Climate Action Plan

Climate Action Plan Banner

The City of Framingham is working to develop its first Climate Action Plan (CAP) that will lay the foundation for community-wide efforts to improve local sustainability and accelerate the transition to net zero emissions by 2050. Currently underway, the Climate Action Planning process will be built on strong community engagement efforts and will identify and prioritize actions to reduce our community's carbon footprint and improve local resilience to climate change.

📅 Upcoming Events: 

 Sustainability Series Presentation | October 12, 2023 at 7:00 PM

Sustainability Series Presentation Poster Opens in new window

Interested in participating or staying updated on this process? If so, please click the button below to sign up to stay connected and sign up for the Sustainability Newsletter: SignUp Button Opens in new windowClimate Conversations Guide

Meaningful discussions on climate change are critical to informing the goals, strategies, and actions that will go into the CAP. You can help us by talking with your friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues about climate change and sharing with us what you hear back. Climate change can be a difficult and complex topic to discuss, so this toolkit has been prepared to help you have these important discussions and be able to provide input that will shape our planning efforts.

CAP Conversation Toolkit

Climate Conversations Toolkit

 A Primer on Climate Change in Framingham

  1. Climate Conversation Guide
  2. Climate Priorities Survey
  3. Community Visioning Survey
  4. Community Mapping Tool
  5. Social Media Graphics
  6. CAP Postcard
  7. CAP Summary Slides
  8. CAP Poster
  9. Community Feedback Form

Plan Updates

Climate Action Plan Workshop #1: Hosted on September 12, 2023, the first CAP workshop was a hybrid meeting at the Framingham Public Library on 49 Lexington Street. In addition to a presentation by the City and MAPC team on the background of the Climate Action Plan, the event featured discussion sessions to help identify core goals that would help guide development of the plan.

Earth Day: We had a great time connecting with community members on Earth Day. In addition to a scavenger hunt that connected kids to other Earth Day tables to learn about sustainability topics, we had a great time hearing from residents about their priorities for climate action across the community. Still being piloted, residents can provide feedback using the City's new interactive Climate Action Plan Map.

Climate Action Plan Poster

Community Engagement: Leading into our outreach and engagement activities for our plan, we are currently wrapping up development of a community engagement strategy and timeline that will take us through the process. These high-level slides were presented at City Council Environment and Sustainability Subcommittee meeting on January 18, 2023.

The full Community Engagement Strategy can be found here.

Photo of Earth Day Table

Municipal Sustainability Highlights

🚗Electric Vehicle Charging Stations - Did you know that Framingham has 7 public EV charging stations installed throughout the community? In addition to Farm Pond Park, public EV charging stations are located at Fuller Middle School, McCarthy Elementary School, and Harmony Grove Elementary School. 

☀️ Municipal Solar Projects - The McAuliffe Library was the first municipal facility to get a solar PV rooftop in 2022 and has been producing  solar energy to support the building's electricity consumption. Two additional solar PV projects are underway at Brophy Elementary School and Fuller Middle School. More work is underway to explore additional facilities and locations across City properties for renewable energy.

⚡ Municipal Aggregation - the Framingham Community Electricity Program is under development to bring residents and businesses a vetted option for electricity supply. A core goal of the program is to increase the renewable energy supporting Framingham's electricity use.

🌍 MetroWest Climate Equity Project - The City of Framingham partnered with the Towns of Natick and Ashland as well as the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) to learn from residents of local Environmental Justice communities about their climate change priorities and ways that we could support and facilitate long-term engagement on climate change resilience and action. The MetroWest Climate Equity Project serves as a foundation for the development of the Climate Action Plan and the community engagement work that is planned.

🧾 Mass Save Community First Partnership - The City of Framingham is partnering with the Town of Natick to help residents and businesses save energy and cut utility costs. The Community First Partnership has led to numerous weatherization projects throughout the community that will improve the resilience of homes and businesses to extreme temperatures and reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with heating and cooling.

🌡️ Geothermal Pilot Program - The Geothermal Pilot Program is bringing renewable heating and cooling to a neighborhood in Framingham off of Normandy Road. Led by Eversource, the innovative networked heating and cooling system will utilize underground thermal energy and heat pump technology to support homes, businesses, and municipal facilities.  

🏞️ Community Trails - With over 400 acres of protected property in Framingham, the City has multiple trails that residents can use to connect with nature and help them navigate the community. With the recent purchase of property from CSX, the City will soon be looking to develop a "first class rail trail" to the community connecting to seven other communities.