 Greetings, everyone. I'm James Mellan. Welcome to this episode of Talk of the Town. I am here with Talia Fox, who is our sustainability coordinator. So our sustainability manager here in town. And Talia has been on the job for three whopping months so far. And we are here to both introduce Talia to the community as we like to do here on Talk of the Town and also get a sense of the gigantic job that she has taken on here. So first of all, welcome to ACMI Studio and to Talk of the Town. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, we really appreciate your taking the time to do so. And I mentioned, or almost garbled, your job title, which is Sustainability Manager. And that's different from Ken Pruitt's job. You theoretically, you know, came in to replace, so to speak, Ken. But he was the energy manager. So that seems like a significant change. And can you just explain what's going on there? Sure. So nobody can replace Ken. He was the energy manager and was, I basically am doing a similar job. But the change in title, I think, is reflective of a more holistic view of climate mitigation work, which is my focus. So in the climate world, we refer to mitigation and adaptation, perhaps sort of a false dichotomy, but mitigation referring to greenhouse gas emissions reduction, the pollutants that cause climate change, and adaptation or resiliency referring to adapting to the changes we can already expect to see and that we know will increase. And so I'm focused on the mitigation side of things. And that was also Ken's role. He was working on building efficiency. And as am I, clean energy and electric vehicle and electric vehicle charging stations and all of that work I am still doing in addition to implementing our net zero action plan, which has a goal of getting the town to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. And that is a visionary commitment. It aligns with our state's goals as well. And so it's my job to do everything that Ken was doing and also implement that plan. Exactly. As I refer to gigantic is your portfolio and we will dig into that for sure with the balance of what of our conversation today. But I always would like to start or we like to start here and talk to the town when we're speaking to somebody who's recently come into a position in town just about how you got here. And I understand from a little bit of what we were talking about before we went on air that it wasn't a direct route that you didn't either come out of the womb or discover at Greta Thunberg's age or something that, oh, this is my calling. Tell us. Yeah. And I love talking to people about my path because I don't, you know, I think when I look back now, it makes a lot of sense to me, but maybe at the time as I was going through school, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. And I was trying to figure it out. And I I've always had a number of interests. And so I guess for me, my interest in environment has always been about people and about communities and understanding how people create home and create a sense of identity and a sense of purpose in collaboration with community. And I think that comes from just growing up in a very strong community where I grew up in a big family. And so that sense of awareness of conscientiousness of the impact of my actions on others and, you know, both positive and negative was really instilled in me, I think, from a young age. And so I'm always thinking about that in my work. I wouldn't say that I came about environmental work because I cared about polar bears or about, you know, trees. I mean, I obviously care about those things because it's all connected to to humans and and how we thrive. But I think I come at it more from a sense of of justice. And as I was saying, how how we all create meaning and safety and have healthy, healthy, thriving lives. So when I got to college, I was I was looking for a sense of place and and like minded individuals and those individuals were the ones in the climate and the environmental club. And so I gravitated toward that group. And I and I was, you know, my eyes were really opened at that moment to to all of the things I had to learn about environmental policy and environmental justice. And so I got involved in, you know, gardening and weatherization and building efficiency on campus. And I actually at the time was majoring in linguistics. And so not exactly environmental studies or environmental science, but I ended up minoring in environmental science and public policy after discovering this environmental club, because I wanted to pursue that route. And I actually saw it as being very connected to the work that I was doing, understanding sociology and psychology of language. And I've always loved languages and communication. And and I was also doing sort of arts management work and theater and dance at the time too. So again, just this this idea of how do we how do we make meaning and communicate and talk about things that are important to us. And I see art and environment is doing that as well. So I after college, I pursued the environmental policy path. I ended up living in Brazil for a year studying conservation policy in Portuguese and Samba and the Brazilian Amazon. And that was a really incredible experience. And then I worked for a couple of years in Washington DC for an environmental nonprofit called the Environmental Law Institute, which does a lot of international and environmental law research. And so that was a really wonderful experience getting to understand the environmental nonprofit scene in DC. And at that time, I was also, you know, wanting to ground my environmental work more in issues of social justice and racial justice. And I found planning school city planning. And so I ended up getting a master's in city planning coming back to Massachusetts for that degree. And have have stayed since and have been working, you know, before coming to Arlington was working in environmental consulting with a couple different firms, but but working primarily with municipalities and county governments and other public entities to develop climate action plans, develop net zero action plans, do climate vulnerability assessments, track sustainability metrics and facilitate those those planning and tracking processes. So that was where I was sort of immediately prior to Arlington. And I think I think I always knew I wanted to be in the public sector. I've sort of as you heard from my intro spiel of sorts, I care a lot about about helping the public and being a member of the public. And the idea of kind of the public