Called Mass Energy Insight (MEI), the web-based tool was developed by Boston consulting company Peregrine Energy Group . MEI gives towns and cities information about their energy consumption in schools and other municipal buildings. The towns and cities are then asked to fill in the gaps in the data.

Once MEI gathers enough information about municipalities and schools across the state Peregrine Energy will benchmark their consumption of electricity, natural gas, and heating oil in public facilities. This will help state officials to cut energy use and costs.

Paul Gromer, president of Peregrine Energy Group, said: "We developed this product because clients needed a tool to bring all of the data together in one place, where they can see what is important."

Gromer said the MEI tool is like a dashboard, showing all of the information in one place in a highly graphical format. "The town or city can see their energy consumption for each department, for each building in town. They can see how each building in tow compares with the others."

The intention is to show users how to save energy and reduce their carbon footprint, he said.

Molly Ettenborough, Newburyport's recycling coordinator, said that the city will be using this tool and is preparing to receive training within the next few weeks.

The DOER is currently running training courses for town managers or employees. Once they are trained, they can be up and running on MEI very quickly, said Gromer.