HADLEY, Mass. - The goal for Hadley in joining the "Green Community" initiative is to help reduce energy usage in school and town buildings.

Volunteer Jack Czajkowski said the process started years ago and included cleanups and identifying how much energy some of the town buildings use.

"We're already working with everybody in the town to figure out what's the best way to spend it," Czajkowski said. "And we do have a few ideas with air conditioning for the town hall, weatherization for some of the schools." 

Gov. Maura Healey recognized Hadley, as well as East Longmeadow and Southwick, for becoming official members of the "Green Community." The state awarded a total grant of $445,000 split up between the three towns. 

"With some of those old buildings, there's lots of opportunities for improvement, for heating, for weatherization, for heating, for cooling for all of that," Czajkowski said. "So now we're taking some of our the money from our from designation fee and we're gonna be applying that to reducing our utility bills."

The state’s commissioner of the Department of Energy Resources Elizabeth Mahony said it's important for communities to invest in going green and being resilient in light of the recent flooding that damaged area farms.

"We saw the devastation that the flooding brought this summer to so many western Mass. communities," Mahony said. "So many farm lands, certainly, unfortunately even some town halls, so we know that climate change is here. Every step we take to address climate change is a step towards the solution."