Newton is reorganizing its climate and sustainability operations, moving the Office of Sustainability into the Department of Public Works as Mayor Marc Laredo says the city is entering a new phase focused on implementing climate policies.
The restructuring has also resulted in the departure of Ann Berwick, who has served as the City’s co-director of sustainability for about a decade.
The changes have prompted questions from environmental advocates and at least one City official about whether the new structure will strengthen Newton’s climate efforts or make it more difficult to carry out some of the City’s ambitious climate goals.
A new home for sustainability
In an August 13 letter to City Councilors, Mayor Laredo said Newton’s sustainability work has expanded beyond reducing greenhouse gas emissions to include ecological stewardship, embodied carbon, waste reduction, and preparing the city for climate change.
He said some related work, including climate resilience, stormwater management, and waste reduction, already occurs within the Department of Public Works, while other climate work has been housed in the Office of Sustainability.
Under the new structure, the City will create a Sustainability and Materials Management Division within the Department of Public Works.
Waneta Trabert, currently the City’s director of Sustainable Materials Management, will become Deputy Commissioner of Sustainability and Administration. Bernie McDonald will become Deputy Commissioner of Operations.
The new division will include Sustainable Materials Management, climate resilience work, and a new Climate and Energy branch. Caroline Weiss, currently Climate Action Coordinator, will lead the Climate and Energy branch, overseeing climate policy, clean energy, building decarbonization, and interdepartmental climate coordination.
Sam Nighman, who served as co-director with Berwick, will become the City’s director of Organizational Performance and will work across City government on organizational and operational issues.
The restructuring will not require additional budgeted positions, according to Mayor Laredo. Instead, the City plans to use existing Department of Public Works resources that become available through vacancies.
Mayor Laredo said the new structure will bring sustainability work closer to the City operations that affect climate outcomes, including infrastructure, fleet replacement, transportation, waste reduction, and capital investments.
Josh Morse, the City’s Chief Operating Officer, told Fig City News the City has reached a point where it needs to shift from developing climate policies to implementing them.
“We have wrapped up several critical policies that have taken quite a bit of time,” Morse said. “Ann was integral in that part, in that aspect of sustainability.”
“But we’re entering a period where we believe that we are shifting from policy development to implementation,” he said.
Berwick disputes characterization of departure
Berwick disputes the administration’s description of her departure. The administration has characterized her departure as a transition and says she was asked to assist with the transition. In an interview with Fig City News, she said Morse called her and told her she was being fired.
“I want to set the record straight that I did not resign,” Berwick said. “I had no intention whatsoever of resigning, and Josh Morse called me to tell me I was being fired.”
Berwick said she was told there would otherwise be no role for her with the City and that she was asked to help with the transition until “October-ish.”
“It’s really hard to be more direct than to say that I was fired,” she said.
She also said the call came “absolutely out of the blue” and that she was given no reason for the decision.
When asked about her comments, Morse did not explicitly characterize Berwick’s departure as a firing. Instead, he described the decision as part of the restructuring and said the City wanted to use the resources associated with her position to support its next phase of climate and sustainability work.
Mayor Laredo’s letter described Berwick as “transitioning from her position as Co-Director of Sustainability” and said she would stay on to assist the team through the transition. He praised her decade of work, saying the legacy she leaves will continue to guide the City’s climate efforts.
Morse also praised Berwick’s contributions.
“She did an amazing job and has done an amazing job in her time with the City,” he said.
Berwick said she hopes the new team succeeds.
“I think Newton has really done good work on these issues, and I really hope the work continues,” she said. “Newton has been a leader in the state on sustainability issues, and I very much hope that the new organization and the new team is successful.”
Climate Action Plan enters implementation phase
The reorganization comes as Newton works on Climate Action Plan 2.0, the City’s roadmap for climate work from 2026 through 2030. The plan focuses on buildings and energy, transportation and mobility, consumption and disposal, and climate resilience. It includes measurable actions and calls for progress to be tracked through a public dashboard.
Morse said the restructuring is aligned with the plan.
