What We Do
Our urban farms connect communities to the growing cycle. We’ve helped lead Cambridge toward NetZero energy goals ahead of other cities and towns. We prize the value of all trees growing in the city, no matter whose property they grow from. We support all work toward removing pavement and parking and increasing transit, pedestrian and bicycle facilities for a cleaner, safer, and healthier future. We educate emerging generations on the urban flora and fauna found in our city through multi-generational celebration.
About Us
Green Cambridge works to create a more sustainable city and to protect the environment for the health and safety of all. We are a place-based interpretive science 501(c)3 non-profit centered on career exploration programs for youth and young adults, arts-based STEAM activities for school-age children, and creating local environment volunteering experiences for adults.
We use the urban forest, urban wilds, and urban agriculture areas as outdoor informal community classrooms. Using these natural “classrooms”, we engage all ages in environmental programming through art and science that centers on neighborhoods, communities, and individual empowerment. To ensure these opportunities exist and for greater climate resilience, we advocate on behalf of our shared natural systems, the benefits they provide for residents, and more equitable land use in Cambridge.
Green Cambridge enjoys the support of a dedicated board, active volunteers, donors, and interested citizens who generously give their resources to activities and conversations that advance our mission. Our community support is by far our largest asset and our success will hinge on our collective desire to make Cambridge a more equitable and sustainable place to live. Our staff manages the programmatic work and leads the on-the-ground implementation of Green Cambridge’s vision in collaboration and partnership with supporters and volunteers.
Our Priorities
Educate our residents and perform prototype projects in each of our four program areas: urban agriculture, urban tree canopy, urban wilds, and wildlife arts. Show how these areas are interwoven with each other in order to support neighborhoods and communities.
Prioritize the engagement of underserved populations in the development of our programs and initiatives.
Partner with diverse organizations that share our values and goals, including those with whom we do not share the same theory of change.
Build coalitions of organizations around our issues, and bind the power of their constituents with ours to achieve shared goals.
Advocate for local public policy and legislation that promotes care for our community, adaptation to climate change, conservation of our shared assets, and restoration of our ecosystems, while respecting diversity.
Lead with the message of creating a positive impact on our neighborhoods and communities.
Work toward systemic and cultural change that decouples our livelihoods from short-term, unsustainable, corporate policies in regards to food, transportation, energy systems and ecology.
Our Vision
We envision Cambridge as an example of the successful implementation of sustainable principles and practices.
Cambridge values its green space and its watersheds, and implements land use policies that preserve our urban forest, promote permaculture, and contribute to biodiversity.
Cambridge generates abundant renewable energy and consumes our natural resources with care.
Cambridge is a center of learning and science, where people come together to share knowledge about climate resilience, justice, and adaptation.
Green Cambridge is a garden where the seeds for thought transformation are planted, and from which a new generation of environmental leaders will grow.
Green Cambridge is a locus for place-based education and advocacy for the health of our environment and our fellow humans.
Green Cambridge will continue to amplify the voices of the vulnerable, leveraging the strength of our diversity to achieve our goals and create a future that is hopeful and empowering for all.
How We Got Started
Green Cambridge has been addressing climate change and environmental justice on the municipal level since its founding as Green Decade in 2004. In 2006, the organization became a non-profit corporation in Massachusetts. Under the successive leadership of Presidents Alison Field-Juma, Sue Butler, Keren Schlomy, and Michele Sprengnether, the organization advocated for sustainability in Cambridge. In 2011 the organization, previously known as Green Decade/Cambridge, became Green Cambridge and elected Quinton Zondervan as President.
In 2013, Green Cambridge launched the Net Zero petition, which resulted in the 25-year Net Zero Action Plan unanimously adopted by the City Council in 2015. In 2017, Green Cambridge started the Hurley Street Neighborhood Farm as a prototype for future communal gardens in Cambridge and since has partnered with the City and private organizations on other community gardens. In that same year, the organization successfully petitioned the city for tree canopy protection, which led to the Urban Forest Master Plan released by the City in 2019. In 2018, the Cambridge Wildlife Puppetry Project merged into Green Cambridge to become the Wildlife Arts program for school-aged children. In 2019, Green Cambridge brought in the work of the Friends of Alewife Reservation, and took on its mission as their Alewife urban wilds program. In 2021 Green Cambridge, in partnership with Groundwork Somerville, is spearheading the Canopy Crew, a tree planting program to train youth and young adults in urban forestry, increasing and preserving the tree canopy across both cities.