Take Action!

Yes, climate change is a major existential problem facing humanity and most other life forms on this planet. It’s all too easy to shut down because the problem is so big and it can feel like nothing we do as individuals matters. But did you know that global pollution emissions may already have peaked? World GDP is no longer tied to emissions? And that wind and solar electricity are now cheaper than coal? For a deeper dive on reasons to be hopeful and to participate, check out this video. Or just skip ahead to the actions that YOU can take to help.

Ideas for Lexington Residents

Sign up for a green electric plan

Impact: 🌳🌳🌳🌳
Effort : 💪
Cost: 💰

Learn Lexington’s Community Choice program offers 2 100% renewable options at competitive prices and with fair terms. Impact estimate is based on a 3,000 sq ft all-electric home switching from Eversource Basic to Lexington 100% Green or New England Green. We suggest the New England Green plan, if you can afford it, as it helps to green our local grid and improves local air quality, as a result.

Electrify Your Home: Heat Pumps, Induction Stoves, Usage Monitoring & More

Impact: 🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳
Effort: 💪💪💪
Cost: 💰💰💰 or 💸

Heat pumps efficiently heat and cool your home by moving heat instead of generating it, making them 3–5x more efficient than furnaces. Modern cold-climate models work in all New England weather, even below zero. They cut energy bills, reduce emissions, and pair perfectly with home renovations for a cleaner, more comfortable home year-round! If you are replacing an end-of-life oil or gas heating system, the $ savings also begin almost immediately! (photo credit: Rewiring America)

Go Solar: Residential Rooftop and Community Options

Impact: 🌳🌳
Effort:💪💪💪💪
Cost: 💸 (after 5-9 years)

In Massachusetts, the average payback period for a residential solar panel installation ranges from approximately 5 to 9 years. This means homeowners can expect to recoup their initial investment through electricity savings within this timeframe. After reaching the payback period, the solar energy system continues to generate savings for the remainder of its lifespan, which typically extends beyond 25 years. (Image from Mass Saves)

Advocate for broader / policy change with local groups

Impact: 🌳🌳🌳🌳
Effort: 💪💪💪
Cost: 🆓

Learn mIndividual action matters—but systems shape what’s possible. Joining local groups or campaigns helps push for bigger, structural changes: climate-smart zoning, cleaner energy policies, better public transit, funding for tree planting, composting, or electrification. Whether you’re writing a letter, attending a town meeting, or supporting a local nonprofit, your voice carries more weight when it’s part of a chorus. Big change starts small, and often close to home.ore

Driving: EVs and Mileage Reduction

Impact: 🌳🌳🌳🌳
Effort: 💪💪
Cost: 💰💰💰

Switching from a gas car to an electric vehicle cuts tailpipe emissions to zero and reduces overall climate impact, especially when powered by renewable electricity. But the biggest gains come from driving less overall. Walking, biking, carpooling, and taking public transit—even occasionally—can significantly lower transportation emissions. Combine trips, plan efficient routes, and support town efforts to improve transit and bike infrastructure. Cleaner driving and less driving both help.

Green your travel: reduce the impact of flying and other tips

Impact: 🌳🌳
Effort:💪💪
Cost: 💸

Air travel can contribute significantly to our personal CO2e budgets and small changes can have a large impact. All things being equal, choose closer destinations, and if possible, travel by car and trains instead of plane. When flying, look for direct flights and minimize fuel use by flying coach (3x emissions for business class and 22x for a private jet), and pack light, as weight impacts fuel use. Cruises also hit hard on emissions. For work trips, combine meetings into fewer trips and advocate for virtual alternatives whenever possible.

Reduce your lawn! and other eco-friendly ways to landscape

Impact: 🌳🌳🌳
Effort: 💪💪
Cost: 💰

Lawns use a lot of resources—mowing, watering, fertilizing—and give little back. Replacing even part of your lawn with native plants, pollinator gardens, food gardens, or pocket forests cuts emissions, saves water, and supports wildlife. Native landscaping filters rainwater, improves soil, and builds resilience against drought and heat. It’s more beautiful too, and it grows in value over time. Start with a border, a patch, or a tree ring—you don’t have to do it all at once. more

Food: Become a “Climavore”

Impact: 🌳🌳🌳
Effort: 💪💪
Cost: 💰

Being a climavore means eating with the climate in mind. That might mean swapping beef and lamb—two of the highest-emission foods—for lower-impact choices like chicken, eggs, legumes, or even local seafood. It doesn’t require going vegan or giving up favorites entirely. It’s about shifting the center of the plate toward foods that are less resource-intensive, more local, and better matched to what our ecosystems can support. It could also mean blending plant-based proteins into grond meat, and choosing organic, local, and small-scale food producers, and opting for no- and less-packaged foods.

Make less trash: ideas to to reuse and reduce

Impact: 🌳🌳
Effort: 💪💪
Cost: 💰

Trash doesn’t just disappear—it gets burned here in Lexington, which means more carbon in the air. Cutting back on waste reduces emissions and pollution. Start with simple swaps: reusable bags, water bottles, and containers. Buy in bulk when you can, skip the individually wrapped snacks, and say no to freebies you don’t need. Composting food scraps is a big help too. Less stuff in the bin = cleaner air, lower emissions, and less need to haul and process waste.

Compost & Waste Reduction

Impact: 🌳
Effort: 💪
Cost: 🆓

Most people don’t think much about what happens after the trash truck drives off—but in Lexington, most of our waste is burned. That includes food scraps and yard waste, which release carbon into the air when incinerated. Composting is the purest form of recycling, generating finished compost that helps keeps that carbon in the ground, where it feeds soil life, holds water, and helps plants grow, while also reducing incinerator-bound trash. Whether you compost in your backyard or use a local drop-off, it makes a difference.

Ratings indicate potential impact area & magnitude, as well as relative effort and cost, to help you decide where to focus your energy right now. There are many factors affecting the actual impact – read more to help understand the levers that are available to you to affect change.

🌳 Trees represent a visualization of carbon, and are used here to give an impact indicator for C02e reduction, water savings / quality improvement and/or improved biodiversity as a result of changes you can make in each area.

💰 Cost is shown with bag(s) of money unless there is no cost (🆓) and/or the potential to save money (💸) while helping the climate.