good. And so I I've wanted to, to, you know, come to public sector. And I lived down the street in Somerville. So when this job became available, you know, I knew I wanted to work close to home on on these issues and really see how to implement some of the things that I was planning. I had been developing all these climate action plans. So I wanted to see how play that that path, you know, as you mentioned, again, before we went on air, kind of in retrospect, it all kind of makes sense how how that path kind of came together. But even as you just described it, it seems like a very kind of organic moving from step to step, as you just described. And we're I can see why you would have been with that background, why you, you know, right away, just gotten people's attention here in Arlington, for this position, because it does seem like, again, you bring for for the years that you've been working, a lot of that just kind of is directly pertinent to what you've now taken on, and kind of preparing you for that. I also love what you said. You know, right at the beginning of what you were talking about, about your origin, you know, your roots being as part of a big family, and just thinking about, Yeah, you know, I mean, you that can either make you perhaps super competitive as a person, you know, whatever with the dynamic of the dinner table and getting you know, or it can make you aware, right from, you know, from from the get go of just yes, everything you do is impacting other people around you. And you are both impacted by and impacting them. And so you're already part of this, what a large family is like a little community unto itself, right? And I just love that that idea. So we need to start to talk about what you're actually doing. But you know, I do, I do want to say that it's, it's kind of something that's very visible to folks here in Arlington is the kind of our status as a community, as a kind of model green community within the state and within the region. I think we take great pride in that. I think that that does reflect the values that are in the community. And so people pay attention to and celebrate the various distinctions that, you know, that that we've been able to share with the audience over over the years, talking to you talking to Adam chapter lane, talking to Jenny rate, talking to, you know, all kinds of officials can prove it, who are responsible for our, you know, our current where we are at the moment. And the net zero action plan was a big splash in a lot of ways and the announcement of it and the kind of the commitment to it. It's your job, however, almost exclusively to make this happen. And I want to start there and then start to talk about some of the I've got a long list here of the things that you're involved in. And we'll probably get to some or most of it. But it's all grounded in in net zero. So remind us what it is and what you, you know, start to explain us some of the steps that are going to be need to be taken to get there. Yeah, so first, I just want to echo what you were saying about all the folks who have laid the groundwork for this, I mean, Adam and Jenny and Ken and others. And their their work has really made my job a whole lot easier. But our net zero action plan has a goal of getting us to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. And the idea of net zero is we have to reduce our emissions as much as we possibly can. And that's through a combination of of doing less so energy efficiency and also fuel switching. So switching from fossil fuel powered vehicles and systems in our homes to clean electricity. So reducing it first switching and then offsetting if we have to use any remaining fossil fuels with you know offsetting with clean energy and and carbon sequestration, you know, through our trees and things here. And so within that plan, there are several high priority and priority actions in different categories. And those primary categories are in buildings, because buildings are responsible for the bulk of our emissions here in town. It's about 60 62%. The next category is all about vehicles. Vehicles are our on road transportation is about 30 34% I think of our emissions. And then the remaining emissions are sort of we were talking about 4% you can do whatever you can do those alone waste water and trash and it but it's but it's a lot smaller and those are those are priorities and the third category is is energy overall and that's sort of getting at this idea of our electric grid and cleaning it over time and making sure that Arlington can tap into those clean electricity resources. So that's kind of the overarching framework and that lays out the the work that I have to do. And so a lot of what I'm focusing on is you know, again, what what Ken was focusing on but it we have this beautiful framework for it now that really gives us a roadmap and tells us what to prioritize and in what timeframe. And so I'm going to be focusing on on getting our buildings, you know, getting them cleaner onto off of fossil fuels and onto a clean electricity supply and that's not something we can do alone entirely. I mean, definitely I can't do it alone. The staff can't do it alone. We need resident support and we have so many wonderful volunteers here in town who are already getting this up and running and have been for many years like I said laying the groundwork. So it's it's about our community. It's about our region being in partnership with with other municipalities who are also doing this and trying, you know, trying things out and and we're all working together on that. And then the state as well facilitating this by providing us with resources. I mean, the state has very similar goals. And so it's going to be, you know, it's not just about Arlington. It's about situating this work within the region and within the state as well. So right in the state, of course, has its own net zero emissions goal, which is very similar. And so it's good to know that we're not working against each other in that way. But but nonetheless, it there's only there's only a certain amount, right, that can be supported or buttressed by state funding and state programs, etc. A lot of it again is just, you know, what you can do here in town to establish the constituencies to make all of this happen. So when you talk about buildings, there's, you know, basically, I can see how you would have some direct influence, you know, over municipal buildings and new buildings, perhaps, you know, I'm sure this, the high school is reflective of all of this work clearly. But but really the the bulk