Leading by Example Podcast Transcript
Layla (Host): At the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Climate and sustainability are top priorities. Across the state, Executive agencies work to minimize the government's environmental impacts by reducing the use of fossil fuels, adding electric vehicles to the state fleet and purchasing more sustainable products. So what is the framework behind these efforts? Executive Order No. 594, Leading by Example. You are listening to WOSD News: Procurement Insights. I'm your host, Layla Palmer. In this episode, we are joined by OSD alum and Leading by Example Director Eric Friedman. He'll walk us through the executive order, explain why it matters, and show how Massachusetts is modeling sustainable practices in public sector operations.
Eric Friedman, welcome to WOSD news. I'm eager to get into this conversation about leading by example and Executive Order No. 594. But I want to give you an opportunity to introduce yourself to our listeners, so take it away.
Eric: Thanks, Layla, and good morning. I'm Eric Friedman, I'm the Director of the Leading by Example division at the Department of Energy Resources. And I'm really excited to be here to talk to you today. When we talk about Leading by Example, I think there's sort of two ways to look at it here in the Commonwealth. The first, and it's kind of the simplest way to look at it, is that we have a Leading by Example program that sits within the Department of Energy Resources, and we work to support state government, all of our agencies and public colleges and campuses to meet the goals of Executive Order No. 594, which I know we'll talk about in just one second. But I think the second and perhaps more compelling description of what Leading by Example is, or LBE as we like to call it for short, is that it is kind of a philosophy that says that we in the public sector have both a responsibility and an obligation to demonstrate to everyone in Massachusetts how we can successfully meet our aggressive energy and climate goals, while still providing the services that people come to expect from state government, and while also reducing the cost of state government operations.
So what are the goals of Executive Order No. 594? There are a lot of them, but I'll try and focus on some of the key metrics and key targets that are in the executive order. But let me start by providing a little context in acknowledging that the primary goal of the order is to promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that come from state government operations. I'm sure most of your listeners know that greenhouse gas emissions are the primary cause of climate change, and we see the impacts of climate change every day, whether it's the one hundred degree temperature we're about to see later this week or some of the big rainstorms that are increasing in number that lead to significant flooding, because our ground doesn't have the capacity to absorb the amount of water that's coming down. So those are some real examples of the kinds of impacts we see from climate change. And we know that reducing our emissions is one way to--we're not going to stop climate change, but it's one way to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.
So in our executive order, we actually focus on what we call Onsite Fossil Fuel Emissions. So the fuels that we use to provide heat to our buildings or the vehicle fuels, gasoline and diesel, that we use in our vehicles in our state fleets. And we have direct control and the ability to actually impact the emissions that come from the combustion of those fuels. So by 2030, the executive order says that we must reduce our emissions coming from these fossil fuels by 35 percent from a 2004 baseline, and by 2040, the goal increases significantly to 75 percent reduction. We're at about a 20 percent reduction now, maybe slightly over. And so we have a long way to go, but there's certainly a lot of progress being made. The order also targets the electrification of our state fleets, and requires that 20 percent of our entire fleet of almost 10,000 vehicles must be electric by 2030. And again, we're at about six or seven percent right now. So a lot of work to be done in the next few years. There's a lot more in the executive order, but those are kind of the key metrics that are forming the core of our work. And also much of the work that's happening across many agencies.
Layla (Host): Thanks so much for that framework that all of these goals are based upon. The decarbonization aspect-- we have a podcast series with Salem State University and DCAMM that really dug into the decarbonization project that's occurring on that campus. Do you have any examples of how these goals are being achieved across the Commonwealth in terms of decarbonization or the electrification aspect, anything that you can share with us?
Eric: When we look at sort of, you know, where we started maybe 10, 15 years ago and where we are now, we can see the significant progress that we've made. So just as an example, you know, we now have almost 40 megawatts of solar. That's a hard number to sort of wrap your heads around. People don't know what's a kilowatt, what's a megawatt. But we have just about 40 megawatts of solar installed on state lands. That's enough electricity produced every year to power more than 6,000 homes in Massachusetts. We have over 550 electric vehicles (EVs) in our fleet and over 1300 electric vehicle charging ports or plugs situated at state facilities. And much of that progress has really happened over the last three or four years. We've seen a drop in our use of heating oil by over 90 percent since our baseline a couple of decades ago. That's come through efficiency and a switch to cleaner fuels. And as you noted, there are a host of decarbonization efforts happening across multiple facilities. And so we have dozens of heat pump installations, whether they're geothermal ground source heat pump installations to air source heat pump installations, at multiple buildings and multiple campuses across the Commonwealth.
