ABOUT
The Arise Environmental Justice Committee started in 2009, when community members came to Arise seeking to stop the construction of a biomass waste incinerator in their neighborhood. Arise worked with those community members to build a coalition against the incinerator, which would have added massive amounts of pollution to our already over-polluted city, and in the process, we learned more about the impact of pollution on low-income communities.
Since then, Arise has become the leading organization on Environmental Justice issues in greater Springfield, and has worked to raise awareness and find solutions to some of the most serious environmental and public health issues facing our city.
Members of the Environmental Justice Committee at Arise are working to improve the air quality of our city which has consistently received a failing grade from the American Lung Association, reduce pollution, and working with coalitions across the state to advocate for stronger environmental policies and protections for low-income communities.
Past accomplishments include our halting of the construction of a biomass waste incinerator in Springfield, the transitioning of Springfield’s biggest polluter from coal to natural gas, and the founding of the Springfield Climate Justice Coalition, an alliance of over 35 community groups and businesses working together to address climate change, public health, and environmental justice. Currently, we are working to stop the expansion of dangerous natural gas pipelines in our neighborhoods.
To learn more or get involved, contact the Arise office at 413-734-4948.
our projects
Biomass
The Baker Administration is aggressively promoting more subsidies and support for polluting biomass energy through Massachusetts’ clean energy program. These rule changes could lead to more wood-burning power plants in Massachusetts, meaning more pollution, lead, and chemicals.
We urge you to CALL your representatives to ask them to support H.853, a bill to remove wood-burning (biomass) and trash-burning from renewable heating sources subsidized through the Alternative Portfolio Standard (APS)!
Palmer Renewable Energy is planning to break ground on an incinerator in Springfield this Spring. The incinerator is bad for our health, bad for the environment, bad for our quality of life, wasteful, inefficient, unnecessary, and poorly regulated.
We need you to CALL Mayor Sarno at (413) 736-311 and CALL your city councilor to urge them to oppose this dangerous incinerator! Councilors Mike Fenton at (413)-787-6170 or and Justin Hurst at (413) 787-6171 are near Palmer Paving.
Connect
To learn more or get involved, contact the Arise office at 413-734-4948.