ReMain Nantucket and partners release survey to measure attitudes on climate change on Nantucket

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, Jan. 11, 2021

CONTACT:
Claire Martin
cmartin@remainnantucket.org 774-271-0868

NANTUCKET, Mass.-- ReMain Nantucket issued a survey today to measure attitudes about climate change from Nantucket residents and visitors as part of the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge, in which graduate students will design and propose adaptive solutions to sea level rise this spring.

A collaboration between ReMain Nantucket, the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge and community organization ACKlimate, the survey is being conducted by the Boston-based consulting firm EBP. Input from the survey—the first of two—will provide baseline data to ReMain and its partners on community attitudes about climate change and sea level rise on Nantucket.

Last fall, the Town of Nantucket formally adopted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “High” Sea Level Rise Scenario for planning purposes. Under this projection, the ocean surrounding Nantucket would regularly rise 4.13 feet above local mean sea level by 2060, 6.36 feet by 2080 and 9.25 feet by 2100.

With the goal of inspiring Nantucket and other coastal communities around the world to envision innovative adaptations to sea level rise, the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge brings together graduate students from five universities around the country to collaboratively re-imagine the Nantucket waterfront. Later this month, interdisciplinary teams of students will begin identifying threats, researching possible solutions and proposing ways the community can adapt by attending weekly virtual lectures from leading experts in the field and by engaging with the Nantucket community. Students will consider the results of the current survey as they develop their design proposals. The final proposals will be presented to the community at an event this summer.

“We look forward to engaging with the Nantucket community and landscape as part of our ongoing efforts to understand the challenges and opportunities of the New England coast and its unique ecologies, heritage and ways of life,” said Alan Plattus, faculty lead of the Yale School of Architecture, one of the five participating universities in the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge. Plattus, a professor of architecture and urbanism, is the director of the school’s Ph.D. program and the founder of the Yale Urban Design Workshop and Center for Urban Design Research.

Participants also include University of Florida College of Design, Construction and Planning, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, University of Miami School of Architecture and The School of Architecture at Northeastern University.

Residents and regular visitors to Nantucket are encouraged to complete the survey. The survey is available at this link and will remain open until Feb. 1 2021. The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete. Survey respondents will be entered into a drawing for one of 10 $25 gift cards to a local coffee shop of their choosing. Responses will be confidential.

The collaboration between ACKlimate Nantucket and the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge has been critical in highlighting the vast number of on-island organizations working toward similar climate-related goals.

“The partnerships of ACKlimate are essential to responding to the challenges of climate change on Nantucket,” said Kimberly Rose, founder of ACKlimate. “This particular collaboration with ReMain Nantucket and the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge allows us to help future professionals develop skill sets to address climate change, while also inspiring the innovative spirit of the island.”

By measuring community attitudes on climate change in advance of the spring 2021 design studio, and by surveying the community again later in the year after the studio and community outreach initiatives have concluded, the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge can analyze whether or not it reached its goal of empowering the community to think proactively about coastal resilience and sea level rise.

“Each coastal community faces unique resiliency challenges, and Nantucket is no different,” said Cecil Barron Jensen, executive director of ReMain Nantucket. “Our hope through this survey is to better understand what residents and seasonal visitors to the island value for Nantucket’s future as we consider adapting to a changing climate.”

Answers collected will be aggregated, and names will be kept confidential by EBP. Deadline for submission has been extended until Feb. 1, 2021. The project team will release preliminary summarized findings of the study in early February. To participate in the survey, please visit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZM77KXG.

___

ReMain Nantucket is a charitable organization, founded by philanthropist Wendy Schmidt to support the economic, social and environmental vitality of the island of Nantucket. In addition to providing grants and sponsorships to support sustainable and cultural initiatives across the island, the organization has worked to revitalize the downtown district year-round through the preservation of historic buildings that are home to a mix of nonprofit and commercial businesses.

ACKlimate is a public-private partnership supporting innovative and holistic approaches and communication to address climate change and sea level rise for the Nantucket community and beyond. The initiative, founded in 2019, was conceptualized by students of the University of Florida Preservation Institute Nantucket, which has been documenting and preserving Nantucket for half a century.

EBP (formerly EDR Group) is a Boston-based company that provides state-of-the-art economic analysis and research to support planning and policy in sustainable transportation, regional development, energy and infrastructure.

For more information about the survey, please contact Claire Martin, 774-271-0868 / cmartin@remainnantucket.org.

 # # # # #