Episode 62: Fangxue Zheng (Energy Advocate for City of Watertown)
Meet Fangxue Zheng! She's the Energy Advocate for the City of Watertown. In this conversation we talk about her backpacking across China for research, her transition to sustainability work in the US, and then we get into some of the programs and outreach work she's done in Massachusetts to help people learn about energy efficiency programs and resources, and we talk about the events and programs that have started recently in Watertown and ones to look forward to in the future.
Released September, 5th, 2025
(Click here to listen on streaming apps) (Full transcript below)
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Thanks to podcast promotional partner the Watertown Business Coalition, a nonprofit organization focused on connecting local businesses and strengthening our community. Check them out at watertownbusinesscoalition.com.
Thanks to promotional partner Watertown News, a Watertown-focused online newspaper. Check them out at watertownmanews.com.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Transcript
Matt: 0:07
Hi there, welcome to the Little Local Conversations podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. Every episode, I sit down for a conversation with someone in Watertown to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This time I sat down with Fangxue Zheng, who is the energy advocate for the city of Watertown. So I'll let her introduce herself and then we'll get into the conversation.
Fangxue: 0:27
My name is Fangxue. I'm the energy advocate with City of Watertown. My role is under the resilience team of the City of Watertown's community development and planning department. And the whole office drives a wide range of programs to reduce carbon emission, to build climate resilience, and to engage people in different kinds of sustainability practices. And my work focuses relatively heavier on the energy efficiency programs and on education and outreach programs in community energy efficiency.
Matt: 1:02
Nice, great. We'll dig into all that, but I always like to go back in time first. You know, your story of how you got to Watertown, but also how you got into your field. So did you grow up in the area? Where are you originally from?
Fangxue: 1:15
I originally from China, Northeast China, and I was studying economics as an undergraduate student and I moved to US for graduate study. I decided to shift from economics to political science, which was not a quite wise choice, according to my family's understanding, because they want me to study economics, finance, and to find a good job. But I felt that throughout my study in economics, I think a lot of economics problems, the deep root is society and politics. So I decided to dig deeper on that perspective. So I studied political science and my focus for my graduate research was political economy in developing countries. So I spent quite a long time conducting fieldwork for my graduate research in China. That was an interesting story because I spent almost a year, I traveled across different cities in China. I was investigating the local industry development and, as an impact of the local government policies and behaviors, things like that. So I just took a backpack with me and put a computer in my backpack and walked through over 10 cities in China.
Matt: 2:36
And were these cities what you're familiar with, or they were new to you too?
Fangxue: 2:39
Many of them were new to me, like the first time I was there, but most of them are heavy industry cities in China because I was looking at how it transforms from heavy industry to other industries and what's the local policy of that and why some enterprises decide to upgrade but not the others.
Fangxue: 2:58
And also what forms the decision making as a result of the structure of the local community. Is it collective decision-making in the town or is it like one enterprise owner makes the decision. It has different impact on the upgrade decision. So I think that experience helps me know more about how not only political economy, but also something relevant to my current work is that you can see how enterprise makes decisions based on its social impacts as well as it considers the economic costs. So even like nowadays when I'm talking with different stakeholders about energy upgrades, you can see that perspective coming in. They're balancing between investments of energy upgrades and social impact. So it kind of planted a seed in my mind through that time. And because I spent a lot of time in the community, so I observed community development a lot.
Matt: 4:00
Yeah, and so what were some of the insights you gathered from being in those places? What did you learn from that in terms of, even just as a researcher, going into communities like what was your thought going in about how this would go, and then the reality of it once your feet were on the ground there, right?
Fangxue: 4:17
Yeah, I think your question is very good, but I think those experiences not only intellectually built me or prepared me ready for my future work, but the experience when I was working among different communities in China, it's that experience that I deal with people, I talk with local officials, and I talk with local enterprise owners, senior engineers, about development, about upgrade, industry upgrade.
Fangxue: 4:47
That helped me know more about how to deal with people and problem solving. Like I have this project goal and how I should solve it through this kind of snowballing and talking with people. How can I get to know the relevant people to interview? I have to work around introduction through my friends, through my professor, and through other people. If I have that question that I need to answer, I have to think about ways to make it work. So that experience is really, I have to rely on my own and I have to trust the community members I met in the field of work. So I learned to solve problems on my own and I learned how to talk with people, how to gain trust from people. That kind of built for my current work as a community outreacher.
