opens IMAGE file Juliette Haas
A deep commitment to protecting her local environment and community has earned Juliette Haas of Egremont the Center for EcoTechnology’s inaugural Alan Silverstein and Laura Dubester Award for Community Environmental Leadership.
Juliette, who serves as Director of the Egremont Board of Health and Egremont Sustainability Coordinator, received the award at a meeting of the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce at the Pittsfield Country Club on March 11, 2015.
Juliette has led a number of energy efficiency, renewable energy and waste reduction initiatives in Egremont. She secured grant funding to improve the town’s Highway Department, including installing a new energy efficient heating system and a solar array. Since going solar, the array has generated over 50,000 kWh of clean, renewable energy. In 2009, while chairing the Egremont Green Committee, she launched “Egremont Recycles”, a once-a-year Earth Day event where volunteers pick up roadside trash and then recycle it. She also helped the town establish a part-time Sustainability Coordinator position, whose job responsibilities would be to investigate further energy efficiency, renewable energy and recycling/waste reduction programs. She recently served as Solar Coach for the state sponsored “Solarize Mass” project, helping forty Egremont households install solar arrays.
Juliette served as administrator to the Egremont Wastewater Management Committee from 2002-2005, where she was instrumental in presenting a $4 million sewer project to the town, which secured close to $1 million in federal grant funding. She served for five years on the Alford/Egremont Cultural Council and was chairman for three.
