Salem Lands $7.28M Grant To Cut Emissions At Horace Mann School

SALEM, MA — Salem was awarded a $7.3 million Transforming Energy in Schools Initiative grant from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources and National Grid for work at the Horace Mann Laboratory School.

The funding will support a comprehensive emissions-reduction project at the school. The city said the project is intended to accelerate Salem's transition toward cleaner, more efficient public buildings.

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Last year, Salem received a $5 million Massachusetts Clean Energy Center Green School Works grant for the same project. The work is also supported through the Massachusetts School Building Authority's Accelerated Repair Program.

Those funding sources will allow the city to pursue full decarbonization of the Horace Mann Laboratory School.

"This investment brings us another step closer to a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable future for Salem," Mayor Dominick Pangallo said. "By advancing educational investments such as the decarbonization of Horace Mann and building a next-generation high school, we're not only modernizing our schools — we're dramatically reducing our carbon footprint and leading by example in the effort for a safer and more sustainable future."

The city said the Horace Mann project is tied to the planned construction of a new, energy-efficient Salem High School. Both schools are located at 77 Willson Street, where Salem aims to create a net-zero-emissions campus, according to the announcement.

Once complete, that campus is expected to deliver an approximate 30 percent reduction in the city's total emissions.