 Dear Partner in Sustainability,
Please consider Sustainable Wellesley in your year-end charitable giving. Donating now will help Sustainable Wellesley with community outreach, local sustainability education, and continued partnerships with local government in 2023. Our 501(c)(3), not-for-profit, organization has been a major part of successful town sustainability programs such as; solarize, energy audits, energy-efficiency, waste reduction, mobility improvement, plant-based eating, sustainable landscaping, and numerous other inspiring initiatives. With your support, the all volunteer Sustainable Wellesley community will be able to execute more programs like these. Timing is important. To reach Wellesley's greenhouse gas reduction goal we need to raise awareness and motivate our community to take steps to get us there ASAP. Thank you for supporting our work together here in Wellesley, and whether you can make a donation at this time or not we look forward to partnering with you in 2023. Best wishes this holiday season, The Sustainable Wellesley Leadership Team Sustainable Wellesley EIN: 47-3458525 We welcome online donations via PayPal. You can donate to our General Fund or to Wellesley Green Schools here: We welcome donations by check to: Sustainable Wellesley attn: Treasurer/Niki Ofenloch 24 Sabrina Road Wellesley, MA 02482 You can double your impact if your employer is enrolled with Benevity Find us on Benevity and ask your employer! (LINK)  We want to take a moment to thank all of you for all you do. Sustainable Wellesley exists because of you.
Thanks to those who have volunteered at the Wellesley Marketplace wrapping gifts, rode the bike at July Jubilation to make smoothies, donate your time, donate funds, ran the marathon for SW, make videos, share impressive stories, make time to talk to others about your decarbonization efforts, help with our social media, write articles, speak up, vote, eat less meat, staff the town EV event, compost, recycle at the high school, stand out on Friday afternoons for Fridays For Future, ride your bikes and walk to school, try the Catch Connect public transit, encourage reuse at the track banquet, etc, etc., etc... YOU ARE ALL ROCKSTARS in our journey to get off of fossil fuels! Wishing you a lovely holiday!  Wellesley Service League, Wellesley Hills Junior Women’s Club, National Service League, the Rotary Club, Wellesley Centennial Lions Club, etc… Wellesley is FULL of nonprofits looking to help others.
Sustainable Wellesley and a sister organization on the West Coast are encouraging folks to help others by lowering your thermostats. Sounds odd right, but stick with us. Wellesley has had an oddly warm fall, there was a rare November hurricane in Florida, Russia continues to attack the Ukraine, and oil from a leaking pipeline burns farmlands, polluting the air and waterways. The news is a litany of heartbreaking stories. Wellesley residents care, but are not sure what they can do to help. One simple answer: reduce our use of fossil fuels. Sustainable Wellesley is partnering with Cool Petaluma for a thermostat challenge and awareness campaign. Seasonal temperatures are kicking in and it is finally cooling down here in Wellesley. One way to act in solidarity with communities turned upside down due to fossil fuel and climate-related disasters is to simply use less oil. The connection between global conflict and global warming is fossil fuels, something we use daily. Cool Peteluma challenged their community and ours to show our support to others by trying not to add to the problem. Sustainable Wellesley works tirelessly to engage residents, businesses and the Town of Wellesley in clever acts to reduce our communities use of fossil fuels. Plus, the Town of Wellesley has a Climate Action Plan that will enable us to meet Wellesley’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal. Since small individual actions do add up, dropping our thermostats a few degrees this winter will not only save us some money on our energy bill, but will leave a little extra fuel for those who really need it—so take the pledge HERE. We know that the Ukrainanians are bracing for a long, cold winter and parts of Europe are turning off street lights to conserve fuel. We have been challenged to simply turn down the heat, install state of the art heat pumps (YES THERE ARE INCENTIVES TO DO SO), insulate, drive less and put on some warmer clothes. These small but meaningful ways of showing solidarity are also reminders of our commitment to having a positive impact on the world around us. Tom Kabat, a utility engineer in Menlo Park put it eloquently. “I see every therm we can save as either freeing up a therm for liquid natural gas export to Europe and/or helping glut the market to lower prices to help un-fund Putin.” As Cool Peteluma stated, moving away from oil towards electrifying our homes and cars (powered with renewables as we do here in Wellesley) “can be a difficult and uncomfortable transition. Just as with cigarettes and junk food, knowing something is bad for us in the long run doesn’t make it easy to give up right now. But give it up we must and dragging our feet only adds fuel to the fire – literally, in some cases.” Similar to Petaluma, much of Wellesley’s greenhouse gas emissions come from heating our homes and buildings (63.3%), then transportation (30.6%). The rest is waste at 6.1%. This is an opportunity to make small shifts to contribute to a larger collective impact — whether by turning down the thermostat just a bit, taking shorter showers, or choosing to run nearby errands on foot or by bike. So do your community service in a unique way this season and take this challenge. Add your name here as a pledge to do your part for others, the climate and your pocketbook. Thank you to the Cool Petaluma team in California for sparking this idea as we both work to build a planet-friendly community, block-by-block. Join the Thermostat Challenge! Wellesley RDF: Reusable Area Closing For Season/Sunday Hours/ Bring Your TextileS & MattressES11/17/2022
 Mattresses. Old T-shirts and socks. Footwear. Curtains, sheets and stuffed animals.
