Each year for Earth Day, reporters in the New England News Collaborative work together to produce a series on climate change.
This year, we were also thinking about money.
With prices rising and affordability top of mind, we wondered if some of the climate solutions we’ve looked into in the past — like purchasing electric school buses or investing in heat pumps — were becoming less accessible.
In many cases, our reporting found the opposite: Across New England, efforts to reduce contributions to global warming are also helping people save money.
Here are some of the ideas we gathered from this year’s stories.
Find local and state resources
Some federal incentives to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy have gone away under the Trump administration.
But in New England, people are still finding some financial assistance from their states, utilities and local community programs.
This winter, Massachusetts offered a new discounted rate for people with energy-efficient heat pumps. Residents who signed up say it saved them hundreds of dollars on their heating bills.
Some New England utilities are paying customers to join in efforts to reduce demand on the regional energy grid by getting batteries or smart thermostats.
States and utilities still offer rebates that help cover the cost of upgrades like home insulation or heat pumps, but it can be daunting to navigate the available resources. Across New England, there’s a movement to expand energy coaching programs to help people get started.
Investments pay off
People who have made transitions away from fossil fuels say it’s helping as fuel prices have gone up.
The small town of Warwick, Mass., has put solar panels on the roofs of town hall, the highway department garage and the firehouse. There’s an electric SUV to take kids to the town’s school, which is outfitted with heat pumps. Town officials say in the last 10 years, they’ve slashed winter heating costs by two-thirds.
Farmers who have installed solar panels are also seeing cheaper electricity bills, which helps them better manage other rising costs, like labor and equipment.
Installing solar panels is expensive. In Vermont, a conventional rooftop array costs about $30,000 on average. But across New England, there’s growing interest in allowing smaller plug-in systems that would be much cheaper and more accessible, including for people in mobile homes and apartments with balconies.
Maine was the first state in New England to legalize the panels earlier this month.
Supporters in the region hope that before long, plug-in solar panels will be widely available at places like Home Depot and Ikea, as they are in parts of Europe.
Reuse and repair
Another way people are reducing their use of fossil fuels and saving money is by simply buying less.
There are groups around New England that hold regular events for repairing broken objects, like lamps and toaster ovens. Clothing repair groups meet to offer mending assistance or teach the stitches, so people attending can learn to patch jeans and darn socks on their own.
Shopping for new things is expensive, and it also contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions.
People involved in repair and reuse say it feels good to take care of older objects and keep them out of the landfill.
Thoughtfulness about food
![Keishalee Torres [right] and nutritionist Caroline Seymour shop at a supermarket in Springfield, Mass.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8cf331d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x3024+0+0/resize/840x630!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F04%2F95%2F9aa9c45b45ab8a4c064b771325d1%2Fimg-0165.jpg)
Organic food can be the priciest choice at the grocery store, but there are many other ways to make your diet more sustainable.
Buying local produce when it’s in season cuts back on fossil fuel use, since it doesn’t have to travel from far away, and it’s often cheaper.
It can also save you money and cut down on packaging waste to buy items like onions, grains and beans in bulk.
Cutting down on what you throw away is another way to reduce your contribution to global warming emissions linked to food.
Composting food waste can help. Farmers who are using compost and other soil strengthening practices like cover crops and no-till agriculture say it reduces the need for gas-powered machinery and fertilizer, some of which is made with fossil fuels.
They find these practices also make their soil more resilient and productive in hard times, like during flooding and droughts.
Making more with less
As you’re thinking about other ways to help the climate and protect your budget, try asking yourself this question: What would your grandparents do?
Some of us may need to go back a few generations, but we all have relatives who made it through lean times with thriftiness and creativity.
They knew how to sew up a tear on a favorite shirt or shine a pair of old boots. Many knew how to take an inexpensive cut of meat and a cheap bag of beans to make a big, delicious stew to serve a crowd.
People we talked to for our series shared another benefit of taking these steps for the planet and their budgets: it feels good to find other people who care and realize we’re not alone.
Find all the stories in this year’s Earth Day series from the New England News Collaborative. And follow our work on Instagram at Our New England.
