Common Street is powered by an 18kW solar panel array! We installed the solar panels in the spring of 2021 with the support of our community and the help of a generous grant from Vanguard Charitable.
Natick Town News wrote an article titled “Common Street Spiritual Center switches to solar, helping bring healing and justice to Earth” in October, 2021.
To get a picture of how much energy our solar panels are generating, please click this link: https://monitoringpublic.solaredge.com/solaredge-web/p/kiosk?guid=3eeb3b0f-9793-4b27-9513-339693fe2454
For years, Common Street has been leading the way in climate and environmental justice activism. We’ve been learning how to honor our relationships with the Earth and all living beings. Rev. Dr. Ian Mevorach, Common Street’s director, holds a PhD in Ecological Theology and Ethics and has been a leader interfaith environmental justice circles; he was arrested twice in the struggle against the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline in 2016.
Locally, the Common Street community has been a main organizer of the Renewable Natick campaign to move our town into a 100% renewable energy future, including the passing of an official resolution to this affect at Fall 2018 Town Meeting.
Common Street also has a robust partnership with Keep Natick Beautiful, including the Garden of Hope and Peace on our side lawn and a collaborative project called Cash4Trash that we launched in 2020 to pick up over a ton of trash from roadways and parks.
It is fitting that we have solar panels on our own building and are pursuing other options to lower our carbon footprint! Our solar array provides most of our electricity on a daily basis. But for any additional electricity we need, we participate in the Town of Natick’s 100% green electricity option. Even if one cannot have solar panels on one’s home or business, one can still choose to use 100% green energy: https://masspowerchoice.com/natick/your-options/opt-up It is our hope that Natick and all surrounding towns will move towards 100% green energy as a way to lower carbon emissions and slow the pace of global heating.