All of these items, and more, can be recycled at the Wellesley Recycling and Disposal Facility (RDF) giving them a second life and keeping them out of landfills. Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) expanded its waste ban, adding textiles and mattresses to a list of items which must be recycled rather than thrown away. The goal of these new rules encourages sustainability – finding new uses for donated materials and keeping them out of landfills and incinerators. This is a practice the RDF has encouraged for a long time and one that was highlighted yesterday on America Recycles Day, a national event celebrating and promoting the benefits of recycling. Along with the many other materials recycled at Wellesley’s state-of-the art facility, the RDF has increased the number of textile recycling bins and added two more mattress and box springs collection units directly to the left of the textile area. Wellesley residents with a valid RDF permit or proof of residency can drop off these materials at no cost. In Fiscal Year 2022, 33 tons of mattresses and 115 tons of textiles and were diverted from the trash. “Our focus is always on sustainability and giving used textiles a second life. Items do not have to be in good condition to be recycled. Nearly 100 percent of donated textiles can be reused or converted into something else – a stained t-shirt becomes a cleaning cloth, old denim is recycled as household insulation, a well-loved stuffed animal can become car seat stuffing,” said RDF Superintendent Jamie Manzolini. Used clothing donations benefit the secondhand clothing market run by many local nonprofits like the Autism Services Society, Planet Aid, Goodwill of Massachusetts, and others who provide affordable clothing for those in need. “It’s also important to know that you can still recycle textiles even if you can’t get them to the RDF,” said Manzolini. “We work closely with the Big Brother Big Sister Foundation which offers free home pickup services for residents.” Schedule home pickups online, scan the home pickup QR code on the RDF textile bins, or call Big Brother Big Sister Foundation directly at 508-466-4590. Reusables Area Closing & Sunday Hours Along with traditional recycling, the RDF Reusables Area is another place to donate and collect treasures. This area is open, weather permitting, between April and December. For 2022, the Reusables area will be open through Saturday, December 3, 2022. Residents should plan ahead to drop off or pick up items. Also, the RDF Sunday hours are ending for the season. The last day to visit the RDF on Sunday will be November 27, 2022 following the Thanksgiving holiday. Please note: The RDF will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 24. Residents can stay up-to-date on all RDF activities by using the new RDF App and widget. Visit the RDF webpages to learn more.  All you need to know about how Wellesley’s Town Government works and how to get involved is the topic of an event on December 7th at 7pm on Zoom, thanks to League of Women Voters of Wellesley.
