Green Public Schools

The City has achieved significant emissions reduction, provided educational opportunities to public school students, and piloted innovative technologies that protect student health. In the past decade, the City has done the following work in our public schools:

• Conducted data-driven energy efficiency retrofits, including controlled heating, cooling, and ventilation equipment upgrades at five schools
• Installed a new energy management system
• Procured one of the Commonwealth’s first electric school buses with the second bus on its way for the Fall 2021 school year, further advancing our full fleet electrification goals and providing a quiet, pollution-free school commute for our students. See here for more!
• Installed twelve Level 2 electric vehicle charging stations
• Installed renewable energy on school grounds and rooftops, including a historic solar array at Beverly High School and 2+ MW constructed in 2022. 

In 2021, the new Beverly Middle School was awarded LEED Silver certification.

Buildings account for 50 percent of Beverly’s total greenhouse gas emissions, more than any other sector. When Beverly first became a Green Community in 2011, schools accounted for 40 percent of municipal electricity usage and 67 percent of municipal gas usage. The City has since achieved a 23 percent emissions reduction (2018) across its 11 school facilities, from 8,472 to 6,531 MtCO2e.