While we work towards converting most of our property to a polinator meadow, much of it will need to be mowed for the forseeable future, particularly along the edges of the proerty where the forest understory would love to take over the to-be meadow. The electric lawnmower has made that much less of a chore. Amazingly, the E-Go mower we bought seems to be able to plow through overgrown grass and even foot-high underbrush without hesitation (on its amazing 8" height setting). On top of that, it is quiet! Who could have imagined a lawnnmower without the roar? The battery last about an hour and recharges in about half that time, giving me an excuse for a cool drink on the porch.

Our gas furnace was in need of replacement. We wanted a heat pump for efficiency and to electrify much of our heating needs. Given the age of our house (over 100 years), which still has the original single-pane windows, we decided on a dual-fuel or hybrid solution. It consists of a heat pump (for air conditioning and heating) with a high efficiency gas furnace as supplemental for the coldest days (if needed).  Our hope is the heat pump will be sufficient to supply the vast majority of our heating needs come the winter heating season.

We've made the switch to all electric out door tools, Lawn mower, blower, chainsaw, weed wacker.  They all work as good as or better than the gas powered tools they replaced.  The other plus is how quiet they are and how easy to start they are.  We're very happy with the switch and it's been over a year.

One of many rechargable battery operated tools we own. Small, lightweight and handy to use. 

I cannot emphasize enough my joy at not handling gasoline for outdoor power equipment. First, the bad news: We still have a gas-powered chain saw and snow blower. And we have a gas powered generator for emergencies. BUT we've replaced our lawnmower and weed wacker with electric equivalents and purchased an electric leaf blower. The electric tools perform as well or better than their fossil fuel counterparts, without the hassle, smell, and use of gasoline. Attach battery and off you go. No spills, no noxious fumes. I know that 2-cycle engines are particularly bad polluters which is why the chainsaw is next to go electric. The electric tools also operate much more quietly--something I'd like to point out to the lawn services still using gas-powered equipment and the racket they inflict. I look forward to the day, hopefully soon, when we will be entirely electric in all our power equipment.

It's difficult to stay abreast of all of the things that our federal and state governements and big business are doing as it relates to climate action (or inaction), and find a way to make your voice heard.  I have found a great tool that makes it easy to identify issues that are of importance to me and  amplify my voice. It's called Climate Action Now and it is an offshoot of Al Gore's Climate Reality Project.

You can simply download a free app to your iphone or android and access it when you have a few minutes to learn about up to the minute legislative decisions and important current events that are taking place. You can select which ones you want to weigh in on, and the app will give you options as to how can contact the person or organization (email, phone call, text, tweet) and lead you right to it. It's as easy as a few clicks for you to make your voice heard. I keep it on the front page of my phone apps and try to visit every day. 

Climate Action Now will encourage you to take 5 actions each day, but there is NO PRESSURE. To top it off, you earn points for each action taken that add up to have a real tree planted by Eden Restoration Project.  Go for it!

When we added a garage with a Southern exposure we were glad to add solar panels.

I have been an active member of the Bromfield Green Team for the past 2 years, involved with planning events to inform the community of Climate Actions and Incentives and various town fairs and meetings, as well as assisting in removing non-native plants from Bromfield and replacing them with native plants.

We moved into our new house in August of 2014. We built the house, and as we worked with the architect to design it, we were sure to specify that we wanted our home to generate as close to zero carbon emissions as possible. As a result, we heavily insulated our home and built it with twelve-inch thick walls and triple-pane class throughout. We designed the house with an emphasis on LED lighting. We also installed geothermal heat pumps instead of a traditional oil furnace and heat our water using a heat pump. Since moving into the house, we've continued to reduce our carbon footprint. We purchased an electric car. We switched over to electric outdoor equipment. We invested in ecological landscaping. We reduced wasted electricity by implementing smart plugs throughout our home. While we are not quite at zero emissions ( we still cook and run our backup generator on propane), we are getting close and will continue to invest in going green in the coming years.

We have been composting for many years now. All green food scraps from the kitchen as well as lawn & garden refuse go in our bin. In 2023-24 we will be expanding our single outdoor bin to a multi sectioned wood frame system in order to compost and then utilize additional garden debris. 

A few years ago, we planted two wildflower meadows, one atop of our septic mound.  They have each taken on individual characters due to differing soil and exposure conditions, and both have been covered with a succession of blooms from early spring till hard frost.  The pollinators, other beneficial insects, and birds have had a field day!  They have also reduced the less than beneficial insect pressure on our organic vegetable and herb gardens!

