As always, please reach out to let us know what else we can be doing to support you or your community on the road to a healthier planet for all!

(Photo Courtesy of Kaat Vander Straeten from Energize Wayland)

Every MassEnergize community starts with passionate people at its heart, and this month we spoke with Kaat Vander Straeten, one of the co-founders of Energize Wayland, and of MassEnergize. Energize Wayland has set a goal of 1,200 Wayland households to collectively take 5,000 climate actions in 2023. Kaat shares insights into how they plan to achieve this impressive target. 

After being involved in localized climate action for over a decade, Kaat is no stranger to strengthening community connections. 

“My approach to everything in life, including climate activism, comes out of systems thinking,” Kaat said. “Everything is connected to something. The work relies on the connections. . . That is where power is and that is where action happens.” 

Even if others have different backgrounds or expertise, their shared desire to act against climate change brings them together. Kaat believes there are multiple methods to creating personalized connections, which organizers at EnergizeWayland have implemented. 

The key to strengthening a community? “It's about head, heart, and hands,” Kaat says. 

Energize Wayland continues to offer regular newsletters (loaded with events from the MassEnergize community), webinars on many topics, and one-on-one coaching in home energy, solar, electric vehicles, and induction cooking. They are actively supporting school curricula that focus on climate change, and in the coming year, will be a part of the Electrifying Community Outreach (ECO) Initiative run by MassEnergize, launching their campaign in January. Furthermore, Energize Wayland is excited to announce their collaboration with the Human Rights, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for a Spring Festival.

Learn more about Energize Wayland by visiting their community site here, or attending one of their upcoming events.

Last month, we shared with you the exciting news that MassEnergize had been awarded $100,000 from State Senator Jamie Eldridge (D-Marlborough) in the fiscal year 2024 budget! This allocation of funds has enabled MassEnergize to assemble an exclusive cohort of communities for the creation of our Electrifying Community Outreach (ECO) Initiative. This initiative will provide vital support for innovative, community-driven climate action campaigns in four Boston MetroWest communities: Acton, Wayland, Framingham, and Natick. The knowledge gained from these efforts will be used to develop a suite of tools and resources that can be scaled and extended to benefit communities across the entire Commonwealth. 

To help support the ECO initiative, MassEnergize is currently seeking a Community Outreach Project Coordinator Contractor and a Marketing Consultant. Please share these roles throughout your communities and with anyone you think might be interested. Applications should be submitted to info@massenergize.org and will be received on a rolling basis through October 6th.  

After a busy and productive summer, it was great to see so many of you at the September Community of Practice meeting. We caught up with some of the campaigns you’ve been implementing and it was great to hear what has been successful and ignite ideas for other communities to try out! 

Highlights included hearing from Harvard Energize and their yard sign campaign, Framingham’s meet & greets, Wayland’s Save Energy Campaign and Acton’s heat pump outreach campaign. 

MassEnergize summer intern Marina Garrido shared some insights and learnings from your community platform Google Analytics and Brad Hubbard-Nelson presented on an exciting new platform feature that will be released soon - User Event Nudges! Kaat Vander Straeten gave a quick demo on the MassEnergize Resource Center, which is where you will be able to find all the resources from this meeting as well as the recording - just in case you missed it! 

You can also watch the recording of our Community of Practice meeting here.

Join us on October 16th for the next Community of Practice meeting! Register here.

She is excited to work with us here at MassEnergize and to learn more about community engagement with local Boston-area organizations. She looks forward to working with some of you and your communities during her internship this fall. In her spare time, she enjoys walking her dogs, hiking and baking.

Cooler Communities

Cooler Communities empowers K-12 students through a climate education grant program, connecting classroom learning to local climate action. Students’ curriculum-based work on climate change, energy use, and conservation becomes the focus of community events, yielding measurable benefits. The program offers curriculum guides, teacher residencies, and technical support. School districts can receive grants of up to $8000 for sustainability projects, field trips, materials, and teacher/student stipends based on participation. This 4 minute video explains the program in further detail.

Cooler Communities invites you to apply to participate in their program!  The due date for applications is October 30th. However, if you can’t complete the application in time but are intending to run the program, please get in touch as soon as possible. 

If you have any questions, please reach out to Cooler Communities or visit their website for more information.

Town of Needham

The Town of Needham is hiring for its first Sustainability Manager!

Are you, or someone you know, passionate about sustainability and resiliency? Are you interested in making a concrete difference in the community? Do you want to help get Sustainable Needham, as well as Needham’s first Climate Action Plan off the ground?  Then being Needham's Sustainability Manager could be the job for you! Please share among your communities and with anyone you think might be interested. To find out more about the role, click here. Closing date for applications is October 3rd. 

Climate Preparedness (October 17th, 1PM - 2PM - 117 East Central Street, Natick Community Senior Center, Natick, MA)

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) will share resources about climate preparedness that were developed by residents of the Town of Natick, and the City of Framingham in the summer of 2023. These resources include steps that residents should consider taking to prepare for climate emergencies, such as extreme heat and severe storms.

Please call to register 508-647-6540.

The event will be moderated by Peter Lowitt, with a Q&A session following Professor Metcalf’s talk. Questions and comments will be aired following Professor Metcalf’s talk. For more information on this event, please visit here.  This event is a community forum hosted by the First Parish in Concord Environmental Team.  You may attend this event in person or on Zoom. 

More and more, people are considering electrifying their homes and cars in order to fight climate change, improve their health and, especially, save money. This Zoom session will provide you with information and answers to your most urgent questions. Rahul Young, Director at Rewiring America, will explain the whys and hows of electrification and guide you on accessing financial support. Rahul's presentation will be followed by small group discussions where you can ask specific questions and share your experience with your own electrification projects. Find out more about this event and register here.

Induction Cooking - No More Gas! - (October 25th 2023, 7:29 pm-8:30 pm - Online)

If you cook with gas, you may not be aware of the drawbacks... and the alternative! Andee Krasner (Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility and co-author with Rocky Mountain Institute of a report on gas stoves), will talk about the health risk of gas cooking. Diana Goldman of Beantown kitchen will share her experience, and we will hear testimonials of neighbors who use induction, with lots of time for Q&A. Find out more about this event and register here!