FRAIMINGHAM, Mass. & INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 22, 2025--
Ameresco, Inc., (NYSE: AMRC), a leading energy solutions provider dedicated to helping customers navigate the energy transition, and Matchbook Learning Schools of Indiana, Inc. hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for The Match High School and Career Center on Thursday, April 3, 2025. The ceremony celebrated a key milestone in the more than $20M project.
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Following a competitive RFP process, Matchbook Learning selected Ameresco to lead all aspects of design, engineering, and construction for the project. The school’s campus includes two repurposed industrial warehouse buildings: the main school at 1401 Indiana Avenue and the career center at 1141 W 16th Street. DKGR Architects, an Indianapolis-based architecture firm, was selected by Ameresco as the project’s design partner.
To ensure the school could welcome its first class of over 50 students for the 2024 academic year, Ameresco expedited construction of the career center, completing that building in summer 2024. Construction of the main school was completed in March 2025, allowing students to transition to the new space for the remainder of the year.
“Ameresco and DKGR have helped us create something truly special: a space that reflects the promise and potential of every student we serve and one that inspires our students to learn and realize their career dreams,” said Sajan George, Founder, Matchbook Learning Schools of Indiana, Inc. “This belief was evident to everyone at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. An inspiring event and beautiful space.”
“We’ve worked to develop a space where students can really envision all of the future paths laid out in front of them,” said James Hill, Principal, Matchbook Learning. “It is incredibly gratifying to work with partners who not only helped us achieve that space but also drove that vision far past what we could have initially hoped.”
Among the energy efficiency improvements already installed over the last year are advanced building automation controls, building envelope improvements, insulated thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) roofs, interior and exterior LED lighting upgrades, heat pump hot water heaters and HVAC upgrades. These upgrades will ensure the buildings are resource efficient, leading to long-term cost savings. Additionally, the school’s new 165KW photovoltaic (PV) solar and battery energy storage system (BESS), which will provide reliable, renewable backup energy to power the school’s operations, is slated to be installed later in 2025.
“We happy to have equipped The Match High School and Career Center with resilient systems and secure energy to support student learning for years to come,” said Lou Maltezos, President of Central & Western USA, Canada Regions at Ameresco. “Our work to support K-12 education initiatives like Matchbook helps support the next generation of energy innovators.”
The Match High School and Career Center is designed to support a comprehensive, technologically enhanced curriculum aligned with Matchbook’s mission to provide every student with a clear pathway to success. The career center will offer vocational and apprenticeship programs in construction trades, welding, engineering, and entrepreneurship. By integrating hands-on learning opportunities with advanced energy systems and infrastructure, the school aims to equip students with the tools and experience they need for sustainable careers.
To learn more about the energy efficiency solutions offered by Ameresco, visit www.ameresco.com/energy-efficiency/.
About Ameresco, Inc.
Founded in 2000, Ameresco, Inc. (NYSE: AMRC) is a leading energy solutions provider dedicated to helping customers reduce costs, enhance resilience, and decarbonize to net zero in the global energy transition. Our comprehensive portfolio includes implementing smart energy efficiency solutions, upgrading aging infrastructure, and developing, constructing, and operating distributed energy resources. As a trusted full-service partner, Ameresco shows the way by reducing energy use and delivering diversified generation solutions to Federal, state and local governments, utilities, educational and healthcare institutions, housing authorities, and commercial and industrial customers. Headquartered in Framingham, MA, Ameresco has more than 1,500 employees providing local expertise in North America and Europe. For more information, visit www.ameresco.com.
The announcement of completion of a customer’s project contract is not necessarily indicative of the timing or amount of revenue from such contract, of Ameresco’s overall revenue for any particular period or of trends in Ameresco’s overall total project backlog. This project was included in Ameresco’s previously reported contracted backlog as of December 31, 2024.
Ameresco and Matchbook Learning celebrated the grand opening on Thursday, April 3, 2025, highlighting the collaborative effort to enhance the future of education and career development.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Protests in Iran raged Friday night in the Islamic Republic, online videos purported to show, despite a threat from the country's theocracy to crack down on demonstrators after shutting down the internet and cutting telephone lines off to the world.
