Visualizing Mass Save (2023)

In the fall 2023 semester, Professor Lily Song’s Participatory Action Research (PAR) for Designers class partnered with a coalition of Boston-based environmental justice advocates (including Star Luna Consulting, Boston Climate Action Network, the Home Energy Efficient Team and All In Energy), to help visualize the Mass Save program. Mass Save is an incredible program through which all Massachusetts homeowners and renters can receive home energy efficiency upgrades; Massachusetts residents pay into a shared fund through a percentage of monthly electricity bill payments, and this fund is used for rebates for the upgrades. Though both homeowners and renters are eligible, the program is taken advantage of primarily by wealthier homeowners, and renters are often unaware of how to have conversations with their building owner to facilitate the upgrade process. Additionally, the fund is managed by state energy giants including Eversource with a lack of state or city control over the process and its outcomes. The following visuals attempt to spatialize the Mass Save process and visualize potential policy changes (including State Bill S.2082 and House Bill H.3160) that would make the program more climate change-focused, regulated and accessible to lower-income and non-white Massachusetts residents. The class collectively focused on social media content, including flyers and Instagram tiles, that can be used by our community partners to help get the word out about the Mass Save program and to build organizing capacity around policy improvements.