Happy New Year Danvers! As we usher in 2025, we celebrate a time of making resolutions and setting goals for the coming months. If committing to big climate actions like getting an electric vehicle or electrifying your home feels like a daunting challenge, why not start smaller? Try making one of the following four resolutions and take on achievable actions to set you up for a sustainable new year!
We asked Town staff to let us know how Danvers is committing to these actions at the municipal level as well – take a look at the quotes at the bottom of each section!
Waste Less
When resolving to take climate action, wasting less is a good place to start for both residents and businesses. Oftentimes, simple changes to how we consume and discard materials can make a big impact on the amount of waste we produce. When we produce less waste, we send less material to landfill. When we send less waste to landfill, we reduce methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Here are some simple actions you can take to waste less in 2025:
- Compost your food waste. Danvers offers abundant resources like compost containers and guides to help set up residents to compost. Check them out here.
- Learn to recycle right. Many people do not realize that they are recycling wrong and contaminating their bins! Use these online resources to learn the right way today.
- Recycle your textiles. In partnership with Simple Recycling, Danvers offers scheduled textile recycling pickups. Set up a no-cost pickup today.
- Waste less water. Conserve better using Town water conservation rebates.
Start a Climate Conversation
While most people hear about climate change on the news or social media fairly often, very few of us actually take the next step of bringing those conversations into our lives. A very easy way to take climate action in 2025 is starting there: just talking about climate change! Use these resources to get started:
- Utilize a climate conversation guide. Use this guide to learn how to identify common interests and connect them to climate change.
- Share the dashboard. After starting your conversation, direct your conversation partner to this dashboard! The Resilient Danvers Dashboard is the best place to keep up with our community’s efforts to address climate change.
Save Energy
Saving energy is a triple threat of a sustainability resolution. It saves you money on your home or business utility bills, improves indoor comfort, and reduces your greenhouse gas emissions. Try these simple actions to save energy within the first few weeks of 2025:
- Get a free home energy audit. Get a customized roadmap for making your home as energy efficient as possible with free expert assistance.
- Use free tips for low-cost weatherization and energy efficiency. Utilize this online tip sheet for to reduce your wasted heat or AC and save energy.
- Upgrade your thermostat. Take advantage of Danvers Electric’s rebate for a new smart thermostat that you can program to keep your home at energy efficient temperatures.
Travel Cleaner
Transportation accounts for a significant portion of our community’s greenhouse gas emissions. While it can feel daunting to switch up your daily transportation – especially if you rely on a personal vehicle – try slowly incorporating some of the following simple options (maybe just on weekends to start!) to see if you can make your commuting or personal travel cleaner:
- Utilize the commuter rail. Danvers is an MBTA Adjacent Community, meaning our town has access to stations in neighboring towns and cities. Find your closest train stop here.
- Ride the bus. Check out the Northshore TMA bus and shuttle routes.
We hope you commit to sustainability in 2025, and there’s no shame in starting small! As always, make sure to check back on the Resilient Danvers Dashboard for our monthly blog posts.