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]

Crossposted from 350.org

Today I got to stand next to more than 50 Massachusetts mothers, children, workers, community leaders, and people of faith to kick off something truly unique – a “crowd-funded” citizen’s campaign to hold Senator Scott Brown accountable for voting to gut the Clean Air Act. At 12:00pm on the sidewalk in front of the JFK Federal Building in Boston, also known as Scott Brown’s district office, we held banners and puppets of Scott Brown and his fat cat supporters “Coal” and “Oil, signs, and a blow-up of the new ad our friends and neighbors funded.

The text of the ad read: “Senator Brown: On April 6th you voted to gut the Clean Air Act. Was it because dirty energy companies and their corporate front groups poured more than… [view entry]

As recently reported by GreenBiz, Boston and Hartford have been chosen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as two of the five cities that will partake in the Greening America’s Capitals program. This is great news as it means a team of EPA backed designers will visit each city and will create and design plans that promote smart growth and will help ensure the future sustainability for both capitals.

In conjunction with the U.S Department of House and Development and the U.S. Department of Transportation, the EPA will provide all five cities with plans for “high-quality green development that includes cleaning up and recycling vacant lands, accessing and improving waterways, providing greater housing and transportation choices, and reducing infrastructure and energy costs.”

Specifically, the press release… [view entry]

Beginning September 7th, Bill McKibben and students from Unity College in Maine are on a road trip to Washington D.C., with a specific goal in mind. This 350.org-affiliated group plans to approach the White House to urge President Obama to install solar panels on his roof in order to finally make a stand on energy issues, set an example for citizens, and to participate in 350.org’s “Global Work Party” on October 10th (10-10-10).

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House. In 1986, President Reagan removed them and they were never replaced. Years later, Unity College in Maine adopted the panels where they have lived ever since. Until now.

Unity College has removed one panel from their cafeteria roof and donated it to 350.org’s campaign… [view entry]

Boston needs a permanent public market and now there is a coordinated campaign to make it happen. An impressive list of entrepreneurs, businesspeople, government officials, farmers, and community leaders have all come together to form a coalition that is building a grassroots campaign to send the message to our elected leaders.

As mentioned on Boston GreenScene before, building a sustainable food system is crucial to the future of Massachusetts. A vibrant Boston Public Market would be a vital, visible step towards reaching that goal and this coaltion appears to have what it takes to make a permanant public market in Boston a reality. So, take a second to visit the BPM website to learn more and send an email to Governor Patrick to express your support!

Cross-posted at

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Big news coming out of Boston this week. Last Friday, the Wattzy team had the opportunity to join Mayor Tom Menino and MIT Projessor Sanjay Sarma for an historic announcement – the entire City of Boston is to be scanned in infrared.

Infrared scanning is nothing new in the world of single-family homes, as any energy efficiency pro can tell you. Utilities like NStar even offer home infrared scans at free or discounted cost. They are highly effective at identifying areas of home heating inefficiency. Although commercial services have offered wide-area aerial scans for some time, this will be the first complete street-level scan of a major city.

If any place can use a city-wide scan, it certainly is Boston. Our housing stock is some of the oldest in the country,… [view entry]

For the past seven weeks, college students from around the region have been camping out on Boston Common on Sunday nights calling for Massachusetts to run entirely on clean energy by 2020. After a final, snowy sleep-out last Sunday, the demands of The Leadership Campaign were answered, sort of.

On December 7, state officials introduced a bill to create a task force charged with proposing ways to get Massachusetts to 100% clean electricity by 2020.

The resolution seems like a nice way of saying we’ve heard you, now bugger off, but then again Massachusetts relies on coal for only 25 percent of its electric power (about half the national average) and has set a goal of 20 percent renewable electricity production by 2020.

I wonder what it would take for… [view entry]

Last week’s Earth Day featured some of the world’s most recognisable buildings turning off their lights and going dark for the evening. Check out this link to the Boston Globe to see the Acropolis, Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House and ‘The Cube’ from last summer’s Beijing Games disappear into the Night.

No, our local paper is not in trouble with the taxman (that’s just President Obama’s cabinet picks) but Geoff Edgers from the Boston Globe decided that his heating bills were getting out of control. So he called up his energy provider-National Grid-who sent over a Conservation Services Group auditor to perform a thorough check up on his 100 year old home. Among the pleasant suprises-free CFL light globes to replace his incandescant bulbs. Watch the video below to see what else Geoff learned while making his home more energy efficient. If you’re a Cambridge resident, you can sign up now for your own FREE home energy audit.