TownGreen is pleased to announce the launch on September 1^st of a climate vulnerability project in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Cape Ann has been selected for an EPA “Building Blocks for Resilience” technical assistance program and TownGreen2025 has successfully raised the funds for a Harvard GSD study of climate threats and solutions in the region.

The future of Cape Ann will be shaped, in large part, by the effects of climate change. These effects will reach well beyond sea level rise and increased storm events. They will ultimately challenge and disrupt the housing, transportation, public services, and economic health of these communities. In light of these challenges, three local organizations—TownGreen2025, the Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation, and the Cape Ann Climate Coalition—are joining with the Harvard Graduate School of Design to begin to envision a sustainable future for the region. In recognition of the reality that Cape Ann’s interwoven ecologies, geographies, and economies transcend municipal boundaries, the scope of the project will include the entire region: Essex, Gloucester, Manchester-by-the-Sea, and Rockport.

On Thursday, June 4 at 3PM, Natasha Lamb, Director of Equity Research and Shareholder Engagement at Arjuna Capital, addressed her work with national institution pension funds and endowments to advocate for reduction of investments in fossil fuel companies, for both ecological and rate of return reasons. Ms. Lamb’s work has been featured in the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times as well as CNN and NPR.

TownGreen2025 announces a series of four webinars by noted experts on topics relating to climate change. The kickoff webinar will be held on Thursday, May 21, at 3PM, in an hour-long program featuring Ken Kimmell, President of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Mr. Kimmell will speak on the theme of “Lessons from the Covid Crisis for the Climate Crisis.” The 25-minute presentation will be followed by an opportunity for questions from the Zoom audience, and a final wrap up by the moderator, Dick Prouty, and panelist, Candace Wheeler. 

Big Roof Solar Campaign. Help your business or nonprofit go solar!

Join us for a Free workshop to discuss financing options available to add Solar Power to your roof. Great ownership and no-cost leasing options are available now. It’s a good time to go solar! 

The goal of the Solar Challenge is to encourage Cape Anners to switch from electricity generated by oil & gas to clean green electricity generated with their own solar panels. To learn more call 1-800-903-6130

Is a solar installation now essentially free to most of us in Cape Ann? Yes, it is, and that may seem too good to be true. But in this case it is a fact! Massachusetts has announced a new loan program to help moderate-income homeowners install solar panels, so that all may benefit from solar and support our state and national need to move to clean energy. This program is called the Mass Solar Loan.

In response to questions from people interested in our ongoing Gloucester Solar Challenge and to a letter in the Gloucester Daily Times on Dec. 9, 2015 (”Seeing red over Town Green solar company”), I would like to clarify some facts about the initiative called the Gloucester Solar Challenge. Gloucester Solar Challenge is one program of the grass-roots initiative called TownGreen2025. TownGreen2025 is a community-wide effort of volunteers working to minimize Cape Ann’s carbon footprint in a decade through energy conservation, replacing fossil fuel use with alternative energy resources, and a strategy using carbon-reducing offsets to help heal the planet. TownGreen2025 was organized for the betterment of our environment through the Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation, a nonprofit acting as a civic hub and community education center. We believe in the power of private citizens and the local economy to harness Cape Ann’s creative and innovative spirit to address the most pressing legacy issue of our time: the warming of the planet and rising oceans due to excess carbon in the atmosphere.

Many of us have been reading about or getting numerous phone calls and emails about the benefits of “going solar.” Climate change is happening at an alarming rate, and we all want to save money on our electric bill. But understanding the complexities of installation and financial issues can be a challenging endeavor. Luckily when my family decided to take this step, a smart and knowledgeable friend had done the research, and we followed in his footsteps. For more than a year now we have learned a lot while generating green electricity, and saving money. Many other TownGreen 2025 members also have been generating their own green electricity and we would like to share our collective experiences and knowledge with others through the Gloucester Solar Challenge, sponsored by TownGreen2025.