There's obviously the cost of this work, and so there's a lot of efforts underway like some grant programs that we have that are helping to mitigate some of the costs. There's two kind of big categories of ways that we provide support for the host of agencies and public entities out there in state government. The first is sort of a series of tangible support that we provide. This can take the form of grants that we have offered in a number of different categories. In general, those grants are designed to support projects that either can't get funding elsewhere for a variety of reasons, or where the funding that's available really isn't sufficient to support those projects moving forward. So we have grant programs for solar installation, for charging station deployment, for small scale decarbonization equipment, landscaping equipment. So that's one particular way. We also provide a series of technical assistance opportunities. So whether it's guidance documents we have on our website or one on one conversations with agencies to really help them. Not every agency has, you know, an energy expert that really knows about all of these different technologies and different strategies. So we really try and help guide them through the process. But I think another way of looking at the way in which we support is I like to talk about our program as kind of a convener and a collaborator. So we work very closely with dozens of state agencies, some of whom have really big impact on these sustainability efforts. So, for example, we work closely with folks in your office at OSD who are overseeing and managing environmentally preferable purchasing. And that's a really important part of the work that we all do. We work very closely with the Office of Vehicle Management, also within OSD, which is playing a key role in fleet electrification for many of our agencies. And as mentioned before, we meet quite a bit and talk quite a bit with our colleagues over at DCAMM who are doing quite a bit of amazing work across our campuses to decarbonize our facilities, promote energy efficiency, and electrify a lot of our thermal loads and energy loads in those campuses. And then we meet regularly with agencies, we have bi-monthly council meetings for the Leading by Example program, where we introduce a lot of our stakeholders to new technologies, to new strategies, and also allow for the sharing of best practices. There's really not any other place to do this. So that's one really important strategy. And so we can really be sort of this energy hub for state government and really help guide them through some of the challenges that they're facing.
Julia: Procurement may not be on the top of peoples’ minds when they think about sustainability, but at OSD, it’s one of the most powerful tools we have to protect public health and reduce the environmental impacts of state government. Hi there, I'm Julia Wolfe, Director of Environmental Purchasing at the Operational Services Division. I oversee the Environmentally Preferable Products Procurement Program, or the EPP program, that was established by Executive Order No. 515 to promote sustainable purchasing across the Commonwealth. In 2025 alone, public entities purchased more than $2.5 billion in goods and services through OSD's Statewide Contracts, and that purchasing power matters because it helps shape demand for products and services that are safer, cleaner and more sustainable. Let's head back to Eric Friedman, who was OSD's very first EPP Director, to explore how sustainable purchasing supports the Commonwealth's environmental goals.
Layla (Host): Collaboration truly is the foundation of a lot of these trailblazing initiatives in Massachusetts. And of course, you mentioned OSD and the EPP program and how that comes into play with things. So as the very first EPP Director – OSD alum – why don't we dig into that a little bit more? How does procurement and purchasing fit into all of this and help achieve the goals that are set out in Executive Order No. 594?
Eric: I have, as you noted, a long history in this, and certainly the work that Julia Wolfe does, and her colleagues at OSD, have really led the program to be a national leader in this work. The state contracts that OSD is responsible for putting together and bidding out and managing are really critical to the work that that we do. You know, I can think of off the top of my head, a dozen contracts that we rely on essentially to make sure that the work we're doing moves forward. So whether it's a host of the contracts for light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles that provide electrified options so that agencies can easily and simply purchase the electric vehicles for their fleets, or the contract that has awarded a host of EV charging vendors, enabling agencies to quickly access any number of vendors to install literally any type of EV charging station you want at your state facility. Um, those are great examples in that category of contracts that really help to streamline the work that we do. And in fact, most of the agencies that come to us for grants in, let's say EV charging, are using VEH122 to actually move those projects forward. But there are lots of other contracts as well. We rely on some of the TRD contracts for some of the electrical work that needs to happen to perhaps install EV charging, or do some small scale building improvement work to help improve efficiency. There are energy contracts related to biodiesel and diesel fuels where we make those renewable fuels available for purchase by agencies. And then FAC116, on that contract is a host of battery-powered landscaping equipment, which is another sort of, I wouldn't say easy, but relatively easy way to decarbonize a host of fossil fuel using equipment. And then lastly the PRF74, which is the energy consultant contract, is used widely by our office and by many offices to hire consultants to help support decarbonization roadmaps or planning efforts to look at battery storage opportunities or help design solar installations on large parking lots. So that contract is used quite a bit by many of our agencies looking for opportunities to design projects that they can then move forward with at a later date.
Layla (Host): Partnership between agencies can really lead to some pretty amazing things. Do you have any other highlight in your time working at the Department of Energy Resources, things you are looking forward to in the future as we keep progressing toward these goals, or anything else you'd like to share with our listeners?
Eric: The goals that we've set for statewide net zero emissions by 2050, this is something that is enshrined in legislation, and this administration is working hard to plan for meeting those goals over the next couple of decades. We are really excited about the opportunities that are growing in number, whether it's, you know, new technologies or new strategies or, you know, architects and designers and engineers that are really embracing these challenges. And so it seems to me that we are really on the cusp of a whole slew of new opportunities that can really help us to move away from fossil fuel combustion and move toward much more sustainable and much more clean energy strategies at our facilities.
Layla (Host): This concludes today's episode on leading by example. Thank you to Eric Friedman for joining us today. And thank you to OSD's Director of Environmental Purchasing, Julia Wolfe.
For more information, explore the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources on mass.gov. If you're searching for environmentally preferable products and services, head to mass.gov/epp, where you may find the EPP Products and Services Index, EPP program policies, and EPP Program Annual reports.
Explore the OSD YouTube channel for more informative content such as training videos, webinars, and podcasts, with new episodes each month. Be sure to subscribe and check back for future episodes highlighting the people, programs, and policies shaping public procurement in Massachusetts. This podcast was produced, engineered, and edited by me, Layla Palmer. Thank you for joining us.