2008

We started with
energy efficiency

A handful of people, terrified by climate change, started organizing work parties on weekends to make homes more energy efficient, cutting emissions and reducing energy bills. The Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) was born. Inspired by this direct action, over 30 sister groups formed around greater Boston, targeting homes, preschools, houses of worship, and community centers.

‍

2009

HEET is incorporated
in Massachusetts

HEET’s drive to cut emissions quickly expanded as we learned. We got a blower door, asked the experts at Sagewell to help us identify the buildings most in need using thermal imaging, and analyzed home energy data. Eager to share what we had learned, we wrote The Honest Book of Home Energy Savings.

Through our work, the energy efficiency message spread. Thousands of people from diverse communities learned hands-on skills at work parties, then took what they learned home to lower their own energy bills and emissions.

2012

HEET receives
501c3 designation

2013

Leading solar challenges
solar panels

Supported by the City of Cambridge, HEET organized the Cambridge Solar Challenge. HEET negotiated a 20% discount for solar installations, then sent a letter through the Mayor’s office to every home with good solar exposure and followed up with a canvass. While the average annual number of residential solar installations in Cambridge at that time was five, our Solar Challenge achieved more than 50. HEET ran the same program in Somerville resulting in 20 solar installations.

2014

Mapping the leaks
Jamaica way gas leak
A large gas leak in Jamaica Plain, MA
The Boston Globe Headline: Project reveals 20,000 leaks in Mass. gas lines
Front page story in The Boston Globe, 2015

Natural gas is largely made up of methane, a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide—and faster acting. Methane’s high global warming potential means that fixing leaks from gas pipelines is a highly effective way to reduce climate impacts.

When a 2014 Massachusetts law required utilities to report gas leak locations to the Department of Public Utilities, HEET mapped every gas leak in the state, capturing the attention of state and local officials, the media, and the public. The map, which we update each year, helped to launch a grassroots movement in Massachusetts led by Mothers Out Front and the Gas Leaks Allies.

Fix the Worst First  Research at Boston University showed a policy path forward when they found that 7% of natural gas leaks in Boston emit half of all the gas pouring into the atmosphere from an aging, leaking distribution system. Within six months, HEET helped pass a second state law requiring gas companies to address these leaks of “significant environmental impact.”

Still, how would the utilities comply? Knowing there was no proven method of finding high-volume leaks, HEET conducted a study with the three largest utilities in Massachusetts—Columbia Gas, Eversource, and National Grid. The Large Volume Leak study confirmed that fixing the largest leaks cuts methane emissions in half, it and established fast, reliable methods for identifying them. HEET worked with utilities and allies to design an ongoing Shared Action Plan that formalizes data exchange, repair verification, and reassessing methods of addressing large volume leaks.

‍

2015

What’s in the gas?
Photo of Porter Ranch after gas leak, courtesy of EARTHWORKS.

HEET began investigating the health impacts of natural gas in 2015, following reports about the Porter Ranch gas leak, widely considered the worst natural gas leak in U.S. history.

Nathan Phillips, HEET board member and Boston University Professor, and Bob Ackley of Gas Safety Inc, quickly made their way out to California to survey the area with a Picarro gas detector. The pair began producing maps of methane concentrations near the leak. Their maps were picked up by the press, who listed HEET as a contact.

HEET Co-Executive Director Audrey Schulman began getting phone calls. One woman’s daughter had a nose bleed that wouldn’t stop. Another man was losing weight due to constant nausea. Each person who called wanted to know: What’s in the gas?

To answer that question, Audrey assembled a team that included the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, PSE Healthy Energy, Boston University. With funding from The Barr Foundation and the Putnam Foundation, the team conducted a study on the chemical composition of natural gas, focused on kitchen stoves.

“Until this study was published, there had been no independent academic research on the chemical composition of the gas delivered to our homes,” said Molly Fairchild, a study author and HEET’s Director of Healthy Homes. Learn more here.

2020

Leading with justice
A man weatherizing a house.
Member of the EJ Air team weatherizing a home.

The transition to a clean energy future must be equitable, and HEET continues to put environmental justice at the center of its outreach and programming nationwide.

In 2020, HEET established the EJ Air program to help residents of Dorchester, Roxbury, and Charlestown access subsidized home energy efficiency upgrades through Mass Save. The program was funded with the settlement from a bus-idling lawsuit brought by The Conservation Law Foundation on behalf of those three communities.

HEET has also partnered with the nonprofit All In Energy to help households sign up for free home energy assessments, an important first step in getting weatherization and energy efficiency work done.

