by Valerie Hurley ·
Friday, January 30, 2026
In the years since the town qualified for the state’s Green Community program in 2010, it has received three grants to make its municipal buildings—primarily the Bromfield School—more energy efficient. Now, the state has upgraded Harvard to “climate leader” status, making it eligible for an even wider array of grants of up to $1.1 million.
The town wasted no time in applying for some of the money to advance progress on the Bromfield HVAC system. Just a week after the Department of Energy Resources’ November 2025 announcement, the town’s climate and energy advisory committees applied for $150,000 to help pay for Bromfield’s HVAC design.
The grant would be one of several funding sources for what town officials say is a much-needed new heating and cooling system at the school.
“The Bromfield School accounts for almost half of the town’s energy use,” Energy Advisory Committee Chair Brian Smith told the Press. He said the committee has known this since it first started tracking municipal energy use in 2007, and the usage was confirmed by the town’s 2025 decarbonization plan.
Also funding the project is $200,000 from the town’s Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund, which will pay for a study of the building’s envelope to see how permeable it is to the elements.
The largest contribution, however, will come from the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The agency awarded Harvard a grant last fall that will reimburse the town for 49.5% of the new HVAC system.
And now that the town is a “climate leader,” it can apply for a $1 million grant from the state’s Decarbonization Accelerator Program—just as soon as the HVAC’s schematic design is complete. According to Smith and Climate Initiative Committee Chair Ellen Sachs Leicher, the town will aim to apply for the grant by this year’s August deadline.
The exact cost of the Bromfield HVAC system won’t be known until the design is complete. Smith said a rough estimate, which was used on the latest grant application, is $8 million.
Both Smith and Sachs Leicher said they are proud of the climate leader designation and the work their committees did to make it happen. Smith lauded the benefits of being able to apply for up to $1 million, every three years, for capital projects. “This is funding that the town desperately needs to reduce the impact on town finances,” he said.
Getting the town certified as a climate leader took more than a year of work by the climate and energy advisory committees, as several requirements had to be met before they could apply for the program. In addition to having a climate action plan in place, which the town had adopted in 2022, the Energy Advisory Committee had to create several new documents and policies for the town to adopt. That included an update to the 2010 building code for energy efficiency–or stretch code—adopted by Town Meeting in 2024, and a municipal decarbonization road map and zero-emission-first-vehicle policy. The road map and vehicle policy were both approved by the Select Board and School Committee in 2025.
In an email to the Press, Select Board Chair Kara Minar praised the climate and energy advisory committees as hardworking and productive. “They work tirelessly applying for and winning critical funding grants that cut costs and carbon emissions alike—helping us to reach the town’s decarbonization goals while reducing our long-term energy costs. We are grateful to HEAC and HCIC for their efforts and … to Ellen and Brian for their terrific leadership.”
Harvard is one of 28 towns participating in the state’s Climate Leader Communities program. Created in 2019, its purpose is to help participating towns reduce their municipal greenhouse gas emissions.