Page 24 - BusinessWest March 3, 2021

homeowner get a heat pump to providing loans to farmers so they can make energy improve- ments to their operations.
“The Community Climate Fund is a great way to extend the impact of our programs and get even more done,” he told BusinessWest.
Massachusetts recently unveiled a plan to achieve a 45% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and to be carbon-neutral by 2050. Majercak has reached out to utilities to encourage them to align their energy-efficiency programs with these climate goals. CET is currently working with a municipal utility company to test an energy-effi- ciency program that measures carbon reduction, as opposed to just energy savings. It’s one of the first programs of its kind in the country.
“Anytime you save energy, it reduces carbon, but the kind of energy you save and the kind of energy you use also affects carbon,” he said, not- ing that the car you drive and the lawnmower you use can also make a difference in changing your carbon footprint. “For the foreseeable future, we will be studying energy issues by looking through the lens of carbon reduction.”
CET is also working with utilities on promot- ing the use of air-source heat pumps for houses. While they have existed for years, Majercak said heat pumps were primarily used in warmer cli- mates. With recent technology improvements, they can now withstand the sustained cold tem- peratures of a New England winter. Unlike tra- ditional heating systems, heat pumps take heat from outside air (yes, even frigid cold air has heat in it) and move it into the home.
For cooling, the heat pump does the reverse and removes heat from the house to the outside. Instead of using oil, natural gas, or propane, heat
pumps run on electricity. As long as renewable energy becomes a larger part of the grid, he said, electric power is the logical choice.
“This is good from a carbon perspective because, as the power grid gets greener and as more people use heat pumps and drive electric cars, the more carbon reduction we’ll get,” Majer- cak noted, adding that heat pumps are just catch- ing on, and we will see a lot more of them in the coming years.
And they represent only the latest cutting-edge technology that CET has helped establish in its 45 years.
The home- renovation boom has created both supply and demand
for items at EcoBuilding Bargains.
one example in the realm of waste and recycling, CET helped to establish the Springfield Materials Recycling Facility (MRF), which serves 65 com- munities in Western Mass. Back when recycling was a new approach, CET worked with towns to help them prepare their recycling programs for the Springfield MRF.
In the 45 years since CET has been in opera- tion, energy conservation has hit peaks and val- leys in politics and policies on the national level. Majercak noted that the state and regional levels have been more consistent, and asserted that CET has never been, nor ever will be, a political
We Built That.
“I’m very proud of the people at CET because organization. they’ve always been real innovators and have “We’re a solu- helped change the way things work,” he said. As tions organization;
CET
Continued on page 48
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