If you are interested in running for Public Office in Wellesley, or just curious about who makes decision in our town and why, then please be part of this Zoom meeting where KC Kato, Town Clerk, and Mark Kaplan, Town Moderator will explain the nuts and bolts of a campaign and what’s on the ballot and provide the basics on how our town government works. Together, they will be available to answer all your questions. Register here in advance for this event, or on lwvwellesley.org. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. For more information on how to run, visit LWVW's Road Map to Running for Office, which includes: a concise Resources for Wellesley Town Election Candidates, Town of Wellesley 2023 Election Candidate Handbook , and the Town Government Handbook 2022. TOWN OF WELLESLEY ELECTION CALENDAR 2023 Nomination Papers Available from Town Clerk Appointment recommended December 7, 2022 at Noon Last day to obtain Nomination Papers for town-wide offices January 13, 2023 at 5 pm Last day to return Nomination papers for town-wide offices (50 Signatures) January 17, 2023 at 5 pm Last day for incumbent TMM to file notice of candidacy with Town Clerk January 24, 2023 at 5 pm Last day to obtain Nomination papers for new TMM candidates January 27, 2023 at 5 pm Last day to return Nomination papers for new TMM candidates (10 signatures in precinct) January 31, 2023 at 5 pm Drawing for position on the ballot February 1, 2023 at 9 am Last day to register to vote for March 7, 2023 Annual Town Election (9 am to 5 pm) February 25, 2023 LWV Candidates Night February 16, 2023, 7 pm Annual Town Election (7 am to 8 pm) March 7, 2023 Annual Town Meeting begins March 27, 2023 at 7 pm The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization dedicated to promoting civic responsibility through informed and active participation in government.  Lawns are blanketed with leaves – bright maple, high-gloss oak, brown-edged dogwood, supersize yellowed chestnut. Beautiful. Enter a landscaping team with gas-powered leaf blower backpacks and ride-on mowers and the impossibly loud leaf sucking trucks that vacuum up every bit of organic material including insects, spiders, caterpillars, toads, larvae. The sound is deafening – I’m listening to the relentless roar from a neighbor’s yard as I write this on a Saturday morning – and the end result may look trim and green but this style fall cleanup is anything but healthy for those operating the equipment, for you, your kids, pets, and the planet. Sustained high-decibel noise as we suffer through yard after yard of “cleanup” can lead to hearing loss, attention problems for everyone and developmental and learning challenges for children, cardiac issues and, as you may have noticed more immediately – stress!
It has never been easier to reinvent your home landcare routine. Here are some steps to begin right now:
Elsewhere on the property:
 Students shared ideas and brought in experts last week to the Follow Your Kids’ Lead Zoom Webinar. The informative presentation offered a variety of benefits of a sustainable lifestyle - health, comfort, ROI --, the true cost of your clothes, and the impacts of food waste. Please click here to see the recording with special guests David Green (on how to make your home more energy efficient) and Amy McGuire (the advantages of electric vehicles).
Also, here is a list of actionable things you and your family can do - some big and some small!  Wellesley is developing a Hazard Mitigation Plan to better prepare for natural hazards and climate change impacts.
Public participation is essential to developing this plan. All residents are invited to attend a virtual public meeting on Wednesday, November 16 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. to ask questions and give input as the Town develops this plan. The meeting will take place via Zoom. Please register in advance to attend. Meeting participants will have an opportunity to contribute ideas for making the Town more resilient to natural hazards like flooding, snowstorms, high winds and extreme temperatures. The plan is being developed by a Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee comprised of Town leaders and local stakeholders, along with consultants from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA). Approval and adoption of this plan will allow the Town to apply for pre- and post-disaster hazard mitigation grant funds.  Do you or someone you know want to learn a new trade and have the opportunity to make $75,000+ in 6 months to a year? They might be a great fit for a career in the clean energy industry.
LISC and community partners are thrilled to announce a third cohort of Bridges to Green Jobs. This program provides industry-specific technical and soft skills training to residents interested in entering the clean energy sector through weatherization. The skills gained through this training are in a field that is in high-demand as companies aim to meet the state’s climate goals, and can open doors to new career pathways. Interviews will take place December 27th - January 4th and the program will run from January 5th - 23rd, 2023 in Nubian Square, 9am - 3pm (most days). Deadline to Apply is December 26th, 2022. For details and to fill out an application, visit their website [lisc.org/greenjobs] Download a copy of the flyer to share [+] Please contact Silvana Bastante [sbastante@lisc.org] with questions.  A new built-in iphone program automatically charges your phone "off-peak" for free.
If you read our newsletter regularly, you already know that reducing peak demand is an easy and free way to decarbonize. That's because, during "peak" demand for electricity (for example, in the evening when everyone does laundry, watches tv and charges their phones, laptops, and Electric Vehicles) our electric power plant (the Wellesley Municipal Light Plant "WMLP") must turn to dirtier "peaker" power plants (fueled by fossil fuels) to meet these higher power demands, This means higher carbon emissions and a higher cost to ratepayers, since our electric rates are determined by this "peak demand." The WMLP is working on a "demand response" program to "shave" these peaks in the future, but in the meantime, consider when you "plug in" to the grid to power up your EV or appliances. This new I-Phone setting is one free and easy way to do this. And don't forget, you can get $8.00 off your electric bill each month through this free program, if you agree to charge your car "off peak." |
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