COOL BRAINTREE
Cool Braintree is Sustainable Braintree’s local effort in a program called Cool Mass, a state-wide initiative of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network. Cool Mass helps Massachusetts residents reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (more commonly described as carbon) that we generate through energy use and current lifestyles. We use David Gershon’s book, "The Low Carbon Diet" as a tool to identify what we can change to make personal carbon reductions.
By reducing the quantity of carbon we emit from heating and
cooling homes, driving, and our lifestyles, we can protect and
more efficiently use our limited natural resources.
The Energy Task Force's goal is to help 25% of Braintree
residents reduce their carbon footprint by 25%.
The first step to helping the earth and reducing our dependence
on fossil fuels is Conservation. Through energy conservation
we can lower our carbon emissions, conserve our natural resources and save money.
There are four ways to participate in the Cool Braintree program:
1. As an Eco-Team comprised of 5 to 8 Households
, invite 6 to 8 friends or acquaintances to join your Cool Mass Eco-Team.
- Register your Eco-Team here.
- Purchase or borrow copies of the Low Carbon Diet, by David Gershon (copies are available from Sustainable Braintree).
- Your Eco-Team will meet four times to complete the program.
- As you work through each chapter, members of your Eco-Team choose the actions that work best for them. Each action is assigned a carbon-saving value.
- Celebrate your success when you’ve finished the program! Calculate your carbon savings and report them back to Sustainable Braintree. You will undoubtedly discover that you’ve saved money too!
2. As an individual household using Sustainable Braintree's convenient
mail-back Reporting Form
Follow the process in #1 above. Report your carbon savings back to Sustainable Braintree using our handy mail-in reporting form.
3. As a participant in the Biggest Carbon Loser Competitions which were held in Summer 2010 and Summer 2011.
4. As a participant in our annual Sustainable Braintree Earth Celebration in which you can chose small actions from a broad menu to add to a collective effort to ‘Lift up the Earth’.
Each of these ways uses the same workbook, the Low Carbon Diet, which Sustainable Braintree offers at the deeply discounted price of $5.00. Copies are available for sale at the Farmers Market and by request (we deliver!). There are also copies available for borrowing at the Thayer Public Library.
One recent Eco-team of 5 households reduced their collective CO2 footprint by 57,952 lbs of annual emissions, a 27% reduction! By completing this program they did a great thing for the planet AND saved money in their utility bills. One participant immediately noticed that his electricity and oil bills dropped by an average of 15% per month since completing the program.
The Cool Braintree Program is proof that it is possible to conserve energy and help the Earth with little to no affect on your standard of living.
The average US household has a carbon footprint of 55,000 lbs/year. Compare that to the average German household at 27,000 lbs/year and Sweden at 17,000 lbs/year and it is clear that not only are we a big part of the problem but we can be a BIG part of the SOLUTION! The Low Carbon Diet workbook shows you how to calculate and reduce your carbon footprint using simple yet effective steps, such as how to:
- reduce your solid waste by recycling
- switch your incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescents
- reduce the water you heat for household chores
- adopt efficient driving habits
Climate Change is a particularly complex issue that, to many, seems just too big to comprehend thoroughly and therefore too big to really do anything about. However, the Cool Braintree Program assures that your individual actions will add up to make a big difference.
The Energy Task Force is keeping track of town-wide carbon reductions. Our goal is 25% of Braintree residents reducing their carbon footprints by 25% by 2012.
ANY and ALL reductions each of us can make will help the town reach that goal!
Earth Celebration 2011
Biggest Carbon Loser Competition
Biggest Carbon Loser Competition
