City Profiles / Large Cities / Boston, MA

Boston, Massachusetts

Among large cities, Boston stands out as the East Coast leader in responsible energy use. Without the naturally available hydropower of the Northwest, the famously intense sunshine of the Southwest and the geothermal capacity of Colorado and California, the East Coast has lagged behind in clean energy and remained mostly reliant on coal and other nonrenewables.

But Boston has taken some major initiatives to make wind energy a viable alternative, and wind now ranks as one of the city's top three fuel sources for electricity. As of late 2008, a small-scale wind turbine was being installed on City Hall, wind turbines on four Boston public schools were being considered, and the city was developing new wind-energy zoning for private project proponents. Boston is also dramatically increasing its use of solar power with its Solar Boston program, which aims to increase the installed solar capacity from a half a megawatt to 25 megawatts by 2015.

In an effort to reduce chemical and pesticide exposure in the city, not only has Boston established regulations against pesticide application in parks and other public areas, but in June 2008, Mayor Thomas Menino signed into action the Green Building Maintenance Order. In addition to improving recycling and energy conservation practices at city buildings, the order increases the purchase of environmentally preferred products, including cleaning services and supplies.

Despite having one of the most extensive and most utilized public transportation systems in the country, in the past Boston has been criticized for lacking a serviceable bicycling system. But with Boston Bikes, Mayor Menino has responded by creating bike lanes, installing 250 bike racks throughout the city by resident recommendation, devising online biking maps and even establishing a "bike coordinator." A bonus for their stellar transportation system: They have converted all of the city's traffic signals to LED lights, which saves taxpayers about $400,000 annually.