ATHOL — The town is among 17 recipients across the state to be honored with a 2026 Mass Save Impact Award during a ceremony slated for the State House on Oct. 27.
According to Mass Save, the awards recognize “leadership in energy efficiency, electrification, building modernization and other initiatives helping shape a more sustainable and resilient Commonwealth.”
“For the last few years,” said Athol Planning and Community Development Director Eric Smith, “we’ve had different initiatives, trying to get Mass Save programs out to the community. For instance, we’ve been working with National Grid under the Community Solutions program. That’s kind of given us a way to work with National Grid through coordinated efforts.”
That, he said, includes meeting virtually with National Grid every month.
“[The meetings] help us work on all our Green Communities grant projects, because when we do Green Communities projects we also want to make sure Mass Save incentivizes, and we want to do that early in a project,” he said. “It’s been great coordinating with National Grid on these efforts.”
Smith said the town was involved in an effort, working with Energy Source of Smithfield, Rhode Island, to address energy usage by small businesses in Athol.
“We worked with people on the small business side,” he said. “We did some outreach to that community and had some success with small businesses, whether it was upgrading to more energy-efficient refrigeration equipment or moving to heat pumps.”
Smith said he intends to be on hand at the State House to accept the award on the town’s behalf.
According to information provided by Mass Save, Athol has demonstrated a strong commitment to energy efficiency through 30 projects completed across municipal and school facilities, including the public library, police department, elementary school, middle school, and high school.
The town has completed 12 electrification projects representing at least 70 tons of installed heat pump capacity, alongside lighting upgrades and energy management system improvements. These efforts have generated more than 1,100 megawatt-hours in electric savings while helping improve comfort, efficiency, and building performance across key community facilities.
The town has also made an effort to improve energy consumption at some town-owned buildings. Among other initiatives, Athol’s wastewater treatment plant has been weatherproofed, and heat pumps have been installed at the police and fire stations.
Smith also mentioned the HomeWorks Energy program, which was designed to undertake outreach to Athol homeowners. According to Mass Save, the projects recognized through this year’s awards are expected to deliver net lifetime CO2 emission reductions equivalent to the annual energy use of nearly 30,000 homes or more than 50,000 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year.
Smith said Athol, through its energy reduction efforts, has contributed “its share” to that reduction.
“We’ve made efforts in the last couple of years to get residential energy efficiency improved,” said Smith. “First it starts with audits, energy audits, and then trying to get people to move toward heat pumps.”