Who We Are

In 2009, the Green Energy Technology Committee was appointed by the Select Board to help the Town qualify for the Commonwealth of Mass. Green Communities designation and thus benefit from state funding to reduce energy consumption in Town buildings.

In 2015, we changed our name to the Green Energy Committee and expanded our purpose to include residential buildings. That included informing residents on improving building insulation and efficiency, installing solar panels, and using new technologies such as heat pumps.  The GEC’s activities have subsequently expanded to include, among other things:

• Promoting the use of electric vehicles (“EVs”) and other ways that the Town and its residents and businesses can voluntarily reduce their carbon footprint
• Advising the Select Board and supporting Town staff on implementing the Town’s state-approved Community Choice Aggregation program (known as Lincoln Green Energy Choice)
• Preparing a greenhouse gas emissions report for the Town in 2019
• Proposing warrant articles related to mitigating climate change that have been adopted at several Town Meetings
• Providing input to various Town special projects, including through the South Lincoln Planning Advisory Committee, the School Building Committee, and the Community Center Building Committee
• Providing extensive input to the preparation of Lincoln’s Climate Action Plan
• Monitoring related developments in the state legislature
• Recommending to the Select Board when it should submit comments regarding related state-level policy making.

On May 15, 2021, Town Meeting adopted a citizen-sponsored resolution that among other things directed “Town departments, boards, and committees to collaborate on and otherwise take expeditious action to adopt and implement appropriate measures to reduce the carbon footprint in Lincoln to the extent reasonably possible." 

On February 1, 2024, the Lincoln Planning Department published a Climate Action Plan for Lincoln that had been developed through a process that spanned most of 2023. That Plan considered the three major categories of potential response to climate change (mitigation, adaptation, and resiliency); identified seven high-level goals for the Town; identified ninety potential projects or efforts (referred to as “strategies”) to advance those goals; and outlined potential implementation plans for nineteen of those strategies. 

In January 2025, the Select Board approved a revised charge that states that the Committee is charged to advise and make recommendations on issues and actions related to climate change to the Select Board, Town staff, other Town committees and boards, and Town residents and businesses. Actions related to climate change are often put into categories of mitigation, adaptation, and resiliency. The Committee is expected to focus on reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions through decarbonization of buildings, transportation, and the electric supply, but the Committee may also pursue other actions that help the Town mitigate, adapt to, or be more resilient to climate change.  The revised charge also increased the number of members from seven to nine, all of whom are appointed for 1-year terms by the Select Board.

To read the full charge, click on the "updated charge" link on this page.