New Directions Collaborative is pleased to be working with the Environmental League of Massachusetts (ELM), the Barr Foundation and the Consensus Building Institute to promote robust implementation of the Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA). This landmark piece of legislation requires the state to develop a strategy to achieve a 10-25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and an 80% reduction by 2050. Moving from broad goals to actual implementation requires sound policy, political will, and advocacy to ensure that the steps necessary to achieve these goals actually get adopted.

Through the Global Warming Solutions Project, ELM has convened an interdisciplinary network of people representing academia, science, transportation, labor, business, community activists, environmental advocates, public health experts, municipal leaders, and state representatives to help achieve robust implementation of the GWSA. New Directions Collaborative provides strategy consulting and  facilitation to help create a robust network with diffuse leadership and strong interconnections among the members that result in policies and actions that reduce MA’s GHG emissions. We helped to design and facilitate a Commonwealth Climate Leadership Summit at Suffolk University Law School in Boston in January 2011. This event brought together over 80 people involved in energy and climate action for discussions and breakout sessions focused on transportation, energy efficiency, coal, and state supported development projects.

We facilitated strategic conversations with leadership teams and employees from various departments to explore what sustainability means for their organization and develop initial action plans of which areas they can focus on for greatest impact. Clients include universities such as Harvard University facilities department and UMass Amherst Facilities department, municipalities such as the City of Cambridge, MA, and businesses in various industries. In addition to providing a common understanding of the risks and opportunities, these dialogues enabled organizations to see where there could be barriers to adopting change that would need to be addressed.

Recognizing the growing impact of climate change and social responsibility issues in its markets, a UK manufacturing company saw a market opportunity to design new products and services to help its customers reduce their environmental impacts. We partnered with another sustainability consultant and a product innovation consulting firm to facilitate a two-day innovation brainstorming session to generate new product ideas. We provided an overview of environmental and social trends and a framework to define sustainability in a way that could lead to actions and potential solutions. A cross-functional team of 20 people developed many innovative ideas during the meeting, which the client fed into its corporate strategy.

We helped with the launch of the Massachusetts State Sustainability Program, which was one of the first state-level programs of its type aimed at reducing environmental impacts of state government operations. Working closely with state agency staff, we facilitated a sustainability training workshop for representatives from 50 state agencies and colleges and helped establish the framework for agencies to develop action plans and targets. Agencies have since implemented a range of actions such as energy conservation, purchase of green vehicles and environmentally-preferable products, and waste reduction initiatives. When a new governor came in, a new Executive Order created the Leading by Example program to continue to promote greenhouse gas emission reductions, energy conservation and efficiency, renewable energy, green buildings, and water conservation.