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]

This is the first installment in a series of featurettes on our current interns’ summer projects.

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]

The housing market, like the U.S. economy, is a mess. GDP growth dropped from 3.7% to 2.4% in the second quarter. In the housing market shrinking incomes and greater lender restrictions mean fewer qualified buyers are looking, which is driving down prices.

Here is the bottom line: if you want to sell your home without losing your shirt, you need an edge.

To find an edge, just look to the part of the economy that’s still growing – the green sector. In Massachusetts, major utility companies have stepped up energy efficiency investments this year with the goal of tripling enrollment in their programs. A recent report funded in part by the state department states that renewable energy use is at “a clear tipping point” for growth. Never before has… [view entry]

Retrofit Revolutionaries! by Peter Papesch, AIA

The Commonwealth Challenge is a campaign to collectively save 100,000 kWh of electricity by Earth Day, April 22. Free air sealing for basements or attics is one of the benefits of participating in this campaign to retrofit homes and address poverty and climate change throughout Massachusetts. The campaign has a goal for residents of all income levels to cut their electrical usage by 5 percent, while saving money, reducing pollution, and creating good local jobs.

The participants can:

Sign up for a free home energy screening
Retrofit their home at a group discount (20 partnered organizations across the state are giving discounted and free home insulation services to all participants)
Track and compare their energy use with neighbors, see also

… [view entry]

From last week’s Wall Street Journal comes news that despite the best of intentions from the local government and residents of Boulder, CO significant energy savings are yet to be realized.

Beyond the usual justifications on the whys and why-nots of any local initiative, the really interesting thing is that energy audits have not been terrifically successful in getting people to move forward on retrofits, despite understanding exactly where savings can be realized.

The obstacles include people being reluctant to change their habits and not practicing what they preach, nor following through on small changes in energy efficiency and behaviors.

The answer? ”Two Techs in a Truck”

As many as 15 energy-efficiency teams go door-to-door throughout Boulder, CO. They’ll ask home and business owners for permission to caulk windows,… [view entry]

No, we didn’t get a new toilet. We converted our old one with a One2flush kit. Turning the handle one way makes a half flush and turning it the other makes a full flush. And it’s easy to increase or decrease the water levels of both of them if necessary by adjusting the settings on the flapper.

Our toilet was already a modern, low-flow toilet, using just 1.6 gallons of water per flush. But you really don’t need 1.6 gallons for every flush. That’s now the default setting for the full flush, and 0.8 gallons is the default setting for the half flush, but we’ll have to continue playing around with the water levels to figure out what’s the least amount that we can use.

The kit was relatively simple… [view entry]

The Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) is offering free Home Energy Saving Seminars to communities across Massachusetts.   The Massachusetts Municipal Association is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association that provides advocacy, training, publications, research and other services to Massachusetts cities and towns. If you are interested in hosting a workshop in your community schedule the workshop soon, as the program ends in March.

Through this free service offered by MMA, the Cambridge Energy Alliance hosted a Weatherizing Your Home for Ultimate Energy Savings event on January 12th, that brought together over 45 individuals wanting to learn how to reduce their energy use at home.  Speaker Clark Goody from the Conservation Services provided detailed information on home energy audits, cost effective investments, and access to resources to help residents save energy and money.… [view entry]

After a series of public hearings, the Cambridge City Council adopted the stretch energy code on December 21st.  The stretch code is about 30% more efficient than the baseline building code and has different requirements for both the residential and commercial sectors.  Visit the city’s website to learn more about the stretch code, which includes a summary table that outlines the new requirements.

By passing the stretch energy code, the city of Cambridge demonstrates its continued commitment to reduce its carbon footprint, by requiring higher efficiency standards for buildings, which produce 80% of all carbon emissions in the city.  In addition, the city of Cambridge has now met one of the requirements of the Green Communities Act, that may provide grant funding for  efficiency and renewable energy… [view entry]

One of the first home improvements Rachel and I made when we purchased our condo here in Cambridge this spring was a solar hot water installation on our rooftop.

The system we had put in uses vacuum tubes, a newer, more efficient type of solar collector than the black box flat panels of old. As a writer covering energy and the environment in Cambridge and China, I’d spent the past three years tracing this new and exotic technology back to the factories and cities in China where they are surprisingly commonplace.

I first read about the tubes three years ago in a story in the Boston Globe. A family in Newbury, MA was using a massive installation to provide hot water and heat for their giant barn of a house. … [view entry]

Area 4 Light Bulb Exchange

On October 24th, volunteers worked with the Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) and the Cambridge Energy Alliance to weatherize Cambridge buildings and provide efficient light bulbs and resources to Area 4 residents as part of the International Day of Climate Action.  This local grassroots effort was part of 4,000 world-wide groups that demonstrated their commitment to fighting climate change by rallying in big cities and engaging in creative community actions. The International Day of Climate Action is called on world leaders to commit to bringing carbon emissions down from its current 387ppm to a safe level of 350 or less.

Women's Center Barnraising

Over seventy volunteers came together to weatherize both the Women’s… [view entry]