Framingham News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 10/12/2025

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Susan Scully Petroni

City of Framingham Public Information Officer

spetroni@framinghamma.gov

508-782-8629

City of Framingham Named a 2025 Mass Save Climate Leader

FRAMINGHAM - The City of Framingham and Framingham Public Schools have been named 2025 Mass Save® Climate Leaders, a distinction honoring Massachusetts cities, municipalities, and businesses for their efforts to reduce energy use, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and invest in energy-efficient solutions. The award will be given out at the Massachusetts State House on Wednesday, October 15.

Out of 351 municipalities in Massachusetts, only four are being recognized this year, highlighting Framingham’s leadership in energy efficiency and climate action.

Why City of Framingham is a 2025 Climate Leader

The City of Framingham continues to demonstrate sustainability leadership in the Massachusetts MetroWest region. In 2022, the Framingham City Council issued a Climate Emergency Declaration to set a goal for the City to achieve an equitable transition to net zero emissions by 2050.

In working toward this mission, Framingham has been recognized as a 2025 Climate Leader for their commitment to decarbonization and continued investment in energy-efficient technologies such as LED lighting and controls, refrigeration, HVAC, water heating, and appliance upgrades, leading to a lifetime emissions reduction of over 800 metric tons of CO2. Even before becoming one of the Commonwealth’s Green Communities in 2014, Framingham began to utilize air-source heat pumps to provide clean and efficient heating and cooling for municipal facilities.

Today, two of Framingham’s municipal facilities – the Farley Building and Fire Station #5 – are participating in the Eversource Geothermal Pilot Project, benefitting from clean heating and cooling provided by ground-source heat pumps while also providing significant borefield capacity to support the operation of Eversource’s networked system and its approximately 33 additional buildings. In alignment with its goals to accelerate the transition to net zero emissions, Framingham is continuing to partner with HEET and Eversource on the U.S. Department of Energy’s District-Scale Geothermal Energy Pilots Program to expand this system, bringing clean heating and cooling to even more community members.

As they work to electrify and decarbonize their municipal building portfolio, Framingham has also maintained a strong focus on empowering its community members to make meaningful improvements across homes and businesses. Alongside the Town of Natick, Framingham participates in the Community First Partnership offered by the Sponsors of Mass Save to provide cost-saving energy efficiency solutions to residents and small businesses. Between 2022 and 2024, Framingham’s collaboration in the Community First Partnership Program has supported over 631 energy assessments, 264 HVAC upgrades, and 223 weatherization projects for residents in addition to their active participation in the Eversource Main Streets events to support local small businesses. These initiatives represent a core component of Framingham’s efforts to advance climate equity, which also include prioritization of multilingual communications, improving utility bill literacy, and reducing energy burden for low-income families.

The City of Framingham has made significant strides in energy efficiency across its municipal operations and school facilities, implementing upgrades that reduce environmental impact while creating healthier, more comfortable spaces for residents, students, and city employees.

“Framingham’s recognition as a Mass Save Climate Leader reflects the city’s ongoing commitment to sustainability and responsible energy use,” said Mayor Charlie Sisitsky. “We are proud to lead by example in creating a cleaner, more energy-efficient community for our residents and future generations.”

Shawn Luz, Framingham’s Sustainability Coordinator, added, “We appreciate recognition of the City of Framingham and Framingham Public Schools’ significant efforts to enhance the energy efficiency of our facilities and operations. In addition to our adoption of clean energy and energy efficiency technologies across our portfolio, we are proud to be supporting the greater community to do the same for their homes and businesses through the Mass Save program.”

The recognition highlights Framingham as a model for other communities and organizations looking to implement energy efficiency upgrades and embrace sustainable practices.

The full list of 2025 Mass Save Climate Leaders includes:

For more information on Mass Save Climate Leaders, visit https://www.masssave.com/en/community/mass-save-climate-leaders.

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