We Need Your Support!

In a few days, you should receive your issue of the Massachusetts Sierran with a request to help us with a contribution. Your generous direct donations support our statewide environmental effort. Your support will allow us to combat global warming, improve air quality, and protect our natural environment. Your support will enable us to:

• Protect our parks and forests
• Keep our air and water clean
• Protect marine and coastal habitats
• Work towards a clean energy future
• Help curb climate change
• Advocate for improved public transportation
• Keep the pressure on our elected officials and corporations to ensure safe and healthy communities
• File and work to pass critical environmental legislation
• Click here to donate

Your contribution will directly support our local conservation campaigns and will be applied where most urgently needed. Click here to donate!

Thank you very much for your support!

Legislative Priorities

Dozens of key legislative measures will soon be effectively killed unless the legislature acts promptly. Sierra Club members are urged to contact their state representative and senator and ask them to help move these bills through the process: Click here for the Massachusetts Sierra Club’s Twelve Urgent Bills

What is Biomass Energy?

Biomass energy is the production of energy (electricity; liquid, solid, and gaseous fuels; and heat) from biomass. Biomass may be any organic matter including dedicated energy crops and trees, agricultural food and feed crop residues, aquatic plants, wood and wood residues, animal wastes and other organic waste, and construction and demolition debris. Currently in Massachusetts most biomass that is proposed to be burned is either from forest and timber products (woody biomass) or construction and demolition debris. Click here for more.
 

GET ACTIVE

Support the Bottle Bill Update

Help Support the Updated Bottle Bill!
The Bottle Bill is the state’s most successful recycling and litter prevention program. Since the Bottle Bill's inception in 1983, over 30 billion containers have been redeemed, contributing to a healthier environment, cleaner and safer communities, and a stronger economy. But to keep up with the times and consumer’s tastes, the bottle bill must be updated. An Updated Bottle Bill would expand our container deposit system to include “new age” drinks such as non-carbonated beverages, water, iced tea, juice, and sports drinks. It would add $20 million to state revenue via projected unclaimed deposits. It would decrease litter - and increase recycling. Click here for more.

Become a Facebook fan of "Bottle Bill"!

Contact your State Representative and State Senator:
If you know who your  legislators are, click here to contact them. If you're unsure, click  here. Ask them to Support the Updated Bottle Bill, H3515/S1480

Has your City/Town passed a resolution of support? Click here to see the list that have. If yours isn't on the list, contact your City Council, Board of Aldermen, or Selectmen and ask them to pass our municipal resolution.

Volunteer!: There's lots you can do to help pass the Bottle Bill Update! Contact phil@sierraclubmass.org for more information.

ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGNS

Plastic Bags:
The Gift From
The Plastics Industry
That Just Keeps On Killing

Zero Waste
Fueling the Economy, Not the Incinerators
Zero Waste is a design principle and planning approach for the environmental management of resources. It aims to prevent waste rather than manage it after the fact. Sierra Club’s Zero Waste policy addresses not only the quantity of waste we generate, but also its toxicity, its contribution to climate change, and the important links between waste reduction and corporate responsibility. More...

Help Preserve our Open Spaces!
Protect Our State's Parks
The Sierra Club is supporting legislation to protect old growth forests, prevent the closure of neighborhood parks, and preserve our historic parkways.  More...

Saving Energy Tips
Home energy saving tips from our  Energy Outreach Committee. Features ten simple tips to save energy and cut down on your monthly bills. Click here.

Cape Wind Energy Project
The Sierra Club has announced its conditional support for a 130 wind turbine renewable energy project off Cape Cod. The Club is calling for completion of the permitting process and an end to congressional attempts to undermine the project.  More information: press release - Sierra Club position statement

Silver Line - or Silver Lie?
The Sierra Club report shows the MBTA is spending millions of dollars on an inefficient replacement bus service for Washington Street when light rail would attract more riders and cost less money.  More...

Landfill Gas
New landfill regulations are needed, as current gas-to-energy policy worsens global warming. Common practices at commercial LFGTE (landfill gas-to-energy) facilities increase methane release to the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming. Landfill gas is a mix of gases (methane, carbon dioxide, and other toxic compounds in much smaller amounts). Methane forms only in moist, airless spaces. In landfills, more moisture means more methane. Oxygen, on the other hand, prevents methane from forming. Therefore, the proportion of methane in landfill gas depends on the percentage of moisture and the absence of oxygen in any given landfill, or portion of a landfill, at any given time. Click here for a landfill gas factsheet.

Sierra Club Seeks Development Associate
The Massachusetts Sierra Club is seeking to hire a Development Associate. The position will be half-time and located in downtown Boston. Click here for more.

Volunteer Opportunities
If you have a few hours free on a regular basis, you can help the environment by volunteering with the Sierra Club! Click here for more. 

Support the
Mass Chapter!
Your generous direct donations support our statewide efforts to preserve public lands and open space, protect marine and coastal habitats, conserve energy, and work to improve public transportation. Your support will allow us to file and work to pass important legislation to help stop global warming, improve air quality, and protect our natural environment. Click here to donate!

Visited the new
Greater Boston Blog!
Our new blog features events, news, and ideas. Join us to discuss environmental issues taking place in the Greater Boston Area. Click here.

Visit us on Facebook!

Joint Study Highlighting Benefits of Completing the Northeast Rail System

The Sierra Club, working with other groups, released a joint report titled An integrated regional Rail Network for New England. The study finds that connecting North and South Stations - the only one-mile gap in the northeast rail corridor - will result in significant environmental and economic benefits for the entire Northeast. The report highlights the significance of completing the North South Rail link, and includes a significant new financial analysis of the costs of the project. Click here to read the report.
 

Forest and Park Guardians
Join the Forest and Park Guardians! Please join us to protect our state Forest and Parks. We are inviting Sierra Club Members to submit photos for this Web site of your favorite Park or Forest, with a note about the threats to it. More...

Local city/town government