In January 2022, ScienceDirect published a study by HEET and Salem State University that examined over 26,000 gas leaks in relation to demographic groups. The study found that low-income populations and communities of color—as well as renters, limited English-speaking households and adults with lower levels of education—are disproportionately exposed to gas leaks, and that leak repairs are comparatively slower for these populations.

2021

Breathe Easy at Home

HEET was a recipient of Boston’s first Community Clean Air Grant to support Boston’s clean air and carbon neutrality goals. HEET used the funds to distribute induction cooktops to Boston residents who had gas stoves and were being treated for asthma, through Boston’s Breathe Easy at Home program.

‍

2022

Home is where the pipeline ends

Environmental Science & Technology published a pivotal study conducted by HEET, Harvard University, and PSE Healthy Energy, which found that the natural gas delivered to homes contains trace amounts of non-methane volatile organic compounds that can impact air quality and human health. Today, thanks in part to HEET’s work, the dangers of cooking with natural gas are receiving national attention.

Now

The gas-to-geo transition
Networked geothermal pipes being installed in Framingham.

HEET is trying to transform how we heat and cool our buildings—which accounts for xx% of carbon emissions nationwide—by building a new kind of utility.

Our solution is for gas utilities to transition to thermal utilities, delivering heating and cooling with networked ground-source heat pumps, or networked geothermal—also known as thermal energy networks and district energy systems.

Legislation and gas utility pilot projects are advancing in a number of states, while in Massachusetts, Eversource Gas is installing the first utility networked geothermal system in the country.

You can learn more about HEET’s ground-breaking approach in our Gas to Geo section.

HEET Today

You can be part of the story!
HEET Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director Audrey Schulman giving a talk at the 2023 Building Energy NYC Conference titled, “Teamwork Makes the “Therm” Work! Scaling District Geothermal Through Coalitions”

Tackling climate change takes all of us! You can support HEET by adding your name to our mailing list, making a one-time or monthly donation to support HEET’s work, and speaking up for networked geothermal utility service in your neighborhood.

2008
‍We started with
energy efficiency

Audrey Schulman (HEET’s Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director) and a handful of people, terrified by climate change, started organizing work parties on weekends to make homes more energy efficient, cutting emissions and reducing energy bills. The Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) was born. Inspired by this direct action, over 30 sister groups formed around greater Boston, targeting homes, preschools, houses of worship, and community centers.
HEET’s drive to cut emissions quickly expanded as we learned. We got a blower door, began identifying the buildings most in need using thermal imaging, and analyzed home energy data. Eager to share what we had learned, we wrote The Honest Book of Home Energy Savings.
‍
Through our work, the energy efficiency message spread. Thousands of people from diverse communities learned hands-on skills at work parties, then took what they learned home to lower their own energy bills and emissions.
2009
‍HEET is incorporated
in Massachusetts

‍
2012
‍HEET receives
501c3 designation


2013
‍Leading solar challenges
solar panels
Supported by the City of Cambridge, HEET organized the Cambridge Solar Challenge. HEET negotiated a 20% discount for solar installations, then sent a letter through the Mayor’s office to every home with good solar exposure and followed up with a canvass. While the average annual number of residential solar installations in Cambridge at that time was five, our Solar Challenge achieved more than 50. HEET ran the same program in Somerville resulting in 20 solar installations.
2014
‍Mapping gas leaks
Jamaica way gas leak

A large gas leak in Jamaica Plain, MA.

Natural gas is largely made up of methane, a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide—and faster acting. Methane’s high global warming potential means that fixing leaks from gas pipelines is a highly effective way to reduce climate impacts.

When a 2014 Massachusetts law required utilities to report gas leak locations to the Department of Public Utilities, HEET mapped every gas leak in the state, capturing the attention of state and local officials, the media, and the public. The map, which we update each year, helped to launch a grassroots movement in Massachusetts led by Mothers Out Front and the Gas Leaks Allies.
The Boston Globe Headline: Project reveals 20,000 leaks in Mass. gas lines

Front page story in The Boston Globe, 2015

‍Fix the Worst First: Research at Boston University showed a policy path forward when they found that 7% of natural gas leaks in Boston emit half of all the gas pouring into the atmosphere from an aging, leaking distribution system. Within six months, HEET worked with a coalition to help pass a state law requiring gas companies to address these leaks of “significant environmental impact.”

