Planning for a Breakthrough Roundtable
Convening the Planning Meeting for the Higher Education Roundtable on June 6th, 2024
It was great to join earlier this week with MA State and higher ed sustainability leaders, including Katherine Antos, Undersecretary for Decarbonization and Resilience, as well as leaders from MA utilities, unions, and corporations, to plan for the CCC's June 6th Higher Ed Roundtable.
Participants identified key themes and developed the focal question for June 6th, which currently stands as: How can MA higher ed institutions best collaborate with the State and each other to achieve their mutual climate goals, and more specifically, 100% clean electricity by 2035?
The Planning Meeting discussion centered around the following:
1. Decarbonization & Clean Energy: Higher ed institutions already model for different iterations of the MA grid in their campus decarbonization planning. These institutions and the State of MA are mission-aligned on the need to collaborate to decarbonize the grid to meet their respective climate goals.
2. Research Gaps & Academic Contributions: Higher ed delegates underscored the intellectual horsepower of their institutions, and proposed collaborating with MA in fulfilling State research needs, offering campuses as a "Living Lab," and co-developing fellowship programs with municipalities.
3. State Support & Resources: Undersecretary Antos provided CCC delegates with possible areas for partnership with higher ed, including the Lead by Example program, joint applications for federal funding, and close partnership as the State stands up the Office of Energy Transformation.
4. Practical Outcomes for June 6th: CCC delegates will continue to explore how higher ed and the State can partner. One proposal is a Climate Pathways Program to unite graduate students with MA municipalities to drive decarbonization on the local level. Undersecretary Antos shared that capacity in many municipalities is too low to take on needed clean energy and resilience projects; we propose developing a program to fill that gap while developing in-place capacity.
We look forward to continuing this conversation in June with Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer, Undersecretary Antos, and a dozen leading MA higher ed institutions. Your insights and continued support are invaluable as we drive towards global leadership in the clean energy revolution in MA. Thank you!
