Updates on initiatives (best viewed on PC)

When the school building project moves forward, MEA will continue to advocate for a net zero building.  With the previous project, the School Building Committee had formed a Sustainability Subcommittee to help analyze the implications of designing a net zero building. 

A small MEA subgroup worked on an analysis of how the costs related to being a net zero building relate to the energy use and savings in the future. It is critical that when any additional costs related to making the building net zero are discussed, the benefits and savings are also discussed.  

If you agree that the future Dale Street Project should be a net zero building, please convey this to the the Selectmen, Town Administration and Dale Street Building Committee. These decision makers have many things to consider as the project is evaluated, so hearing that a net zero building is important to you (residents) is key to helping them make decisions.

Here are some people you may want to email.  If you would like their email addresses, please email meaMedfield@gmail.com and we will send you a list of them.

Mike Marcucci, Chair of the Board of Selectmen, 

Gus Murby, Clerk, 

Osler Peterson, Third Member

Kristine Trierweiler, Town Administrator, 

Nicholas Milano, Assistant Town Administrator, 

Amy Colleran, Director of Facilities, 

Mike Quinlan, Chair of the Permanent Building Committee.

Here are some talking points you may want to include in your emails:

a.  When you look at the quantified costs of the project, please also insist that the costs be accompanied by the quantified benefits.  They are related and should be treated as such.

b.  We are building a building for the next 50 years and we should make it as energy efficient and carbon neutral as possible.  Massachusetts, at the State level, is committed to zero carbon by 2050, just 30 years from now.

c.  Recent net zero projects in other Massachusetts towns have shown that total cost can be less than that for a traditional building.  That means savings from day one.  The technology to achieve net zero today is proven, and likely financially viable for Dale Street with available incentives to promote it.

d.  This is the way of the future and we should be thinking ahead.  

e.  We owe an energy efficient, carbon neutral building to our children.  We should not saddle them with a building that relies on fossil fuels and continues to generate greenhouse gases.

f.  Even if some reasons were given today to not go net zero, if we build a building that is not net zero, we will have to retrofit it in the future so it is. This will be more expensive overall. So do it now. 

g.  As has repeatedly been stated during the planning process, this is a good time, financially (with interest rates low), to make long-term investments in the new school building.

This is a great program with many upsides and is one small step toward reducing Medfield’s carbon footprint. MEA and MEC will hold a forum on this topic on March 30th. A previous forum was held last July.  If you missed it, you can watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKeNcqIQBr4. Here is a link to the language for the article and documents with questions, answers and resources. http://www.town.medfield.net/1950/Proposed-Warrant-Articles

Developing climate goals for Medfield is key to having those goals become a reality and having Medfield be among the coalition of leaders in the fight to solving the climate crisis.  Medfield is currently finalizing the draft of its Climate Action Plan that the town voted on in 2021.

MEA and MEC held a forum on this topic on May 19, 2022.

Here is a link to the language for the article and documents with questions, answers and resources. http://www.town.medfield.net/1950/Proposed-Warrant-Articles