Greater Boston Breathes Better

The Greater Boston Breathes Better (GB3) partnership is a multi-stakeholder partnership dedicated to improving air quality and reducing emissions from transportation and construction.

GB3 provides a forum for sharing experiences, concerns, and lessons learned, while offering funding opportunities and technical resources. Through voluntary partnerships, expanding networks, and increasing collaboration among the area’s diverse sectors, GB3 is able to educate the public and apply innovative technologies to reduce emissions from transportation and construction sources in the City of Boston.

GB3’s partners include Boston area academic institutions, federal, state, and municipal government representatives, hospitals, technology and energy vendors, construction firms, environmental non-profits, and community organizations.

The mission of Greater Boston Breathes Better is to help greater Boston’s citizens and visitors to breathe better.

Partner projects have significantly reduced the local impact of diesel emissions, including: training over 1,000 school bus drivers in anti-idling procedures; the adoption of construction contract language requiring retrofits and cleaner fuels at several significant construction projects; the use of biodiesel in Harvard University’s vehicles; and retrofitting the Medical Academic and Scientific Community Organization’s 17 shuttle buses and Boston’s 600 diesel school buses with advanced pollution control technology.

GB3 hosted sector-based workshops providing technical assistance and facilitating discussion on emission control strategies. These workshops educated a large community of stakeholders beyond GB3’s members and resulted in quantifiable emission reductions.

The partnership has begun to share experiences, resources, and tools with communities beyond Greater Boston and has promoted similar partnerships in Manchester, New Hampshire and Providence, Rhode Island.