Matt: 5:37
Yeah, and that's good to note that you're not just someone who's just been looking at numbers your entire life dealing with these issues, like you're actually talking with people too, and it's good to have both sides of that, right.
Fangxue: 5:46
Yes, it gave me some very good lessons. It taught me there is not only one type of thinking. In the outside, in the real world, there are communities, there are villages, there are cities, towns, that people have very different perceptions, a very different culture and norms. That you have to think about is to fit in and gain trust from people. So that's a very good experience for me.
Matt: 6:11
Right, yeah. So then, when you came back from your backpacking trip, what happened from there?
Fangxue: 6:16
So that was a section end for my experience as an individual researcher and in my fellowship with that program. I got an opportunity to intern at New York State Department of Environmental Conservation because at that time my husband was working in New York and so I interned with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Climate Change Office. That kind of introduced me to the whole sustainability field. At that time New York State was trying to integrate the climate change theme into the other agencies. So the Climate Change Office had a lot of work to do to talk with different stakeholders across different agencies in the whole New York State department. So I got the chance to shadow my supervisor in these different interviews. I got to know more about how the missions of different agencies and how the climate change mission can be integrated in their job. So it was a very good learning experience for me and also I got the chance to participate in the work. The office was overviewing applications from local community for the Climate Smart grant. I got to review a lot of community projects focusing on sustainability. Sometimes it's a pedestrian construction project, sometimes it's outreach work like letting more people know what climate change is. So all these types of project, project applications introduced me to this whole work of municipality sustainability projects. So those were very good learning experiences for me. I guess it kind of paved the way for my current work.
Fangxue: 7:57
And after that my family relocated to the Boston area, because my husband changed his job. and I worked for a nonprofit in Quincy. It's called Quincy Asian Resources. It's a nonprofit serving local immigrants group and I was the program lead for the community energy efficiency program. And I built a team which grew into four team members. We initiated programs like clean transportation education and outreach, helping people know more about EV as a transportation solution. We advertise the Mass Save program letting more people know how they can take advantage of the state rebate program for house insulation and things like that. We also have workforce program in that. So we helped a lot of immigrants population in Quincy to get to know more about energy efficiency programs. I was working for that nonprofit organization for two years before I got my job in Watertown.
Matt: 8:54
Cool. So it's interesting, you've kind of hit a lot of different places like the industry, the municipal, civic side of things, and then kind of the community side of things. So it seems like you've been working on this issue from lots of different viewpoints. And so take us to Watertown then, when did you start in Watertown?
Fangxue: 9:10
My position is energy advocate for the city of Watertown and I joined the team late last year.
Matt: 9:16
Yeah. And what do you do here in Watertown?
Fangxue: 9:19
As I've mentioned, I work mostly on the outreach and education of the energy efficiency programs, helping people know how they can make their house more energy efficient, helping them know more about what the Mass Save program provides to help them conduct all these renovations.
Matt: 9:36
Yeah, and how does outreach happen? So are you holding events at the library or different places, or are you going directly to people? How do you actually do the outreach?
Fangxue: 9:45
We do both of these. So we organize workshops, webinars in the library, in the city hall, and in some other places in the city. We hold tabling events to have in-person, face-to-face communication. And we engage the community through other types of initiatives. For example, we recruited 10 heat pump ambassadors to help residents know what their neighbors are doing with installation of heat pumps, what are their motivations installing heat pumps and how they benefited from these type of upgrades. So we tried to collaborate a lot with the community members, leverage help from different individuals and organizations, including the Watertown Community Foundation, the library, Wayside, Boys and Girls Club. So we spread words with the help of these local organizations and we interact with people both in person and online and through workshops, a lot of different activities.
