Welcome!

We are so glad you’ve found your way to this Energize Acton website! Here, you’ll discover a trove of tools and resources to motivate and support everyone in Acton to address our Climate Emergency by reducing greenhouse gas emissions (and achieving other, related goals). You can take action at home, at work, and in daily life — along with your family, neighbors, and Acton friends — to prepare for a changing climate and help reduce climate impacts.

The focus of the Energize Acton website is to accelerate progress toward the “Net Zero Emissions by 2030” goal of Acton’s 2020 Declaration of a Climate Emergency. The Actions described on this site are designed to address the Climate Emergency both individually and collectively, and to include something for everyone, from small Actions to large ones.

Energize Acton has developed both a Vision Statement and a Mission Statement to better guide our work.

What is Our Story?  Origin and Evolution.

Energize Acton is a collaboration between the Acton Climate Coalition and the Town of Acton Sustainability Office. How did this unusual partnership happen and what has been accomplished? Here is a bit of our history.

2020 – The Acton Climate Coalition and Climate Emergency Declaration

The Acton Climate Coalition formed in early 2020 with the intent to act more urgently on climate threats. At the time, it represented a coalition of 38 members in Acton, including civic and environmental organizations, businesses, individuals, and elected officials. After much effort and outreach, including zoom webinars in the summer of 2020, a special warrant was presented to Town Meeting in September 2020—Declaring a Climate Emergency: A Better Future Starting Now. The opening paragraph states,

Climate change threatens our health, prosperity, and well-being, including in Acton. To avoid the worst climate impacts, we need an urgent and massive effort to arrest and reverse global warming, and to build resilience for a changed future.

The warrant article passed by a resounding majority!

2021 – Creation of the Acton Sustainability Office and Energize Acton

In the aftermath of the Climate Emergency Declaration, both Town leadership and the Acton Climate Coalition looked seriously at how to make the words a reality. The Town of Acton took the first step in 2021 by establishing a Sustainability Office and hiring the first Sustainability Director. Meanwhile, the Acton Climate Coalition established three committees—the Residents Group dedicated to education, the Local Gov Group aimed at advocacy within Acton, and the State Gov Group advocating in the Massachusetts Legislature. In discussions with the new Sustainability Director and with MassEnergize.org, the Residents Group launched EnergizeActon.org in the fall of 2021. EnergizeActon.org shares the MassEnergize.org platform with about 25 other communities and groups across Massachusetts. The Acton Sustainability Office supports this effort by funding the platform fee. In effect, the Residents Group is now EnergizeActon.org.

2022 to Now – Collaboration, Education, and Action

Besides offering the resources on the website, EnergizeActon.org team volunteers meet at least once a month with Sustainability Office staff, sharing ideas for programs that advance decarbonization in Acton.The community programs include the popular hands-on Clean Energy Home Tours, presentations about clean energy technology, EV driver meet-ups, events related to nature-based solutions such as composting and plant-based meals, and coordination with community partners such as the Acton Conservation Trust, the Acton Garden Club, Congregation Beth Elohim and other Houses of Worship, AB STEAM, and other groups. From January 2022 to December 2025, EnergizeActon.org has organized 60 local events and reached over 1800 attendees, not counting support for Sustainability Office events or programs co-sponsored with the MassEnergize.org PlugIN communities. EnergizeActon.org publishes a monthly newsletter which includes event announcements, updates from coalition partners, and even recipes!  Sign up by clicking here. The mailing list is strictly confidential and used to communicate local and regional events/news related to climate, our community, and our environment.

Education and Advocacy – Promoting Change

EnergizeActon.org takes seriously its mandate of education and providing resources for the community. However, the Acton Climate Coalition is broader than EnergizeActon.org. The Climate Coalition continues to look at advocacy. Perhaps the most successful governmental action of the Acton Climate Coalition was the 2021 warrant article at Acton Town Meeting, Building with Clean Energy. This requested zoning changes to require that all new construction in Acton be fossil fuel-free. This was also passed by Town Meeting with an almost unanimous vote! Through a multi-year process involving permission from the Massachusetts Legislature, this vote has gone into effect as part of the Municipal Fossil Fuel Free Building Demonstration Program, involving nine communities in the state, including Acton.

The Town of Acton Sustainability Office’s Successes

If the Acton Climate Coalition’s local governmental work has been less visible lately, it is because the Town of Acton Sustainability Office has taken the initiative in many areas, such as developing a Town Climate Action Plan, creating the Acton Clean Energy Coach Program, winning grants for EV charging and clean energy technology in municipal buildings, doing outreach to Multi-Family Buildings, and working on local resilience planning. Both the Energize Acton team and the broader Acton Climate Coalition membership are thankful for the open dialogue with the Town of Acton, and especially with the Sustainability Office.