The light came first in Boston, washing the Old North Church in green. 

Tucker Smith watched from the cobblestones with her husband, Hale, as Mayor Michelle Wu pressed a button and the historic steeple, the same belfry that once signaled “one if by land, two if by sea,” blazed iridescent green as the new color of revolution.

“The idea was that you shine a green light on climate justice,” Tucker remembered. “We looked at one another and said, ‘We should do that in Milton.’”

Five months later, they did.

On September 21st, Milton’s First Parish Church and the Town Hall hosted Sun-Day, one of more than 450 gatherings across the country urging Americans to “rise for a sun-powered planet.”

The lawn between the gazebo and the parish hummed with life. Music from a drum circle rolled across the grass, toddlers smeared yellow paint on paper halos, and neighbors traded stories about heat pumps and solar panels.

Milton’s green awakening may look spontaneous, but it has been brewing for nearly two decades. Sustainable Milton, founded in 2006, existed before the town had a climate plan or an energy manager. Through the swings of four presidencies, three recessions, and countless rounds of uncertain funding, residents kept holding meetings and workshops in borrowed rooms, patching together their own grants, and championing to keep the public will alive.

Hale and Tucker have retrofitted their 1938 home for this new century’s problems with geothermal heating, sun-tracking solar, and two EVs in the driveway. “It’s not the cheapest thing to do,” Hale said, “but it’s the right thing.”

Tucker, dubbed “the Sun Queen” by friends, composts at home as she has for 35 years, and has volunteered with Sustainable Milton since 2014. She has served on the board, including a term as president.

Milton residents Mark and Patricia Ostrem said they came out to support the town’s clean energy movement and the neighbors leading it. “We believe in renewable energy. We have an EV.” Mark said. Patricia smiled and added, “And we know the Sun Queen!” It wasn’t the speeches or displays that defined the event so much as these easy exchanges.

For the Ostrems, the day was about continuity. Patricia previously led the stringed instruments program in Milton’s schools. “It’s great to be together with community members and with high school students.”

Among the booths on the green, Rachel Gentile of Resonant Energy, which develops solar projects for nonprofits and affordable-housing providers across Massachusetts, spoke to locals behind a solar model and pamphlets. 

“Right now is critical,” she said, referencing the changing federal support. “The federal solar tax credit is scheduled to phase out. We’re trying to help as many organizations lock in incentives while they still can.”

Sun-Day’s booths felt less like salesmanship than triage. In July, Congress passed The One Big Beautiful Bill, redirecting federal dollars and rewriting the incentives that have supported America’s clean energy boom. It ends residential credits at the close of this year; commercial incentives start tapering in 2026 and conclude altogether by 2027.

Resonant Energy has completed solar installations for three houses of worship in Milton, including First Parish and Beth Shalom of the Blue Hills. “We specialize in the projects that are the hardest to finance,” Gentile explained. “Low-income homeowners, nonprofits, multi-family buildings - places that have historically been left out of clean energy.” 

At the edge of the lawn, the Reverend Lisa Ward of First Parish stood beside the 1678 church that initially seemed too sacred to modify. “It took a year of conversation,” she said. “One of the hesitations we faced—and you’ll see this in Milton—is that the church is a historic building. Some people felt we shouldn’t touch it.”

“Instead, we installed a long solar array on other parts of the property, including the Children’s Church. It felt right, because that’s what it’s all about: the future. Why are we doing this if not to be sustainable for the children?”

The panels feed energy back to the grid, some of it shared with an urban ministry in Roxbury. “It’s interdependence,” Ward said. “We’re all in this together.”

Conversations circled around home projects and neighborhood solar, but Milton’s ambitions stretch further.

At the center of it is Alex Hasha, co-chair of the Climate Action Planning Committee (CAPC) and a board member of Sustainable Milton. “One of the key recommendations in the Climate Action Plan is to build neighbor-to-neighbor electrification coaching,” he said. “Solar’s a slam dunk, but some technologies are bigger challenges. People really benefit from having trusted voices who aren’t trying to make a buck.”

If Sun-Day captured the spirit of what Milton could become, the following month turned that energy into law. At the October Special Town Meeting, members voted overwhelmingly to adopt Article 4, giving near-unanimous approval to set community-wide climate goals aligned with Massachusetts law: cut emissions in half by 2030, three-quarters by 2040, and reach net-zero by 2050.

As a result of the approval, Milton is now eligible for Climate Leader Communities funding, including millions in state grants for decarbonization, renewable energy, and municipal electrification. 

Lauren Borofsky, president of Sustainable Milton, has kept the nonprofit’s momentum through cycles of enthusiasm and the shifting political winds. “We’re now entering the phase of implementation and mobilization,” she said. “That means expanding education and outreach so the whole community can take the next step.”

And this progress now has professional help: for the first time, Milton has a municipal energy manager. Kai Müller was hired in September and shares his responsibility with Randolph. At the Climate Action Planning Committee on September 11th, he said his goal will be to “help both towns reduce energy use and electrify wherever possible - and to do it at the lowest cost through grants and smart planning.”

Karen Groce-Horan, founder of Courageous Conversations Toward Racial Justice – a community group that brings Milton and Mattapan residents together for honest dialogue about race, equity, and privilege – also works as a community engagement strategist at the Neponset River Watershed Association. She came to see how Milton’s clean energy work might also become equity work. “I work with communities that have been most deeply impacted by climate change, yet [are] not at the table when decisions are made,” she explained. If you’re a parent of young children of color, your day is already full with education, work, and putting food on the table. It’s not easy to add climate change to that list. We meet people where they are and help them see they can have a say.”

Then she paused and leaned in, “We can’t talk about justice if we don’t have a planet to live on.”

As the afternoon waned, Reverend Ward’s words from earlier in the day came back to mind.

“The question,” she said, “is whether we can find a sustainable way for humans to live here. The Earth will still be here, no matter what. It’s up to us to pay attention—to listen to what the Earth is telling us. Sun energy, wind energy–these are all gifts. There’s a natural harmony in them, but we have to look beyond human need and want.” Her words hung in the late-day light, reinforcing what the whole event seemed to suggest.

Milton’s plan will take years, maybe decades, to fulfill. Federal money will surge and recede. But for one bright Sunday in early autumn, the town was sure that the revolution still lives here in Massachusetts, not in muskets or lanterns, but neighbors facing the same direction, toward the sun.