Since 2004, Green Newton has been recognizing individuals, community groups, and local businesses for their work in striving for a better environment in and around Newton. This year’s awards were announced at the Newton Free Library on May 22.
Award to a business: Auburndale Builders provides home remodeling, additions, and new home construction in the Greater Boston area. They specialize in building high-performance, net-zero, and passive homes. Using their combined knowledge of historic homes and leading-edge building science, they create homes that are so energy efficient that most usage can be offset by renewable energy. Their ultra-low energy “passive house” project in Wayland is completely insulated from the ground to ensure heat and cool retention in the home. Their first “passive” retrofit office building in Newton is another example of their leadership in green building. They also completed an all-electric first “net-zero” home in Newton, which produces as much energy as it consumes. Auburndale Builders excels in building high-performance homes to achieve comfort, durability, indoor air quality, and lower energy use.
Award to a Community Group: Eliot Church sponsors service projects for youth and adults to address our response to climate change. There is active congregational involvement in: Green team work days, including the Annual Charles River clean-up; forums to solicit participation in the Mass Save program for homeowners and support for fossil-free investing. Capital investments made over the past 10 years enabled the church to be awarded the Energy Star certificate. Their building has been modified with a number of energy efficiency improvements, as well as adding modulating condensing boilers; internal storms on windows and energy efficient shades on most windows; programmable thermostats and their crowning achievement — a major solar array on their roof. Eliot Church is dedicated to conserving energy, as well as taking a stand for environmental protections.
Award to an individual: President of Bike Newton, Alicia Bowman helps to organize the Annual Tour de Newton event with more than 700 bicyclists and 80 volunteers, promoting Newton as a bikeable city for leisure and transportation. As Pedestrian Coordinator for the City of Newton, she has been a strong advocate for ordinances and policy changes that improve safety and accessibility for pedestrians. As Co-Founder of the Newton Safe Routes to School Task Force (SRTS), Alicia has facilitated changes on a citywide level and she was the first Safe Routes partner in Massachusetts to develop a task force model. She also received a grant for a transportation survey on school transportation choices and introduced pedestrian safety education into elementary schools, while improving bike safety education at elementary and middle schools. Alicia has been an outstanding leader working to improve bike and pedestrian safety in Newton.
See the previous awardees HERE.
Recently on Twitter