 The new Hunnewell Elementary School opened to students on Feb. 26, 2024. Sustainable and high-performance, the school building optimizes the comfort, health, and beauty of the school environment to support students, teachers, and staff. The all-electric, net zero ready school helps meet Wellesley’s town-wide greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal of net zero emissions by 2050. The new Hunnewell School design energy use intensity of 27 KBTU per square foot per year is five times more energy efficient than the previous school building. Plans are underway for Wellesley Municipal Light Plant (WMLP) to install solar panels on the roof to further enhance the new building’s sustainability.
Hunnewell School sustainability features include:
The Hunnewell School is an exemplar for future municipal, commercial, and institutional buildings and for residential climate action. Get a video tour here and come see for yourself on May 18th from 11-2 when they are offering community tours. Commercial and institutional property owners are invited to participate in the Town’s Building Energy Roundtable. Contact [email protected] for more information. Are you a Wellesley resident interested in creating a healthier, more comfortable, sustainable home that reduces your greenhouse gas emissions? The Town’s Energy Coaches are here to help you! Read more at this link. As homeowners replace old furnaces and appliances or add air conditioning, they have a great opportunity to improve energy efficiency, electrify their homes, and power with renewable energy. Substantial tax credits and rebates are available.  Make time to vote on or before Dec. 7th.
The one thing on the ballot this time is a two-part infrastructure vote - - 2 votes for the future. Sustainable Wellesley would like to voice its support of the sustainable features in the proposed new Hardy and Hunnewell elementary school buildings. Both school designs exemplify necessary steps the Town is taking, and is compelled to take, to reduce carbon emissions produced by municipal buildings. Buildings in Wellesley account for approximately 56% of the Town’s greenhouse gas emissions. As you know, at the October 2020 Special Town Meeting, members overwhelmingly voted to require all Town boards, committees, and departments to take actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in all projects. The proposed plans for Hardy and Hunnewell do just that. The Hardy and Hunnewell projects will replace two inefficient, fossil fuel burning buildings with buildings that have all-electric heating and cooling systems. Additionally, each building will have solar energy producing photovoltaics on the roof. Sustainable Wellesley also thanks the Wellesley Municipal Light Plant (MLP) Board for its decision to facilitate the installation of solar on the new Hunnewell School, and to retire the Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) associated with its produced electricity. The Hardy building will be LEED Certified, thus earning the town more rebates through the partnership with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). The Hunnewell building will be LEED Certifiable. We support the Town’s plans to build Hunnewell to these standards, but not incur the costs associated with the certifications. Voting yes on both Hardy and Hunnewell, will bring all-electric systems, solar on the roofs, and LEED certified buildings to our community. We are in the midst of a climate emergency and building two net zero ready schools is a meaningful step in the Town’s goal to reduce carbon emissions. Building energy efficient buildings will decrease the buildings operating costs, and help address the hidden costs of climate change. To provide some framing, the newest school in town is Wellesley High School. This building, built in 2012, has an energy use intensity (EUI) of 44. The current Hunnewell building has an EUI of 127. The proposed building will be 26.4. The current Hardy School has an EUI in the range of 86-109. The proposed Hardy EUI will be between 25-30. Specifically, the proposed advanced, high-performing buildings will include: » Maximized Insulation and Enclosure Tightness (Walls & Roofs) » Passive House Strategies » Air Infiltration Reduction » All Electric Heating and Cooling System » Plug Load Controls » Life Cycle Cost Factors » Commissioning & Testing during Design and Construction » Roof-top Photovoltaics Thank you to the Town departments and volunteers for working hard to demonstrate the meaningful steps that can be taken to reduce carbon emissions through building system design. This provides a guide not only for future municipal projects, but for all residents to make similar changes when replacing systems in their own homes. Thank you for getting out and voting for both Hardy and Hunnewell. Specific voting information is below: Voting By Mail? Don't forget to return your ballot if you have requested one, either by mail with one regular stamp or (Recommended!) delivering directly to the dropbox outside Town Hall. Vote by mail ballots can be requested through December 1. If you are requesting either vote by mail or absentee at this late date, we strongly recommend hand-delivering your ballot to the Town Hall dropbox to ensure it gets back in time to be counted. Ballots MUST be received at Town Hall by Election Day, December 7. Additional details on vote by mail and absentee ballots can be found on the Town Clerk's page. Voting in Person? Polls will be open from 7:00am - 8:00pm on December 7. Voting locations have changed! Precincts A & C: Bates School Precinct B: Sprague School Precincts D & E: Warren Building Precincts F & G: Dana Hall School Precinct H: Tolles Parsons Center Don't know your precinct? Find it here. Click here for a map of the voting locations. |
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