledge and community strengths to partner with the Commonwealth on this issue. As first announced at our 2017 Municipal Climate Change Summit, we have produced the resilient MA Climate Clearinghouse to ensure continued access to information and provide communities with the best science and data on expected climate changes, information on community resiliency, and links to important grant programs and technical assistance. The site also catalogs specific vulnerabilities, risks and strategies concerning agriculture, forestry, local government, education, energy, recreation, and transportation. All of the climate projections included on the website are specific to Massachusetts and were produced by the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center at UMass-Amherst. We’ve also included an interactive map so that users can understand how climate change will affect their specific location and the resources they manage.