Study to include cost-benefit ratios, public and private funding options, recommended financial blueprint for resilience projects
June 1, 2026 – The Boston Green Ribbon Commission, a business membership association that partners with the City of Boston to accelerate climate efforts, today announced it has launched an effort to recommend a strategy for funding and financing flood protection projects across Boston’s entire waterfront.
The City of Boston is a national leader in flood protection planning, with district-scale resilience projects planned at over 20 key locations across its 47 miles of coastline. These projects will not only protect the city but also have the potential to create a more beautiful and accessible waterfront for all. Creating a holistic financing plan for the projects is a key next step in their implementation.
“Our members represent some of the largest institutions and employers in Boston, and they are telling us clearly that reducing risk from flooding is an urgent priority to be solved before it’s too late,” said Rebecca Herst, Green Ribbon Commission Director of Climate Resilience. “Implementing these projects not only creates a safer Boston, but a more vibrant and accessible waterfront that will benefit local residents and businesses in all types of weather.”
Boston is facing increasingly severe flooding threats over the coming decades. High-tide and “sunny day” flooding will become dramatically more frequent by mid-century. Even moderate storms are expected to cause more damaging coastal flooding as sea levels rise, threatening neighborhoods, transportation systems, and infrastructure throughout the city.
To create a financial blueprint, the Green Ribbon Commission has brought on a team of consultants with expertise in urban design, engineering, and financial modeling. Led by Arcadis, a global leader in sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets that operates in more than 30 countries, the team anticipates a 12-to-15-month project that will identify the total cost of inaction, the benefit and ROI of resilience investments, the funding gap to fill, funding and financing options from public and private sources, and a recommended financial strategy.
Other consultant partners include Throwe Environmental and the Consensus Building Institute.
“This study provides the Green Ribbon Commission and the City of Boston with an actionable roadmap for advancing climate resilience through practical, forward-looking financial strategies. By identifying implementable solutions, the work supports efforts to protect communities, strengthen economic stability, and improve quality of life for Boston residents while also offering insights that may benefit other cities facing similar climate challenges,” said Carly Foster, Water Management Practice Director for Arcadis.
The blueprint will include strategies to pay for necessary shoreline protection along Boston’s coast from Charlestown to East Boston and Dorchester. This summer, the City of Boston and the US Army Corps of Engineers will release the draft report of their Coastal Storm Risk Management Feasibility Study, a once-in-a-generation analysis to protect Boston’s 47-mile coastline from coastal flooding and sea level rise. These findings will be used to secure federal funding for a majority of Boston’s coastal resilience projects. This partnership with the USACE builds on over a decade of climate resilience research, planning, and community engagement led by the City of Boston.