Fangxue: 10:44
And earlier this year our team organized the very first Watertown Eco Festival. So that was an event, we invited over 20 vendors in sustainability-relevant fields, including the city department, committees, and vendors from solar, heat pumps, and EV charging station installation, and local dealers brought their EVs as a mini showcase. We also organized two workshops at the event. One introduced the sustainability history in Watertown and another one talks about heat pump. That was a fun event. We had about 200 people join us. We hope to make it an annual event from now on. And other events like the Sustainable Street Tour. That was also the very first Sustainable Street Tour in Watertown. We recruited seven house owners who installed different types of green features in their homes, heat pumps, solar, and some houses, like the one on the Palfrey Street. The house owner, he rebuilt his home from foundation and he built this net zero house which is a passive house. These features are very interesting for people to tour and talk with the homeowner. So that was a nice event we also hope to make happen every year.
Matt: 12:00
Nice. So it sounds like you've gotten a lot of things rolling here, which is nice. I mean one thing to dig into a little bit, heat pump might not be something that everyone is familiar with. What is a heat pump and what does it do for people?
Fangxue: 12:13
Oh. So heat pumps is a new technology, is a new type of heating and cooling system that is very energy efficient. That helps people as an alternative for both of their heating and cooling system. It basically uses low level of energy, it transfers heat from outside into our house in winter and it moves the heat from your house inside to outside in summer. It's quiet, it's energy efficient. It provides comfortable type of heating and cooling for a house. With the current state rebate, which provides $10,000 for the installation of heat pumps, a lot of family feels it's more affordable to install heat pumps in their homes. So we really hope people could understand the advantage of this system and start thinking about choosing this as an alternative for their current heating cooling system.
Matt: 13:05
Yeah, what are some of the other things that, when you've had your outreach, that the Watertown community has maybe not been in the know about with some of these solutions? Are there particular ones other than heat pumps that have come up a bit as ones like oh I didn't know about that or, you know, so that we can share on this podcast to maybe help get that information out a little bit about what are these things?
Fangxue: 13:26
Yeah, so besides heat pump, local residents can take advantage of the Mass Save rebate program for house insulation and appliance upgrade and heating cooling system upgrade. Let's say, if they feel their house is poorly insulated and heat get lost quickly in their house, they can make an appointment for Mass Save to send an auditor to their home and conduct an energy assessment and take advantage of the up to 70% or even 100% rebate for an installation in their house. And not only homeowners, renters can also participate in the program. The same auditor will come to their house and some free products will be provided, including high efficiency faucet heads and power strips. So renters can talk with the Mass Save program to get a report understanding what's working and what's not working in their home and with the report they can convince their landlord that Mass Save program is there, they can help us with free home insulation. So they can take advantage of Mass Save program as well.
Matt: 14:34
Yeah, I think there's a pretty close to a split between renters and homeowners in Watertown. So it's good to know that renters can take part in these programs.
Fangxue: 14:41
Yes, and also small business. There are special energy efficiency rebate programs for small business as well. And there will be an upcoming Main Street promotion program provided by the utility company that's coming later in the fall, which provides extra incentives for small business to upgrade their lighting system, ventilation, refrigeration system. So stay tuned for that to come.
Matt: 15:05
Yeah, so when you're going out into the community, what is kind of the feedback that you're getting from people in terms of when you're bringing up these issues? Yeah, what's the general takes you're getting from the community?
Fangxue: 15:15
I think after I joined the Watertown team, it's a little surprising for me that this community in Watertown is actually a very vibrant community. They're talking about climate change, environmental protection, greenhouse gas emission programs, so a lot of people care about this, which is very good. I received a lot of help in my outreach efforts. People are helping me spread the words about an event and helping me inviting their neighbors to my event, which is very encouraging for me. It's also more challenging for me to conduct my work in a way that I have to equip myself better. Like they will have more sophisticated questions for me.
Fangxue: 15:57
So sometimes I have to talk with even offices like DPU to understand very specific questions. Because in Watertown questions are very specific. So people will ask you, I live in condo, I'm trying to install solar on my roof and I was told by my vendor that I don't qualify for the metering program. So I have to search for a solution from the DPU department, how that works, how the metering program works, and what are the most recent update in the regulation and how that applies to the situation in this Watertown community. So a lot of learning and a lot of information seeking.
Matt: 16:36
Gotcha. Quick thing. What's DPU?
Fangxue: 16:36
Department of Public Utility.
Matt: 16:38
Gotcha. Make sure people know that. So how do you keep up with the information then? Are there resources that you go to, or are you just talking to different departments? Or how do you keep up with everything, because there's lots of new programs and policies that pop up all the time. So how do you keep up with it all?
