The Wild and Scenic Film Festival returns to Boston on March 31st!  Hosted locally by e-inc, the day long film festival, which includes food, networking and discussion, was started eight years ago in California and changes every year depending upon participant submissions.  The national Festival also boasts the reputation as the largest environmental film festival in the United States.

Designed to inspire awareness and activism, the films showcase themes from across the planet on a wide array of pressing  environmental issues ranging from energy resources to species and land conservation.  e-inc, a Boston-area environmental education center, has hosted the Wild and Scenic Film Festival for a number of years and continues to draw crowds for this event.  Get your tickets early and enjoy the show!

This winter photo shows brightness where the most heat is escaping this home.

Cambridge! It’s finally here: a chance to vividly see the cool or warm air leaving your drafty home, without having to pay hefty fees to a thermal photographer. Thanks to the Thermal Imaging Project on which HEET has partnered with Sagewell Inc., Cambridge homeowners can request thermal (infrared) images of the outsides of their homes.

The images are taken with car-mounted cameras similar to those used for Google Maps street view, and taken on a “first come, first served” basis – with highest priority given to locations with highest demand.  With the slight air of a Groupon deal, Sagewell has asked for 400 requests from Cambridge before they will release our thermal images for free.

Because of fossil fuel prices… [view entry]

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Part 1

Search for the Solar Grail

Hello to new EnergySagers -

I’m located in Massachusetts and I thought my recent experiences looking into solar PV for my house might be helpful for folks.

First off, I should say that I’m pretty lucky to have an unobstructed south-facing roof. I’ve been thinking about solar for a while, and watching prices go down, so a couple of months ago I started asking people who had installed solar PV panels if they could recommend companies. I found two through word of mouth and then I found three more via EnergySage.com.

I was definitely interested in the “social” benefits of cutting back on fossil-fuel generated electricity, but what really… [view entry]

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s stance on biomass has recently changed its tune from one of skepticism to one of acceptance as a state-wide “clean” energy policy. Why the sudden switch? State environmental groups, the same groups who helped lobby to get him into office, are wondering the same thing and are now turning against Patrick’s newfound position at large.

According to a recent article in the Boston Phoenix, the Patrick administration will release a document in the next few weeks that will contain the final regulations for the state’s biomass subsidies.  According to environmental groups, the Administration is planning to reverse its original position as a nod towards a handful of developers who stand to make money off of biomass production.

These regulations will come at the expense of ordinary… [view entry]

Poster child: Dana Rubin shows off her silly side at work

One of our busier interns this summer has surely been Youth Liaison Dana Rubin.  She leads an extensive effort to introduce ideas about energy efficiency to young people in Cambridge.  Dana doesn’t play teacher here though–the idea is to get the right sort of educational materials into the right hands.

Ever since May, Dana’s been researching and compiling ideas for lesson plans, which present concepts related to energy use in bite-sized and fun ways.  The lessons are geared towards kids age 9-13 and are very much hands-on or crafty.  In one deceptively simple lesson, the children build paper pinwheels and stick them outside to twirl in the wind.  At the most basic level, these toys… [view entry]

Image by Tara Holmes

On June 1st, three tornadoes touched down in western Massachusetts during a surprise series of storms, leaving a wake of destruction and confusion. Massachusetts, not known for tornadoes, is now beginning to rethink state policies surrounding severe weather preparation and emergency response.

ReBuild Western Massachusetts, a program developed by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and administered in partnership with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), was announced on August 4th and will distribute more than $8 million to help building owners affected by the tornadoes rebuild using energy efficiency practices and renewable energy technologies. Eligible participants include those who can document damage caused by the June 1 storms, and who own buildings in communities in Hampden and Worcester Counties, including: Agawam, Westfield,… [view entry]

Ilona Shmulevich in action!

At CEA, our overarching aim is to spread better energy efficiency to buildings in the city of Cambridge.   We target this goal with what can effectively be described in four steps:  First, we encourage residents to sign up for a free energy audit through MassSave.  Second, an auditor visit is scheduled and carried out wherein they perform a full assessment of a building’s energy usage, providing a list of recommended improvements.  Third, the residents learn about available rebates and decide what improvements they are willing to invest in.  Finally, a MassSave or independently-appointed contractor comes and does all the installations, leaving the residents with increased building performance… [view entry]

Mt. Tom Station in Holyoke, MA has been a thorn in the sides of local environmentalists for many years.  Sitting on one of the most pristine mountain ranges in western Massachusetts, the coal burning power plant has, according to the Conservation Law Foundation, violated clean air standards thousands of times from 2005 to 2010, despite $55 million worth of pollution-control equipment that was installed from 2007 to 2009.

Now, however, the plant plans to comply with more stringent air-quality standards, install air-monitoring equipment, and hire an outside consultant to correct air pollution problems under a settlement announced by the state Attorney General’s Office. In addition, FirstLight Power Resources, the station’s owners, and GDF Suez North America have agreed to pay a $25,000 penalty to the state of Massachusetts and $70,000 for… [view entry]

The flip-side of the climate science picture is the undoubtedly gloomy understanding that a certain amount of future warming is unavoidable regardless of how quickly emissions are drawn down. It’s in the spirit of realism and responsibility—not defeatism—then, that people are beginning to think about how we should prepare ourselves for the coming climatic changes. In the lingo of climate policy thinkers, this type… [view entry]

Kaiser Joseph Strasse, in Freiburg Center

I’m on a personal study tour of Germany and Holland to see what German and Dutch cities are doing about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change.  The tour is organized by ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, an organization that the City of Cambridge has been a member of since 1999.  Our tour leader, Jade Jackson, is leading our group of 4 Canadians and 2 Americans through Freiburg and Dresden Germany, and then on to Bonn to attend the ICLEI Climate Resilient Communities conference.  We will end up in Rotterdam in The Netherlands.  I thought I would try to share what I see and learn along the way.  I hope you find it useful and interesting.

In Cambridge, we often… [view entry]