of the issue is residences, isn't it? That's right. And if you take residential emissions plus residential vehicle emissions, it's 80 percent of our total emissions. So that that really tells you where we need to be putting our efforts. And yes, I to a degree, I have more control over the municipal operation side of things. And that's very much part of my work. I mean, it's a big part of what Ken was doing. And his predecessors was was implementing our green communities program and getting that funding from the state, the green communities program, which I know you've spoken a few times about on this program, and implementing those projects, which are really focused on municipal building efficiency, as well as fleet electrification. And and so I will still be doing that. But there's, as you said, the larger piece of residential emissions. And we have to collaborate. We have to have a big campaign around electrification here in town. And I and I should clarify, when I speak about electrification, I want to emphasize that that's important, because we're still burning a lot of fossil fuels in our homes, right, to heat our homes. It's the primary natural gas is the primary source of heating here in New England. And so the idea of electrification is that if we can switch over to electric sources of heating in our homes and cooking and drying our clothes, then as the electric grid gets cleaner over time, because the state, the state, as you said, and as I said, has has similar plans to to go green over time, as that grid gets cleaner, we'll be in a position to take advantage of that clean electricity. But when you start to think about the number of homes that we'd need to electrify in town, it's substantial. It's, you know, we're talking, I think that in our net-zero action plan, it says we have to electrify 400 homes a year for the next, you know, 30 years. That's a lot of homes. So we're going to be launching a big electrification campaign called electrify Arlington here in town and getting volunteers out to support people with adopting air source heat pumps and and other efficient technologies that can, you know, help us make that transition. So it'll be my job with our volunteers to roll that out in the coming months. Yeah. And you know, I mentioned to you a little earlier that you know, in our household here in Arlington, we, you know, have been fortunate to be able to make these kinds of choices ourselves. And so we are, you know, part of the Community Choice Aggregation Plan, Ace, you know, we're at 100% and you know, trying to get our or getting our electricity from renewable sources. And, you know, we have a couple of electric cars in our house. It's, it feels good. But we also understand that we are, you know, kind of fortunate to be able to do this at this time. You have to help a lot of other people to see both the wisdom and the kind of the way to do this. What are some of the programs that you're, you know, that you're, you're going to be kind of steering towards them? Right. And I think in what you mentioned is this really important piece of, of making it an easy choice for people by incentivizing it by demonstrating the financial benefits over time, by demonstrating that it's more efficient, that it's more comfortable, that the air quality is better. Making that case and really meeting people where they're at in that sense, you know, meeting their interests to get them on this path. That's, that's what I'm going to be trying to do. And fortunately, Mass Save, which is the utility sponsored energy efficiency program here in Massachusetts has some new rebates available for various technologies. So we'll be working to get the word out about those technologies. We'll be training volunteers to speak to residents about, you know, how they can access those rebates and also speak to residents about their own experiences, installing heat pumps, you know, I think people really respond well when they can go into a home and see, oh, it, you know, I'm really comfortable and it's cold outside, but this is still working and I'm still warm and, and it's not noisy and, and all of this hot outside and this is exactly and it's the same right benefit from our heat pumps, I gotta say. And it's the same piece of technology that works both ways. So really providing opportunities like open houses to, to demonstrate those benefits, that's, those are some of the programs I want to implement. And then I think connecting also low and moderate income folks with those incentives that are available, because we should be making, you know, those cost savings available to the folks who need it most. And so that's a really important piece of the NetZero Action Plan is, is the equity component. And that's definitely going to be part of our program programming. So. And, you know, I did, I had mentioned and, and time is flying, as we can see, but I had mentioned that there are a number of different, you know, areas that you, that you are responsible for, that there are different programs that you are undertaking or getting going. And, you know, a number of these you've alluded to already, you know, the ACE program and green communities and the energy efficiency within buildings and within, you know, within homes, et cetera. But, you know, one, one thing you had just mentioned earlier, Electrify Arlington, what is that part of what have you already kind of described that in terms of what you've been talking about? Or is that something slightly different? Yeah, I think I've gotten at many pieces of it. It'll probably be united under a website. And that's that's a high priority action in our Net Zero Action Plan is a few components of this campaign. And so it's it's mostly what I mentioned, it'll be getting the word out about existing resources and existing rebates. It'll be connecting folks with coaches they can talk to to walk through the process of accessing those rebates. And it'll roll out, I think, similar to if you recall the heat, the heat smart program that Ken had had run a couple years back. So a similar model where we're pointing folks to, to contractors and rebates and people to help them kind of move through that process over time. So when you mentioned and it does seem like you're, you know, I've said how much you have on your own plate. But clearly, you know, literally you are one person and however, however committed to this, however energetic you are, etc, you can do only so much. And you're going to really rely on you've mentioned coaches, volunteers. I almost think of my own role sometimes with our neighbors and others