Fangxue: 16:54
Yeah, that's a very good question. So because Watertown participated in the Mass Save Community First Partnership Program, CFP community. So just as background information, the Mass Save CFP program included 52 communities in Massachusetts. This program helped local communities with firsthand information from Mass Save and it empowers these 52 communities with outreach resources and information to talk with local residents about Mass Save program. So we are one of the CFP communities and we get training from the Mass Save program on what's updated in Mass Save program. And we also get connected with the sponsors, the utility companies, National Grid and Eversource team. They are the sponsor of the Mass Save program and whenever we have questions we can directly talk with them. And definitely we have to rely on ourselves sometimes. If we have questions sometimes we have to email different departments in the state, including the DPU, Department of Public Utilities, for answers or the green communities, which is another program in the state that can help answer questions for us.
Matt: 18:06
Gotcha. So I guess something that we haven't really gotten into quite deeply yet is so why, specifically, do you care about this issue? Why do you care about climate change, energy efficiency, and helping communities with it? Like why is it important to you?
Fangxue: 18:19
Yeah, that's a very good question, Matt. Thank you. I think originally I entered this field because I was doing a sustainability job. I interned with an environmental conservation office. I got the job as a community energy efficiency program lead, so I entered this field as a natural. However, the more I get into my daily job, as I understand more about the community, I realized more meaning for this job. So I've learned the meaning of the job through doing it.
Fangxue: 18:54
So originally I was promoting these programs for people and the more I interacted with them, the more I realized that people really need these programs. They need to know how to make their home more energy efficient and more safe, how to protect their family members from a sudden breakdown of boiler and furnace without financial aid for them there to provide heating in winter, and people need to know how they can have a clean transportation alternative. They need to learn more about EV and they also need to get access to more work opportunities through some energy efficiency workforce program. So those are the things I realized that people need this information. However, there is an information gap.
Fangxue: 19:42
The energy efficiency programs can be very complicated. It has so many regulations, terms, and the filing for the rebate can be very complicated and they need someone there, as a liaison to help them understand more. And also they need some programs to help form this kind of norms. Let's say, sometimes we have to organize some kind of block party or a street tour to let them realize that, okay, this whole community, this whole neighborhood is doing this. So this building of this community norms is very important for people to better receive this information. So it has become very inspirational for me to realize how innovative I can be and how important it requires me to be passionate, to be proactive in this community conversation of energy efficiency.
Matt: 20:40
Yeah, nice, cool. Well, was there anything else on the topic of your role in the work that you're doing in Watertown that we didn't hit on, that you wanted to make sure we talked about here?
Fangxue: 20:49
Maybe some future programs or events.
Matt: 20:52
Sure, go right ahead.
Fangxue: 20:54
In later summer we will be organizing some focus groups among renters, condo owners, and landlords to better understand their participation barriers in the Mass Save program. And what are the heating, cooling conditions of their home. What are some of the difficulties for them to reach energy efficiency or to make their home more comfortable? We hope to recruit some volunteers to participate in these focus groups. So please stay tuned on our website. If you're interested, join us to help us understand better about your needs.
Matt: 21:29
Yeah, and then is there anything else you want to talk about with Watertown?
Fangxue: 21:33
I really want to thank all the individuals and organizations that I encountered in Watertown, because I'm a newcomer to Watertown community. And at the very beginning, when I started my job as energy advocate, I need to learn a lot about Watertown community and I received tons of help.
Fangxue: 21:51
I met Tia from Watertown Community Foundation. She introduced me to a lot of other organizations who are working with local residents in the city, which helped me tremendously to get in touch with different people and to better understand the community. And our Environment and Energy Committee members are super helpful. Whenever I have an event, they are very passionate in introducing me to organizations like Watertown Faces Climate Change, and even invite their neighbors to come to the events and provide a lot of valuable suggestions, comments for me to improve my programs. I received a lot of help from my colleagues. And also these people I met in the farmer's market, in the library, and when I'm tabling at the senior center. They are all willing to help introduce more about Watertown to me, which was very touching for me and it was great learning experience. It was a great experience dwelling more in this community, which helped me have this strong faith that I can definitely also contribute more to the community in the future.
