Municipal Energy Goals

The type and amount of energy the City of Newburyport uses matters for two main reasons: the cost and the environmental impact.
 

Finding and implementing ways to reduce energy demand can save substantial costs. Switching to cleaner, alternative energy sources reduces the harm of traditional sources of energy that emit pollutants, CO2, and other greenhouse gases. Moreover, traditional sources of energy are known to cause global warming and climate change. 

• The Mayor adopted the Energy Advisory Committee’s recommended goal of achieving a zero net energy city by 2028. 
• The City adopted a shorter term Energy Reduction Plan to guide efforts in reducing environmental impact through economically feasible objectives. 
• We met those goals a year ahead of schedule and moved on to create new goals in the Newburyport Clean Energy Roadmap. That moved our net zero energy goal to 2050.
• While not exactly unaligned, Clean Energy Roadmap goals were superseded by the Master Plan goals in 2017. 

Newburyport energy policy considers the energy needs of the community while maintaining the City’s abundant natural (Source Mass.gov) and historic resources, including improving energy efficiency in old buildings without impacting their historic character and balancing historic value with new opportunities.

There are two ways of reducing the environmental impact of our energy-use: reducing energy usage and switching to cleaner alternatives