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Date: 9/26/2023
NORTHAMPTON — Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra announced last week that Northampton resident Carole Collins will be the director of the city’s newly formed Climate Action and Project Administration Department.
“I am extremely excited on two fronts: the official launch of the CAPA Department and the addition of Carole Collins to our team,” said Sciarra. “Carole is the ideal leader to guide Northampton toward a more sustainable future.”
The Northampton City Council officially voted to institute the CAPA department back in the winter.
The city is continuing its pursuit of making all city-owned buildings carbon-neutral by 2030, and there is hope that they will reach a target of zero carbon emissions citywide by 2050. These goals were laid out in the city’s 2021 Northampton Comprehensive Plan — Resilience and Regeneration Plan, and the creation of this department is another significant step in that direction.
According to the city website, the CAPA department “is responsible for setting strategic goals for climate response and to procure for and manage projects with a focus on energy and sustainability.”
The department’s conception means that certain positions are streamlined. For example, two existing positions in the city, the energy & sustainability officer from the Central Services Department — and the chief procurement officer from the Auditor’s Office — now serve under the CAPA department. The new department is helmed by the director position, which Collins now holds.
“This new department is a tremendous opportunity for Northampton to continue to be a leader in mitigating climate change, and I look forward to what we can achieve together,” Collins said in a statement. “I am very excited to work in and for the city I have called home for most of my adult life.”
Collins has worked for the city of Greenfield since 2010 and she served as the director of the city’s Department of Energy and Sustainability-the only such department in Western Massachusetts for the past nine years.
During her time there, Greenfield was recognized as one of 11 municipalities to receive the 2021 Leading by Example Award from the state’s Department of Energy Resources. The city was also recognized for its accomplishments in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 70% since 2008 and sustaining 25% reduction in municipal-wide energy consumption since 2016.
Collins, originally from New York, earned a bachelor’s in ecological building design from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a master’s in resource management and administration focused on sustainable development from Antioch University New England.
She is credited with shepherding Massachusetts’ first Property Assessed Clean Energy project, utilizing municipal aggregation to pursue a clean energy agenda, decarbonizing six municipal buildings and installing a gifted solar array to achieve net zero energy on the DPW office building.
Outside of Collins, the CAPA department also features William Coffey as the chief procurement officer and Joshua Singer as the new energy and sustainability officer.
Singer, who was hired by the city at the beginning of July, replaces Chris Mason, who helmed the position in Northampton before taking a regional position as the green communities coordinator for Western Massachusetts earlier this year. Mason was the first energy and sustainability officer in the commonwealth.
According to Northampton’s website, the energy and sustainability officer works to move the city toward more sustainable use of energy and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“I think Northampton has a great track record already and a lot of people that are already interested in this work,” Singer said in an Energy & Sustainability meeting back in July. “I already see that there’s been a lot of work that’s been done and plans for moving forward, so I’m really looking forward to working on all of this.”
Sciarra submitted the appointment of Collins to the City Council for approval during their Sept. 21 meeting.