Helen Aki is the Clean Energy Program Coordinator at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) in Boston, MA, where she has worked to build a clean energy practice since 2010. She is responsible for the development and implementation of the agency’s clean energy services, which range from joint public procurement projects to region-wide events and peer-learning opportunities. In addition, she provides direct technical assistance to MAPC’s 101 member cities and towns in the greater Boston area, in areas such as local energy planning, LED streetlight retrofits, and renewable energy and efficiency projects in municipal facilities.

Helen holds a B.Sc. in Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, with a minor in the Energy and Resources Group. Her honors thesis compared the implications of the discourse of market ecology with the proposition of ecological economics. While at Berkeley, she worked for the University facilitating classes and managing hands-on projects that addressed campus building energy use and sustainability. Her specialty in energy is derived from a broad base of experiences, including a fellowship at the Breakthrough Institute in 2008, as well as involvement with team research projects through the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative (BERC), an interdisciplinary student group that utilizes resources from the Bay Area cleantech world as well as the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in order to foster innovative energy solutions.

Helen is certified as a LEED AP in Operations and Maintenance.