Still, how would the utilities comply? Knowing there was no proven method of finding high-volume leaks, HEET conducted a study with the three largest utilities in Massachusetts—Columbia Gas, Eversource, and National Grid. The Large Volume Leak study confirmed that fixing the largest leaks cuts methane emissions in half, it and established fast, reliable methods for identifying them. HEET worked with utilities and allies to design an ongoing Shared Action Plan that formalizes data exchange, repair verification, and reassessing methods of addressing large volume leaks.
2015
‍What’s in the gas?
Site of large gas leak and explosion.
HEET began investigating the health impacts of natural gas in 2015, following reports about the Porter Ranch gas leak, widely considered the worst natural gas leak in U.S. history.

Nathan Phillips, HEET board member and Boston University Professor, and Bob Ackley of Gas Safety Inc, quickly made their way out to California to survey the area with a Picarro gas detector. The pair began producing maps of methane concentrations near the leak. Their maps were picked up by the press, who listed HEET as a contact.

HEET Co-Executive Director Audrey Schulman began getting phone calls. One woman’s daughter had a nose bleed that wouldn’t stop. Another man was losing weight due to constant nausea. Each person who called wanted to know: What’s in the gas?

To answer that question, Audrey assembled a team that included the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, PSE Healthy Energy, Boston University. With funding from The Barr Foundation and the Putnam Foundation, the team conducted a study on the chemical composition of natural gas, focused on kitchen stoves.

“Until this study was published, there had been no independent academic research on the chemical composition of the gas delivered to our homes,” said Molly Fairchild, a study author and HEET’s Director of Healthy Homes.
2019
Geothermal Networks Feasibility Study
HEET commissioned international engineering firm Buro Happold to assess the feasibility of implementing geothermal networks in Massachusetts. Their report found widespread suitability for the technology across the state.
2020
‍Leading with justice

Home energy efficiency work being done at a HEET Work Party.

HEET is committed to an equitable and inclusive transition to a clean energy future and to directly addressing historic inequities and environmental injustice whenever and wherever possible.  

HEET established the EJ Air program to learn how to help residents of low-income and underserved communities in the Boston area access subsidized home energy efficiency upgrades by connecting them with Mass Save resources. With funds from a settlement from a bus-idling lawsuit brought by The Conservation Law Foundation, HEET partnered with the nonprofit All In Energy to help identify and remove barriers for households to sign up for free home energy assessments, an important first step in getting weatherization and energy efficiency work done. 

In January 2022, ScienceDirect published a study by HEET and Salem State University that examined over 26,000 gas leaks in relation to demographic groups. The study found that low-income populations and communities of color—as well as renters, limited English-speaking households and adults with lower levels of education—are disproportionately exposed to gas leaks.
2021
‍Breathe Easy at Home
HEET was a recipient of Boston’s first Community Clean Air Grant to support Boston’s clean air and carbon neutrality goals. HEET used the funds to distribute induction cooktops to Boston residents who had gas stoves and were being treated for asthma, through Boston’s Breathe Easy at Home program.
2022
‍Home is where the pipeline ends

Sample locations (black markers) by municipality (red outline) used to gather data on natural gas delivered to homes in the Greater Boston area.

Environmental Science & Technology published a pivotal study conducted by HEET, Harvard University, and PSE Healthy Energy, which found that the natural gas delivered to homes contains trace amounts of non-methane volatile organic compounds that can impact air quality and human health. Today, thanks in part to HEET’s work, the potential hazards of cooking with natural gas are receiving national attention.
Today
Transitioning from gas to geo
To transform how we heat and cool our buildings, HEET has proposed a new kind of utility.

Our solution is for gas utilities to transition to thermal utilities, delivering heating and cooling with networked ground-source heat pumps, or networked geothermal—also known as thermal energy networks and district energy systems.

Legislation and gas utility pilot projects are advancing in a number of states, while in Massachusetts, Eversource Gas is installing the first utility networked geothermal system in the country.

In 2023, HEET established a coalition of gas utilities from across the country that were interested in learning more about transitioning to networked geothermal. In just months, that group has grown to 26 utilities, representing more than half of all gas customers in the U.S.

Demand for HEET’s consulting services from state and local governments, regulators, policy makers, and the utilities is growing exponentially.

Learn more about HEET’s ground-breaking approach in our Gas to Geo section.
Be part of the story!
Tackling climate change takes all of us! Subscribe to our mailing list, speak up for geothermal utility service in your neighborhood, and donate to support our work. HEET never takes donations from industry, so unrestricted funding from individuals is critical.