With the Advent of No Mow May, I've been re-thinking my landscaping choices. Why am I mowing my whole yard anyway? When I was a kid, I remember we only mowed right around the house. Over the years that somehow turned into mowing an acre of grass! It suddenly struck me how absurd and unnecessary that was. So I've let my back yard return to meadow. I do mow it once a year in the late fall, otherwise I let it grow. What a treat it has been--so beautiful to look at. Also letting my front garden host any milkweed that sprouts; I have quite a crop this year! It goes perfectly with the catmint and bee balm. Go, pollinators! 

Had 2 mini splits installed at the end of August 2022, and so far I love them. Even produced heat when it was -15 degrees fahrenheit during that brief but brutal cold snap. I have a backup propane boiler, but haven't needed it. In the winter you do need to get the snow off the units pretty regularly. They have their own defrost cycle, but when there's ice build up efficiency drops. A/C and dehumidifier capabilities are also stellar. And the electric costs were very reasonable. 

We installed solar panels on our garage in December of 2012 - and haven't had to think about them since.  Absolutely love them, and can't recommend New England Clean Energy highly enough - installation only took a day and a half!

In March 2023 we replaced the our water system that was fired by a zone from our oil-fired boiler with a heat pump hot water heater. The transition was seamless outside an easy adjustment to our boiler control (to shut off that heating zone). We get hot water and not burn oil in the process! And added benefit in the summertime is the dehumidifying element of its operation in our damp utility area. The unit operates more quietly than I expect and I get notifications via my phone should anything go wrong (the one instance being a loose connection to the condensate pump that was easily remedied by the homeowner). An easy recommendation.

Our farm has been certifed organic with Baystate Organic Certifiers since 2006. We're one of the few organic orchards in the state. We also go beyond organic standards to grow nutrient dense food and promote habitat for native pollinators.

I've added driplines to many of the plantings in my yard (flowers, herb beds, raspberries and blueberries).  The driplines allow me to target water to the plant roots.  I also mulch so that less water evaporates.  

I started doing composting in May 2022 because it seemed like a pretty sensible way to reduce the volume of outgoing trash and keep food from decomposing in sealed bags.  I keep a smaller jar in the kitchen, then bring that down to the big outdoor drum when it fills up, maybe a couple times a week.  The factor by which everything reduces down is insane.   After a year and a half I still haven't had to empty it, and at this point it's kind of fun to see how far it can go.

Over the last few years, we have added several heat pumps, a couple as mini-splits, and the final one using existing ducts that were attached to an ancient and innefficient cooling only system.  We are now heated, and cooled, 100% by air-source heat pumps!  The $10,000 MassSave rebate was great too.  Signed up for a share in a Nexamp local solar farm, which also gives us a 12.5% discount on our electricity costs (until we get our own solar).

Our family planted a pollinator garden. We have seen many bees and butterflys and it has been nice to see them.

We had heat pumps and mini splits installed in March and couldn't be happier. The summer was very comfortable, despite the heat and humidity, and they used considerably less electricity than our LG portable units.

We added solar to our home in 2011 as part of the first wave of Solarize Harvard. Because we live in a 1760s-era colonial, our house is situated facing due south, as are most houses of that era. We ended up adding more solar in 2016 while installing mini-splits for heating and cooling, this time to our west-facing garage. I was surprised that we got enough solar gain there, but we did as we live on a very sunny lot. We love not having a bills all summer and having much smaller bills in winter, while cutting down on our supplemental heat (propane). 

When we moved into our home, we let the garden grow out in order to see what actually was growing each season. We were lucky to find many varieties of lilies, roses, blueberries, apples, and even a pear tree! We then added in additional plants to help support our local pollinators. We planted peonies, bee balm, a couple varieties of butterfly bushes, and daisies.

We also added a few pollinator boxes to the garden to help give shelter to bees and butterflies passing through!

We have two compost bins in the backyard that we alternate between, we compost a lot and it feels good to give back to the land!

We have a fully electric Volvo and a hybrid. My EV is easy and fun to drive. I haven't run out of charge but am careful to note how far away my destinations are so that I can plan if necessary. It charges fully within a few hours! Highly recommend.

Wired of Marlborough installed a charger in our garage. They were responsive, efficient, knowledgeable, and reasonably priced.

