Northampton Climate Resilience and Regeneration Plan
Northampton, MA
Linnean partnered with the City of Northampton in 2018 on a year-long effort to advance citywide climate adaptation and mitigation planning. A primary goal of the project was to create a cohesive framework for considering and addressing the effects of climate change in all of the City’s future planning, decision-making, and capital projects.
In the first phase, Linnean facilitated the city’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Process, a program funded and designed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that uses community workshops to identify vulnerabilities, strengths, and strategies for increasing the city’s resilience. As a result of the MVP process, Northampton was awarded an MVP Action Grant for “Northampton Designs with Nature,” a project that focused on implementing green infrastructure to reduce flooding in the city.
In the second phase, Linnean led the development of the city’s Climate Resilience and Regeneration plan, which included a suite of community-driven actions for the city to reach carbon neutrality and adapt to climate change. Project components included updating the city’s greenhouse gas inventory, aligning the city’s sustainability plan with the STAR Communities Framework, and facilitating a number of community workshops and outreach activities which drove the plan’s development.