Dedham was given a 2009 Leading by Example Award today at the State House, a recognition of its environmental efforts on many fronts, from energy efficiency to green schools to the coming rollout of single-stream recycling.
The state selected the three municipalities of Dedham, Plymouth, and Somerville for Leading by Example Awards this year, honoring their “outstanding” work to put in place policies and programs that produce “significant and demonstrable environmental benefits.”
Presenting Dedham’s award, Phil Giudice, the commissioner of the Department of Energy Resources, cited the town’s establishment of a Sustainability Committee, its ongoing assessment of emissions levels for all municipal buildings, and its replacement of old, oil-fired furnaces with dual-fueled furnaces (which use either oil or natural gas) that waste much less energy.
The three-year-old Dedham Middle School – which has been recognized as a model green school by the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust – was highlighted several times by Giudice and others.
State Sen. Marian Walsh recognized the “great leadership and the people of Dedham, who have the first green middle school in the commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
“Isn’t that remarkable? We hope that they reproduce like rabbits,” she quipped.
Overall, Giudice said, the town is “moving forward on many fronts…to really move this agenda forward.”
Selectmen Chairman Michael Butler said that what was an “incipient movement” in 2007 – when the first iteration of the Sustainability Committee was established – is blossoming now.
“We’re a small town, but we do look outwards,” he said, referring to the sustainable agriculture organization the Land Institute, which is 1,606 miles away in Salina, Kan.
“Its founder, Wes Jackson, has said, ‘If you’re working on a problem you can solve in your own lifetime, you’re not thinking big enough.’ We’re a small town but we’re thinking big,” Butler said.
The Department of Environmental Protection and the Massachusetts Trial Court also received awards, as did two public higher education campuses, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and Salem State College.
Dedham Transcript staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.