Switch to electric! It's so much quieter, and very efficient. The battery charges quickly, and the blade can stand up to thick, wet grass, as well as dense weeds. It's not attached in the picture, but it also comes with a detachable bag for grass clippings. The battery can also be interchanged with other models of the same brand. 

https://www.lowes.com/pd/EGO-POWER-56-Volt-Lithium-Ion-21-In-Self-Propelled-Mower-with-7-5Ah-Battery-and-Rapid-Charger/1003130698 

We go our solar panels about three years ago, and we love having them, we are hoping to eventually get more!

We built Rivendell, our net-zero solar home in Harvard in 2017 and moved in by Christmas. Each year our solar panels generate almost 20 megawatt hours of electricity - enough to heat, cool and illuminate our home, cook our food (induction stove top), and feed our electric vehicles (Chevy Bolts). In addition we feed 2 megawatt hours of EXCESS back to National Grid. We burn no petroleum products and have 32 kilowatt hours of battery storage to run our home overnight or in the event of a power interruption. Our air source heat pump regulates the environment in summer and winter, with a woodstove for back-up in arctic conditions. Twelve inches of (open and closed cell) spray foam insulation keeps the outside and inside air separate.

We have always composted our food into these big barells in our backyard. Recently, our local dump has started to accept compost as well, so now we have another place to put it. It allowed for more people to compost and we now bring compost down to the dump almost every week.

I switched to electric lawn trimmer, weed wacker and blower about a year ago, much quieter and easy to start.

My wife and I have had at least one electric car since 2016 when we had an original Nissan Leaf that had 80 miles of range; driving from San Francisco to Sacramento (90 miles) was an adventure. The cars are so good now we have had no gas cars since 2020. It is charged up every morning; never needs an oil change, timing belt, or transmission work; and is very capable. 

We finished installing our new geothermal heating and cooling system in late March. With summers getting hotter, we are incredibly grateful to have this efficient system to cool our home. We typically dislike using AC unless absolutely needed but this sytem is so gentle, uniform, and quiet, that you hardly know that it is on. This is in complete contrast to the old system which was loud and created cold pockets. Plus, my husband just commented that we were able to sell electricity back to NG in  June because of our rooftop solar panels. I don't think we were able to do this last year when we used our old outdoor AC units for cooling. I think that we will be equally pleased once we use geothermal to heat our home this fall and winter.

My husband and I recently travelled to the West Coast. One of our "To Do's" on HarvardEnergize was to start purchasing carbon offsets, knowing that air travel is a major contributor to Global warming, I investigated many options for purchasing offsets and settled on myclimate.org for several reasons. Their calculator was very user friendly and took into account several factors in addition to the mileage (direct flight, economy class, #of passengers). Myclimate supports projects that use renewable energies, realize energy efficiency measures and cut methane emissions, as well as reforestation and new forest initiatives that reduce the pressure on forests and biodiversity hot spots. Climate protection projects result in lower CO₂ emissions whilst contributing significantly to sustainable development in the region. My offset went toward projects in developing and emerging countries. These are reviewed by one body recognized by the United Nations and other independent bodies. All energy-​related climate protection projects are tested against Gold Standard criteria. I would use this service again without hesitation and highly recommend it.

We had ground source heatpumps put in under the Heatsmart program back in 2018. You can see the pictures of the big drill that did three bores in our backyard. It was a big project but it took only one summer to put the yard back together and we love the results. The heating and cooling is quiet, efficient and requires minimal maintenance - basically changing filters every 4 months. It is clean (compared to the soot from our furnace) and has been much less cost than our oil heat and air conditioning units. Since the town's electricity is 100% renewable we think it's a win win!. Installer - Bill Wenzel, from NH with Skillings doing the drilling - both were great to work with.

The School Building Committee added solar arrays to the new elementary school building, reused the playground equipment, added non-wax floors, added composting stations, and put in a conditioned air system. 

We recently spray foamed our attic - the process was easy and well worth it!  Previously I could see where we were losing heat on our roof and now I see no losses!  Its great!

Our household started using our local CSA from Westward orchards 3 years ago, and as well as diversifying our diet, it supported our local farm. We also had to go to the grocery store much less, and the farm was always jsut around the corner.

We installed 19 327W SunPower panels on our roof in December 2016. To date we have produced 41.6MW of electricity, saving about $10,000 in electricity costs. We have also sold over $10,000 in SRECs, leading to a 6.5 year payback period for the system.

