"There’s a secret for Mass. cities and towns to win big bucks from Washington: Invest in sustainability"

Via the Boston Globe: 

"In three years, when the Bennett-Hemenway Elementary School in Natick is outfitted with air conditioning and staff and students will no longer wilt on the hottest days, it will be thanks to two things: a $2 million grant from the US Department of Energy, and Jillian Wilson Martin.

Wilson Martin is the sustainability director for Natick, one of dozens employed by cities and towns across the state. They don’t always do the most exciting work. Increasingly, the job description includes hours of writing grant applications, trying to get a piece of the billions of federal dollars for climate and infrastructure projects pushed by the Biden administration.

But the payoff can be huge.

“You guys. I literally almost passed out when I found out,” Wilson Martin wrote last summer in a joy-filled newsletter announcing the Energy Department grant, as well as a separate $250,000 grant from the state aimed at helping communities adapt to climate impacts. “Those hand cramps paid off!”

Continue reading the Boston Globe article ->  https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/06/08/science/sustainability-officers-help-deliver-federal-funding/

"There’s a secret for Mass. cities and towns to win big bucks from Washington: Invest in sustainability"