Turn on the green light

Jennifer Boudrie opened her front door and greeted a visitor with a handshake and a light bulb.

Not a typical bulb, but a spiral-shaped fluorescent light that uses 15 watts to provide the equivalent of 60 watts of illumination.

Since watching Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," the Marlborough resident has been on an energy crusade.

"At the end of the movie it said you can do these things to reduce your carbon footprint, so I came home and followed some of the steps," she said.

And she's encouraging others to take action too. Last fall, she helped found the Hudson chapter of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network. Now she has set one up in Marlborough as well. And on a grander scale, she's taken it upon herself to find ways for the city to cut its energy consumption.

Saving energy starts at home and hers has a respectful chill in the air. During the winter it's kept at 58 degrees at night and 62 during the day. With a warm smile, she tugged up her thick woolen socks and pulled out her Kill-a-Watt meter, which measures a device's power consumption, for a tour of her home.

Last year, when she discovered how voracious her hair dryer was, she decided to quit using it. Then she unplugged what she calls her "vampire appliances" -- television, cordless phone, computer printer, VCR, DVD player -- that consume low amounts of electricity continually, even when turned off. She and her husband, Rick, have also changed their light bulbs from incandescent to compact fluorescent.

"Through all this I was able to bring my electricity consumption down between 15 and 20 percent," said Boudrie . "The more ways I found to save energy, the more excited I became about it."

Now, she has persuaded Marlborough officials to let her study the city's utility bills and energy consumption. Her goal is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent as of 2010 and 20 percent by 2020.

She says the city could consider converting its vehicles to biodiesel fuel, installing energy-efficient windows and automatic thermostats, and changing to low-wattage fluorescent bulbs.

Boudrie has a master's degree in instructional design, which means just that: She designs instructions.

For more than a decade, she drew up language programs for businesses.

"If you wanted to learn how to speak a foreign language, I could design a training program for that," said Boudrie; if a group of people wants to learn how to reduce their energy consumption, she can do that as well.

Boudrie said the city has agreed to pay her a small fee, but she doesn't have a contract. "It was a gentleman's agreement," she said.

Boudrie is concerned not only about the amount of electricity that is used, but also how it is generated.

"We don't want our electricity provided by coal-, oil- and gas-powered plants," said Boudrie. "We want clean rather than dirty suppliers."

It's a concern shared by Denise Frizzell , who is also a founding member of the Hudson Climate Action Network.

Frizzell, who lives in Hudson, helped forge a collaboration between the Mass . Energy Consumers Alliance and the Hudson Light & Power Department that has the municipal utility encouraging customers to make tax-deductible contributions to the New England Wind Fund.

Frizzell, 41, also helped organize the Interfaith Walk for Climate Rescue, a nine-day fund-raising trek across the state. Twenty-five people covered the 100-mile route over nine days.

"When we got to Cambridge, close to 900 joined the walk on the last day," Frizzell said . "There were people of all faiths at the Old South Church, and a rally of 1,400 people."

Frizzell is encouraging her church, First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Northborough, to obtain "Green Sanctuary" status. Promoted nationwide by the Unitarian Universalist Association, the program merges spirituality with environmental causes.

Frizzell served in the Air Force for four years before going to college in California, where she majored in business administration. It was there that she was inspired by an environmental studies class. About the same time she read "Diet for a New America" by John Robbins and became a vegetarian, with her regimen including dairy and eggs.

"The lower on the food chain that a person eats, the less demand there is on the planet," said Frizzell. Beef, she says, puts a high demand on natural resources.

Until recently, she managed her partner's medical practice. Now she's studying for a master of divinity degree at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre. Perhaps she'll become a green pastor.

To find Massachusetts Climate Action Net work chapters, go to MassClimateAction.org. Susan Chaityn Lebovits can be reached at Lebovits@globe.com.