Consensus Building Institute

We've been delighted to welcome new staff in 2024—meet new CBIers in our most recent staff update: https://lnkd.in/e5aWikaw

Green hydrogen has high potential to curb greenhouse gas emissions. To be “green,” hydrogen projects require large-scale wind and solar arrays to power electricity to produce hydrogen, along with other infrastructure to produce, store, distribute, and fuel transportation. Chile has developed a strategy to scale up green hydrogen production and be a world leader, but this has raised some questions in the iconic Patagonian region where many such projects have been proposed. In response to these concerns, Chile's Agency for Sustainability and Climate Change (ASCC) is piloting a program aimed at helping green hydrogen developers and other companies engage with communities early in the project development cycle. CBI has been working with the ASCC as an observer and advisor on its first pilot under this new program, a green hydrogen initiative near the windy Straits of Magellan in extreme southern Chile. Read about this work and more: https://lnkd.in/eix_f4Mb

Explore the hidden story of Boston's Muddy River in this "Puzzle Pieces" podcast episode created in collaboration between CRWA and the Consensus Building Institute! 🎧 This 14-minute listen uncovers how the river reached its current state and its broader environmental impacts. Now available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, search "Puzzle Pieces". Or listen here: https://lnkd.in/e5csAQRJ

Part of the Charles River watershed in Boston, the Muddy River has been built over and contaminated to such a degree that people often miss how crucial it is. What happens when an ecologically connecting thread gets obscured? For a podcast episode made in collaboration with the Charles River Watershed Association, CBI has brought together people with connections to different aspects of the Muddy, all to talk about how the river came to its present condition—and about what the river means for the world around it. Find it here, in Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eKkgYxzK

Recent decades in Massachusetts have been a long period of housing crisis, and to address this, the governor has established a Commission on Unlocking Housing Production and charged her administration with developing a Statewide Housing Plan. CBI has been facilitating these processes to expand access to housing in the Commonwealth. Read more about this work and more in our latest "CBI in Action": https://lnkd.in/eix_f4Mb

Long before the tech industry boomed, California’s Silicon Valley was rich with fruit orchards, from San Jose to Santa Cruz. Today those orchards are mostly gone. In Sunnyvale, however, a working heritage orchard remains: Orchard Heritage Park. The city of Sunnyvale owns the property, and it’s managed as a living apricot orchard. In 2008, the local Historical Society built a museum on the property, focused on the history of Sunnyvale, and now Sunnyvale’s city council has sought to balance the museum’s commemorative work with the needs of the living orchard. CBI is working to help those involved in this process—read about this work and more in our latest "CBI in Action": https://lnkd.in/eix_f4Mb

Find our brand-new issue of CBI Reports—with snapshots of recent work, introductions to new members of the CBI team, and more writing from the world of CBI—at our site: https://lnkd.in/e3qip3-6

We're approaching the publication of the summer issue of CBI Reports, our newsletter. You can sign up to receive such updates over at our site, where you'll also find our CBI Reports archive: https://lnkd.in/eGfxMeDQ

The governor of Massachusetts has established a Housing Advisory Council and a Commission on Unlocking Housing Production to address the state's housing crisis. In support of this effort, CBI facilitated 14 listening sessions across the state, gathering questions, concerns, and feedback from a range of communities. Watch a recap here:

CBI, working with the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), Clean Air Task Force, and others, is delighted to share a new report and interactive tool that catalogues state renewable energy siting policies and permitting authorities across the United States. Now, policymakers, project developers, and community members can use the report and map to navigate the jurisdictional authorities making permitting decisions about large-scale wind and solar projects. Read the report here: https://lnkd.in/eppg6Bbz