Needham High School students Will Rosenberg, Tommy Barker, and Mattea Siletto interviewed Green Needham Chair Michael Greis for their interdisciplinary class, the Greater Boston Project. The Greater Boston Project explores how individuals and groups have worked throughout history to effect change in Greater Boston.
Working in groups, students engage with local organizations to understand how communities tackle complex, real-world problems, and how those collaborative efforts drive change in our society. For Green Needham, that challenge is addressing climate change and building a more sustainable and prosperous society. The interview was geared to understanding how organizations like Green Needham do their work, and what motivates people to engage in driving change.
The interview took place at Needham’s 3.7 megawatt solar array, situated on the capped landfill at the Town’s Recycling and Transfer station. Green Needham initiated the multi-year collaborative effort that led to the installation of the solar array in 2016, which annually generates about 1/4 of the electricity used across all municipal and school facilities.
Most of Needham’s greenhouse gas emissions are generated by heating & cooling buildings, and by gasoline-fueled transportation. Using fossil-free electricity for those essential activities is the key to successful climate action. Through learning how hard problems like climate change are tackled, the Greater Boston Project allows students to become the agents of change that will lead those efforts going forward.
