AGAWAM – On May 23, about 350 people attended the Agawam Cooler Community Challenge Expo at the Agawam High School. The Expo was designed to show residents how to shrink their carbon footprint and save on energy costs at the same time.

While browsing the student projects about the effects of climate change and talking with the energy-efficiency vendors, those present were asked to sign a pledge to take concrete steps to reduce their energy usage. A total of 115 people pledged to save energy in one way or another.

“It doesn't have to be a painful thing,” Mark Morris, chairman of the Agawam Energy Commission said about becoming more environmentally responsible.

The pledge form, which had also been sent home with students before the event, consisted of two columns. The first listed top energy-consuming household activities and the second consisted of corresponding energy-saving actions to be taken.

Many of the energy-saving actions people could pledge to do were inexpensive and relatively easy, such as replacing existing light bulbs with LED bulbs or scheduling a no-cost energy audit. Others were more of an investment, such as installing rooftop solar panels and upgrading to an energy-efficient appliance.

“We designed the pledge sheet so that there was something for everyone who wanted to make a difference and save energy,” said Uli Nagel, project director from ener-G-save, a project from the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation.

As a metric of success for the pledge campaign, Nagel said, ener-G-save and the city are developing a communication plan to contact via email those who pledged and check in with them after three months, six months, nine months, and a year.

Nagel said that the pledge is a community activity and people will keep their promises because their neighbors are also participating.

If the residents follow through on their pledges, the result will be approximately $87,600 in energy savings and 605 tons of carbon emissions avoided per year, said the Agawam Energy Commission. That is the equivalent of taking 86 cars off the road every year, they said.

“Results like these make our community a better place to live,” Agawam Mayor William Sapelli said in a statement.

The Expo grew out of a partnership between the Agawam Energy Commission, the Agawam school system, and the ener-G-save project and was modeled after a similar successful project in Concord.

The Agawam Energy Commission, re-formed in 2018, looks for ways to improve the community’s energy use.

Since 2017, Agawam has been a state-designated Green Community. That means that “the Green Communities Division (GCD) provides grants, technical assistance, and local support from regional coordinators to help municipalities reduce energy use and costs by implementing clean energy projects in municipal buildings, facilities, and schools,” states mass.gov.

“As a town, you’re committing to pursue different projects and committing to making different changes,” said Morris.

An early project the city tackled was changing out 280 faucets to include energy-saving aerators. The Center for Eco Technology in Northampton estimates that the schools will save 193,440 gallons per year and 622.9 therms heating that water, said Morris.

The ener-G-save project has been working with municipalities for two and a half years. Currently, ener-G-save is interested in expanding to another five to seven communities in the Pioneer Valley and the Berkshires. They are also looking for financial partnerships to keep the project going.

Nagel told Reminder Publishing that, while adults are responsible for making impactful decisions, most of the initiatives begin with students.

“It was really moving to see how much the kids care and how much they are committed to living responsibly on Earth,” said Nagel of the student projects at the expo. A second expo is being planned for Spring 2020.