Creating a shared vision for our future by addressing climate crisis

Rochester Business Journal by Abigail McHugh-Grifa

June 16, 2023

Given that my day-to-day work is focused on addressing the climate crisis, I could easily spend my time dwelling on really, really scary, existential, life-or-death, doom and gloom kind of stuff. But deep in my heart, I’m an optimist, and I sincerely believe in humanity’s capacity to do great and noble things.

Also, I work for the Climate Solutions Accelerator, so I actually spend most of my time focused on opportunities, potential, and the path forward. Knowing that our community could become a much better place to live, work, and play, and fantasizing about the specifics of what that might look like, is honestly what keeps me motivated to power through the daily challenges and frustrations of my job. That said, I don’t think we’re going to make much progress toward that better future until/unless we collaboratively develop a clear and broadly shared vision for where we aspire to be as a community 10, 30, 50, and even 100 years from now.

Fortunately, we don’t have to start that visioning exercise from scratch. As part of the process of developing the Genesee-FLX Climate Action Strategy, a few of my colleagues asked a broad range of local stakeholders (from across sectors, demographic groups, and geographies) about their priorities for our region’s future. Via surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one meetings, the basic question they asked was “What does a thriving region on a healthy planet look like to you?” The following is a summary of what local residents and community leaders told us, plus some ideas of my own, which are clearly labeled as such.

Unsurprisingly, we learned that everyone cares about food. Regardless of sector affiliation or identity group, people want increased access to healthy, nutritious, and locally sourced food. They also want more green space, shade trees, community gardens, parks, and agricultural lands and livelihoods that are protected from development pressures and climate change impacts. Given that food is both necessary for our survival and a great source of pleasure, I’m fully in favor of this vision element. In the early days of COVID, I found it terrifying how quickly our local grocery store shelves emptied out, especially considering that we’re surrounded by prime agricultural land! So when I envision the better future that is possible for our region, having a strong and resilient local food system is definitely at the top of my priority list.

Another area that everyone cares about is transportation. People want environmentally sustainable, convenient, reliable, affordable, safe, and comfortable forms of transport, with all-electric public transportation and improved walk- and bike-ability. This is great news, since transportation is our region’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, so if we’re going to get ourselves out of this climate mess, we MUST radically transform our transportation system. As of now, we live in a very car-centric culture, where it’s difficult for people who don’t have a car to access jobs and services. Car ownership is very expensive, so this is a serious equity issue, not to mention that cars are loud and dirty and dangerous. So when I envision the future, I imagine beautiful, safe streetscapes that prioritize humans instead of cars, along with a range of viable transportation options that get people where they need to go without pollution, hassle, or excess cost.

People also envision lowering their energy bills and improving their health, comfort, and quality of life through upgrading the efficiency of buildings and powering buildings with clean energy. At a minimum, this would require four basic things: (1) insulation, (2) air-sealing, (3) heat pumps, and (4) a renewable source of electricity (either on-site, like rooftop solar panels, or some form of off-site generation). In my fantasy future, every home in our region would have these four things within the next 15 years, and over the longer term we would prioritize the many other important and exciting green building strategies that can make our community healthier and more beautiful. (To see what I mean and get inspired, just google “eco-friendly building images.”) Burning fossil fuels inside of buildings is simply dangerous and unhealthy, so I sincerely hope we will stop doing it as quickly as possible.

It’s also clear that people in our region are excited about all of the job opportunities that the transition to clean energy affords. Green jobs are typically good jobs that pay people a living wage, so they can support their families and have financial stability. Transforming our energy system at the pace that science tells us is necessary will require rapid and significant growth in this sector, which provides a huge opportunity for local entrepreneurs and job seekers. Considering how many people in our region are living in poverty, and the fact that employment opportunities are still difficult for historically marginalized populations to access, I hope we will be bold and intentional about creating workforce development programs and pipelines that prioritize equity and ensure that the clean energy workforce of the future is diverse and inclusive.

Of all the vision elements that informed the creation of the Genesee-FLX Climate Action Strategy, the one that warmed my heart most was the focus on community care and building/strengthening communities. People recognize that a better future can only be achieved through active public participation in decision-making processes and a shared sense of mutual respect, safety, and care amongst community members. They recommended long-range planning efforts that use the “Seventh Generation Principle,” a Haudenosaunee philosophy that emphasizes making decisions to advance sustainability seven generations into the future, so that we’re truly being good ancestors and thinking about the long-term implications of decisions we make today. It’s also important to note that our region will likely see an influx of climate refugees and migrants from places that are experiencing more severe climate impacts, so the people who informed our regional vision pointed to the need for local leaders to be thoughtful and proactive about how we welcome new residents to our region and plan for that population increase. In other words, people believe that our region could become a truly inclusive, thriving, democratic community, if we’re intentional about making it so. I completely agree with this, though because of political polarization, I think we will need reconciliation processes and well-resourced efforts to build our collective communication and collaboration skills.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I fit into this future and what I want my future life to look like. I’ll save the details for another day, but in short, I hope to have less stuff, less stress, and more fun. I want time for leisure and time with family and friends. I want to feel connected to my body and connected to the Earth. I want to be healthy, happy, and safe. I’m sure this is possible, and I’m taking steps to get there, but it’s surprisingly difficult to do within the context of a “normal” American life. I therefore hope our community will formally engage in a large-scale, inclusive process to collaboratively (1) envision a future in which we can all thrive and (2) identify concrete steps for how to co-create that future. Change is coming for us, which feels kind of scary, but we have the power to shape that change for the better.

Abigail McHugh-Grifa, Ph.D. is executive director of Climate Solutions Accelerator. Contact her at abby@climategfl.org.