Matt: 22:57
Great. I'm glad you've had a good experience in Watertown. It's good to hear that new people feel welcome. Cool. So anything else you want to say before we wrap things up here?
Fangxue: 23:08
I guess that's it.
Matt: 23:11
Is there something that might be fun to know about you outside of your role that people might not know about, fun or unique? You know, people like to hear those things sometimes.
Fangxue: 23:18
I would say I used to love sports very much when I was very young. When I was a little kid, my dad brought me to swim in a big lake in my hometown and I went skating on a frozen river in front of my home because it gets extremely cold in northeast China in my hometown. So I got to stay with the nature a lot, swimming and skating. However, after I moved to the US, I started studying, working, life became busier and I raised my childhood. So I had less opportunities to go swimming and skating outside. But still I go bicycling each weekend and other sports for fun, like the Boston Dragon Boat Festival. I was in the team as well.
Matt: 24:03
Nice. So you still get your outdoor activities in, just in a different mode of transportation. Well, hopefully you'll get some of those other activities in at some point too. And I know there's a skating rink in town that maybe you can get on at some point.
Fangxue: 24:17
Yeah, definitely with my kid. She loves sports as well. She's a very good rock climber.
Matt: 24:22
Do you go to the gym at Arsenal Yards at all?
Fangxue: 24:25
She's too young for that. They require six years old, but she is going to the rock spot climbing in Brookline. They start program since five.
Matt: 24:34
Nice, get her in early.
Fangxue: 24:35
Yeah, she's a very active kid.
Matt: 24:37
Excellent. Well, thank you for sharing all your thoughts and stories here. And again, if there's any specific websites that you want to lead people to, I'll put that in the show notes afterwards. But yeah, thank you again and thanks for taking the time.
Fangxue: 24:50
Thank you, Matt.
Matt: 24:52
So that’s it for my conversation with Fangxue. I’ll put some links in the show notes for resources to check out. If you want to listen to more episodes of the podcast, you can head on over to littlelocalconversations.com. I have all the episodes and you can also check out events coming up.
Matt: 25:06
It's a busy September here. Just had the first Creative Chats of the year on Friday, September 5th. I'll be at the fair in the square on Saturday, September 13th. I'll be collecting stories from people who are at the fair, so you can come by the booth and share some of your thoughts and stories to be released in a podcast episode later. And we also have the first Watertown's Open podcast event coming up on Friday, September 19th. It's a collaboration between Little Local Conversations, the Watertown Business Coalition, and the City of Watertown's Senior Planner for Economic Development, Erin Rathe, and we'll be having a panel over at the Get Lively Health and Fitness Studio here in Watertown about how small businesses are collaborating with each other within Watertown. So if you're entrepreneurial in spirit and want to come to be with similar-minded folks and to hear these stories and ideas, tricks, tips, advice, all those things. Come on by. It's going to be Friday, September 19th, 12 to 2 pm. There'll be a link in the show notes and on my website. You can also sign up for the weekly newsletter I send out to keep up to date with all these events and everything else Little Local related. So again, head on over to littlelocalconversations.com for all of that.
Matt: 26:12
I'd like to give a few shout outs here to wrap things up. First one goes to podcast sponsor, Arsenal Financial, which is a financial planning business that’s owned by Doug Orifice, who's a very committed community member here in Watertown. And his business, Arsenal Financial, helps small businesses, busy families, and people close to retirement. So if you need help with any of those, you can reach out to Doug and his team at arsenalfinancial.com. I also want to give a thank you to the Watertown Cultural Council. They’ve given a grant this year to help support the podcast, so I want to give them the appropriate credit, which is, this program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. You can find out more about them at watertownculturalcouncil.org and massculturalcouncil.org.
Matt: 26:51
And a couple more shout outs to promotional partners. First one goes to the Watertown Business Coalition. They're a nonprofit organization here in Watertown that's bringing businesses and people together to help strengthen the community. You can find out more about them at watertownbusinesscoalition.com. And lastly, promotional partner, Watertown News, which is run by Charlie Breitrose. It's a great way to stay up to date with everything going on in the city. It's an online local newspaper. You can check that out at watertownmanews.com. So that's it. Until next time, take care.