“Our restructuring is really with an eye toward that implementation phase, and aligning those resources with those deliverables,” he said.
But City Councilor Susan Albright said she believes the distinction between planning and implementation is misleading.
In an interview with Fig City News, Councilor Albright said she was concerned that the administration was underestimating the amount of planning required to accomplish Newton’s climate goals.
“Implementation is nothing without proper planning,” Albright said.
Albright said her concerns are particularly tied to the City’s work with Eversource and National Grid.
The challenge of moving away from natural gas
Newton is working with Eversource and National Grid on a memorandum of understanding intended to develop a plan for transitioning portions of the City away from natural gas. The effort comes as Newton pursues its goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. The City’s Climate Action Plan identifies reducing emissions from buildings and energy as one of its central areas of focus.
Morse said the agreement remains in place and described it as a partnership aimed at determining how neighborhoods, or potentially smaller residential areas, could transition from natural gas to electric heating systems.
“It could be geothermal; it could be air-source heat pumps,” Morse said.
He said the City has staff with significant experience working with the utilities and the Department of Public Utilities and that he is confident the work can continue under the new structure.
“We feel pretty strongly that we have the ability, both from a technical standpoint and from a policy, logistics, and coordination perspective, to be able to move those things forward,” Morse said.
Morse said the City also maintains frequent meetings with its utility partners on a range of issues, including the memorandum of understanding, gas leaks, and double utility poles.
Albright, however, said the project is more complicated than the administration’s description suggests.
She said National Grid originally brought the idea of developing a memorandum of understanding when she chaired the Zoning and Planning Committee, and that the project requires extensive planning, data analysis, funding considerations, and coordination between the City and the utilities.
She also questioned whether the Department of Public Works is the appropriate home for that work.
“The Department of Public Works deals with gas lines under our streets in Newton,” Albright said. “They do not deal with how to replace gas infrastructure with other forms of energy. That is not their calling. That is not in their mission.”
Albright said she would have preferred to see the project housed within the Department of Planning and Development.
“I love the Department of Public Works. They are a wonderful department,” she said. “I just don’t think this particular planning project belonged in that department.”
She also expressed concern about Berwick’s departure, saying Berwick brought significant experience to the project and had established relationships with the utilities.
Albright said the group working on the memorandum of understanding will need strong leadership to coordinate its members and keep the City, Eversource, and National Grid moving toward a common plan.
She said the City’s effort to transition away from natural gas will be particularly complicated because of the cost of electrification, the technical challenges involved in converting neighborhoods, and the need to coordinate the transition among residents, utilities, and City officials.
Newton is already pursuing electrification in municipal buildings. The City says ground-source heat pumps are planned for two elementary schools under construction – Franklin and Countryside – and that new City buildings and major renovations will use electric heating and other decarbonization measures where feasible.
What comes next
The administration maintains that the restructuring is intended to strengthen, rather than scale back, Newton’s climate work.
Laredo’s new structure places climate policy, clean energy, building decarbonization, resilience, waste reduction, and materials management within a more closely connected organizational framework. The City has also said that the reorganization does not add new budgeted positions.
Newton’s Climate Action Plan 2.0 reaffirms the City’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and identifies buildings and energy, transportation and mobility, consumption and disposal, and resilience as its major areas of climate action.
The City is already implementing several initiatives tied to those goals, including the Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO), the Fossil-Fuel Free Ordinance, municipal electrification projects, renewable energy programs, and climate-resilience efforts.
For Berwick, the ultimate test of the restructuring will be whether Newton continues to advance those commitments.
“I hope the reorganization helps the City to advance on its energy and climate goals,” Berwick said. “I will do everything I can to help the sustainability team reach the City’s goals.”
Morse said he believes the City’s existing sustainability staff are prepared for the next phase.
“We have a very strong sustainability and climate resiliency team,” he said. “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for them to take the helm and really advance all of these incredible initiatives.”
With Climate Action Plan 2.0 now moving into its implementation period, the coming years will provide a test of whether the new structure delivers the coordination and results the administration says it was designed to achieve.
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