as an ambassador, you know, to describe what it is like to, you know, have made these changes and what the ups and downs are, etc. How are you, you know, how is that going to come together as far as you can tell? How are you going to find those folks and and start to get is this going to be like knocking on doors or that might be a part of it. We we fortunately have some really great organizations in town. I mean, I have I have a couple of committees that I work with our Clean Energy Future Committee in particular, which really spearheaded the development of the next action plan. I mean, all of those folks are incredibly devoted and knowledgeable volunteers with with the town. And so I'll definitely be relying on their expertise. We've partnered with various advocacy organizations in town who are already very embedded in the community. And so I'll be tapping into those organizations and their connections. We already have a devoted group of volunteers for our ACE program, our Arlington Community Electricity Program. And so I'm already working with them and starting to have conversations. Sustainable Arlington, which is another official, I guess, subcommittee of the Envision Arlington group. You know, I'm working with folks from that group. So there's a lot of existing infrastructure. And then I think there will be a component of getting the word out. We'll probably put out a call sort of a solicitation for interest in and being a volunteer, being a coach, and then funnel folks through a training program once we get that kicked off. Wow. I mean, it you know, we are getting a sense of just how much work literal ground grunt work is just going to be necessary on a little again, literally day to day, week to week, month to month basis, where you can't really take your eyes off the ball for very long. But nice to hear and to know that you're tapping into existing infrastructure, that there are already communities that are galvanized within our larger community of Arlington around these issues and they're and you're going to be able to work with them and not have to kind of invent this whole cloth. Yeah. And as I said before, it's it's because of those individuals in those groups, many, many of those folks have lived here for decades. They really laid the ground work for all of this. So I wouldn't I actually wouldn't be here if not for them. I wanted to ask you about and I know we're going to end up missing out on talking about some of this stuff. And I really genuinely want to have you back for the ability for us to be able to, you know, kind of basically get into the weeds on all of this to a greater degree than we can in this particular half hour. But let me ask you about one thing that I know is also part of this this part of your full plate. And that is a lot of a lot of what you are confronting reminds me of the situation for Jillian Harvey, our DEI director here in town, where she has just a whole lot of stuff that she's trying to put together around the establishment of good practice, great practices for diversity, equity and inclusion. I'm sure that you are both cognizant of you've already mentioned, you know, wanting to get to low and moderate income people as well as as those of us who are more privileged to be able to get incentives, information, et cetera. I also would imagine that there's a piece that is just around social racial equity that needs to be part of this effort. Can you just speak to, you know, to that a little bit? Sure. Yeah. And I'm glad you mentioned Jill. I've spoken with her and I know we'll be collaborating closely in the future. And I think the work she's doing in town is tremendous. So I don't think you can really separate those issues from from the climate crisis and the way that it's playing out. And Arlington isn't an exception. I mean, overall, it is a more affluent community. But I mean, if you look at the statistics, we still have a significant portion of the town that are low and moderate income and and folks of color. And so I'll be focusing on in our implementation of our programs, how do we reach people who have been left out of the process historically? And so one of the projects I'm excited about will be a collaboration with USDN, the Urban Sustainability Directors Network. And it's called the Nexus. And we'll be thinking through how to integrate racial equity into our climate work into a specific climate project here in town. And that's going to be over time working with community members, paying some of those community members through a grant that's already been acquired and not by the town but by a partner. And and really thinking through, OK, we have all these values and I think it's nice to talk about these things and we use a lot of the buzz words now. But what does that look like when when we start to implement projects? How do we actually build trust? How do we implement things in an equitable way? Make sure that people who are, you know, for example, taking advantage of the incentives are actually people who need the money. So I think that just just thinking through logistically what that's going to take and what that process will look like, you know, with a specific project. And then how do how do we expand that for our other climate work here in town is something I'm really excited about. Right. And then and then taking all that and then actually putting it into practice and you know, starting that process, as you said. Yeah, I you know, I'd mentioned I would want to get into the weeds with you a little bit more on a future conversation. And really that that that will be, you know, I understand these are early days for that for the nexus and for that project in general. But we really want to kind of get a sense of just how it is that you will put that into practice. So that and other things will have to to shell for the moment. But I hope and I think that our audience would have gotten a pretty good sense of just how important and comprehensive the work is that you're doing. And so thank you, first of all, for taking it on. We appreciate it. We hope that you and your youthful energy, you know, will be up for it. But, you know, I look forward to charting your progress and to kind of again, sharing this desk and this conversation space with you in the future. Thank you so much. Thank you. I have been speaking, of course, with Talia Fox, who is our sustainability manager here in town. And we expect to talk to her more in the future. Thanks again to Talia for her time today and to you as well. I'm James Milan. This is Talk of the Town. We'll see you next time.