UMass Chan Medical School
EN-14: Participation in Public Policy

A member of the Office of Sustainability Team takes part in the Worcester Next! Planning process, a comprehensive plan for the City in which UMass Chan resides. Worcester Next! is a two-year-long citywide planning process that engages the community in exploring issues such as land use and urban form, housing, transportation and mobility, economic opportunity, arts and culture, recreation, open space and environment, and services and facilities. Engagement in the City of Worcester's Master Plan was facilitated and supported by Che Anderson Assistant Vice Chancellor for City & Community Relations, who is a part of the university's administrative team. While the Worcester Next! plan is still underway, the website references draft goals here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a8LaeWBJHgrWkANsAnDumamr9KzLAUon/view?pli=1, which include priorities around achieving transit-oriented development, sustainable development, updating zoning code, neighborhood and district planning, affordable housing, and a number of other goals including policy.

UMass Chan's administrative team is a key stakeholder in this planning process, and its participation and leadership in the planning process is a way of publicly weighing in, shaping, and affirming the goals of the plan and the City of Worcester. UMass Chan's position in this planning effort at the municipal level is supported by top administration because they are involved in the process, which includes attending meetings, weighing in on issues, and shaping the future of the community.

The Worcester Food Security Task Force, in partnership with the UMass Chan Prevention Research Center, conducted three listening sessions and sent a report demonstrating the results of these sessions to the White House in July is 2022. Those results are here, and include policy recommendations for sustainability in Worcester and beyond: https://www.umassmed.edu/globalassets/umass-worcester-prevention-research-center/documents/ceb-worcester-ma-hunger-report-2022jul15.pdf
The Task Force and our Prevention Research Center's research is supported by our top administrative officials at the University. In addition, our Vice Chancellor for Government Relations, John Erwin, serves on the Hunger to Health Collaborative’s – Strategic Advisors Network, and supports UMass Chan as a member of the MA hunger Free Campus Coalition that supports legislation establishing guidelines and state support for hunger free campuses, the involvement of which contributed to the 2023 Freight Farm Project https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2023/09/umass-chans-future-wellness-farm-to-serve-as-living-laboratory-of-community-collaboration/. The Office of Community and Government Affairs provides financial support for North High food bank, an initiative that requires permission from top administration at the Medical School.

These examples clearly demonstrate how our institution engages in several public policy initiatives for sustainability at the municipal and local levels.

UMass Medical School's Sustainability & Energy Manager is also an active member of the State's Leading by Example Council. Through meetings every other month and regular communication, the Leading by Example (LBE) Council supports and advises the LBE Program to further its impact. By providing feedback on program design, reviewing guidance documents, and piloting innovative strategies and products, this collective effort has reduced greenhouse gas emissions associated with state entities. In addition, a member of the UMass Chan Office of Sustainability team currently chairs the UMass System Sustainability Council. The Chair acts as a single point of contact and single voice for the five UMass schools in the system, working to set up feedback sessions with the State to provide input, ideas, and feedback of their State emissions and sustainability reporting tool. In addition, the UMass system takes the opportunity to provide feedback through public comment and attendance of stakeholder group meetings between the State's climate legislation office and also through the Grid Modernization Advisory Council.

UMASS Chan is also a member of the MA hunger Free Campus Coalition and support legislation establishing guidelines and state support for hunger free campuses.

When the Office of Sustainability is reviewing and commenting to LBE policies it is acting as representative of the university not with personal interest, denoting implicit support from the university.

UMass Chan is a member of the Climate Collaborative, part of the NAM Grand Challenge on Climate Change, Human Health, and Equity, a multiyear global initiative to improve and protect human health, well-being, and equity by working to transform systems that both contribute to and are impacted by climate change.
This effort was supported and signed by Dean Flotte at UMass Chan Medical School.
The NAM Climate Collaborative supports and endorses legislation and public policies that advance sustainability, for instance by commending the Biden Administration's pledge initiative to mobilize health care sector decarbonization (https://nam.edu/nam-commends-biden-administration-pledge-initiative-to-mobilize-health-care-sector-to-decarbonize-and-increase-resilience-to-climate-change/), issuing publications to support issues of importance to the NAM mission (https://nam.edu/publications/), and supporting policymakers with resources such as checklists that provide guidance to supporting sustainability in healthcare (https://nam.edu/initiatives/vital-directions-for-health-and-health-care/vital-directions-checklist-policy-makers/)