My grandparents installed solar energy in the 1990's -- when we moved to Harvard, our family did so too soon after. We have a 10 kilowatt system (maximum non-commercial allowed in MA) that is providing for most of our energy needs throughout the year. 

In an effort to go green we have installed heat pumps and solar panels; bought an electric car; and grew a pollinator garden in our back meadow. We also have a gas stove top. We are pleased with all these changes. Ira especially likes his green 
mini Cooper and we are surprised we see so few electric cars in town. The pollinator garden is beautiful thanks to our daughter Lauren. Going green is important. We have started but we still have a long way to go. We are happy to speak to anyone who has questions for us. Just stop by.
Judy and Ira Ockene, Fairbank St

W

Our first step for climate action was taken over 12 years ago, in April 2012.  We were part of the first group of residents to sign up for a solar installation.  Worth Robbins organized an introductory presentation in 2011 and I realized our barn roof had the perfect exposure for locating an array of panels.  It has been a very good investment for us and reduced our carbon foot print for over decade.  On a cash basis, including federal and state credits, payoff was in 4.75 yrs.  On a present value basis uing a 7% discount rate, payoff was in 7 years.  We routinely only pay an electric bill 5-6 months/year but several of those months it is a nominal amount.  Our annual electricity costs ar $400-$600.  At the time of our installation, I wanted to get the "newest technology" of a battery backup.  I was told that a such a system would take up approximately half our basement.  Recently, we completed construction of a new house on Cape Cod and installed solar panels and a Tesla power wall.  The power wall is no bigger than a radiator.  Technogical progress is happening fast and we can all take advantage of that to reduce our carbon footprint.

Tax incentives too hard to pass up for even more solar panels on our roof (thank you Inflation Reduction Act!). We should now be nearly at net zero for electricity with Harvard's 100% renewable energy for the small amount we draw from National Grid on cloudy/low sun days.

We compost all of our food scraps in a pile at the edge of the woods in our backyard. We use a large stainless steel soup pot with a lid to store foodscraps, which we empty 3 or 4 times a week. A pot like the one we have is very easy to find at a store like Marshalls, and also quite affordable. Composting very managable, and there are absolutely no unpleasant odors like the ones that come from kitchen trash (especially when it is so hot during the summer!). We started composting about 7 years ago, and we haven't put a single food scrap in the trash since. Composting is one of the simplest things you can do for the environment, so get started today! 

We've been a member of the Chestnut Farm's CSA for many years. We do this to contribute to a reduced carbon footprint, a more environmentally responsible and sustainable ecosystem and more humane conditions for the animals.  

We have solar on the family room roof of our house which we installed in 2012 through Solarize Harvard. We added ground source heat pumps in 2018.  Since ground source uses electricity we wanted to add more solar but there was no more good facing roof and too many trees. Though our heat pump heats our water, we found in the spring and fall, when the heat pump is off because we neither need heat or air conditioning, the back up oil burner was going on to heat the water. Solution - solar hot water heater.  It needs only 2 or 3 panels to make enough hot water and we had room for that in a place that will get enough sun.  Inexpensive by comparison to eveything else we have done and break even in about 10 - 12 years or sooner based on the price of oil and electricity

A friend recommended this compost tumbler to us and it has been fantastic.  I think we've been using this for over 10 years. It is made by Mantis, called the Mantis Compost-Twin. It turns easily with a handle on the side, has large 2 bins so you can be filling one while the other is 'finishing'. Very sturdy. I've never been happy with other types of composters, but this one is great. 

One of our favorite local farms is Old Frog Pond Farm. It's an annual tradition for us to pick raspberries there, but sometimes we stop by the farm stand too!

When I built this home in 2017 I chose lighting that would support LED bulbs.  I only have one antique lamp that I inherited that still uses an incandescent bulb--but I rarely turn it on!

We were fortunate enough to move into a home in Harvard that already had a wonderful garden and composting system. We never composted before moving to town, but now it is part of our regular routine. We use our 'seasoned' compost to fertilize the soil in our garden in the spring. This is the beginning of hopefully many other efforts we plan to take to reduce our carbon footprint/reduce waste. 

We transformed a big section of the front lawn to a vegetable garden when we moved in. We grow more than we can eat in the summer and fall, so we end up freezing and canning a lot of it for winter.