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Date: 8/8/2023
NORTHAMPTON — During their July 11 meeting, the Energy and Sustainability Commission introduced Joshua Singer as the city’s new energy & 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.
“We’re very excited to have him fill a void that we’ve had for the last couple of months here,” said Carolyn Misch, the city’s director of Planning and Sustainability.
Singer will be serving as the officer under the city’s newly-formed Climate Action and Project Administration Department, which was instituted back in the winter to help set strategic goals for future climate response and “to procure for and manage projects with a focus on energy and sustainability.”
Additionally, the department is looking to achieve the goals laid out in the city’s Sustainable Northampton Comprehensive Plan-Resilience and Regeneration Plan to reach a goal of carbon neutrality for city operations by 2030 and a 2050 target for net-zero carbon emissions citywide.
“I’m looking forward to getting to work, and I’ve already started looking through all of the projects we had in the works so far,” Singer said, during the July 11 meeting.
Singer’s background includes experience in environmental law and policy, sustainable business design, municipal sustainability and climate change mitigation. He also said he was inside the corporate space for a brief stint before decided to shift his focus to working with people directly on a local level.
The new officer is also a graduate of Hampshire College.
“I think Northampton has a great track record already and a lot of people that are already interested in this work,” Singer said. “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.”
The City Council approved the creation of the CAPA department, along with specific organizational changes, during the Feb. 16 meeting.
The city’s chief procurement officer position joins the energy and sustainability officer under the new CAPA department, and the city is currently in the process of hiring a director to helm the entire department.