At least 65 people have been killed in the protests that began in late December over Iran’s ailing economy and have morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in years.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump as having hands “stained with the blood of Iranians” as his supporters shouted “Death to America!” in footage aired by Iranian state television. State media later referred to the demonstrators as “terrorists,” setting the stage for a violent crackdown as in other protests in recent years, despite Trump's pledge to back peaceful protesters with force if necessary.
Protesters are “ruining their own streets ... in order to please the president of the United States,” the 86-year-old Khamenei said to a crowd at his compound in Tehran. “Because he said that he would come to their aid. He should pay attention to the state of his own country instead.”
Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei separately vowed that punishment for protesters “will be decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency.”
Late Friday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement condemning reported deadly violence against the protesters, and urged Iran to allow its citizens to express themselves without fear of reprisal.
Trump has repeatedly pledged to strike Iran if protesters are killed, a threat that has taken on greater significance after the U.S. military raid that seized Venezuela's former President Nicolás Maduro. The president suggested Friday any possible American strike wouldn't “mean boots on the ground but that means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts.”
“Iran's in big trouble,” Trump said. “It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago.”
He added: “I tell the Iranian leaders you better not start shooting because we'll start shooting too.”
Despite Iran’s theocracy cutting off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls, short online videos shared by activists purported to show protesters chanting against Iran’s government around bonfires as debris littered the streets in the capital, Tehran, and other areas into Friday morning. The demonstrations restarted Friday night, but it wasn't possible to immediately assess whether they continued at the same strength. The demonstrations happened even after security services warned families to keep their children home.
One online video showed a fire in the street near in the Saadat Abad area of northern Tehran, with what appeared to be thouands on the street.
“Death to Khamenei!” a man chanted.
The protests also represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pahlavi, who called for the protests Thursday night, similarly called for demonstrations at 8 p.m. Friday.
Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.
So far, violence around the demonstrations has killed at least 65 people while more than 2,300 others have been detained, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
“What turned the tide of the protests was former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s calls for Iranians to take to the streets at 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday,” said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Per social media posts, it became clear that Iranians had delivered and were taking the call seriously to protest in order to oust the Islamic Republic.”
“This is exactly why the internet was shut down: to prevent the world from seeing the protests. Unfortunately, it also likely provided cover for security forces to kill protesters.”
When the clock struck 8 p.m. Thursday, neighborhoods across Tehran erupted in chanting, witnesses said. The chants included “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic!” Others praised the shah, shouting: “This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!” Thousands could be seen on the streets before all communication to Iran cut out.
On Friday, Pahlavi called on Trump to help the protesters, saying Khamenei “wants to use this blackout to murder these young heroes.”
“You have proven and I know you are a man of peace and a man of your word,” he said in a statement. “Please be prepared to intervene to help the people of Iran.”
Pahlavi had said he would offer further plans depending on the response to his call. His support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past — particularly after the 12-day war Israel waged on Iran in June. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it isn’t clear whether that’s support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The internet cut also appears to have taken Iran’s state-run and semiofficial news agencies offline. The state TV acknowledgment at 8 a.m. Friday represented the first official word about the demonstrations. State TV aired footage of pro-government forces on motorcycles Friday night in Tehran.
State TV claimed the protests Thursday night were violent and caused casualties, but did not offer nationwide figures. It said the protests saw “people’s private cars, motorcycles, public places such as the metro, fire trucks and buses set on fire.” State TV later reported that violence overnight killed six people in Hamedan, some 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of Tehran, and two security force members in Qom, 125 kilometers (75 miles) south of the capital.
Protests also were reported Friday in Zahedan in Iran's restive southwestern Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Associated Press writer Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.
In this frame grab from video taken by an individual not employed by The Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows a fire as people protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from video taken by an individual not employed by The Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows people during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
This frame grab from a video released by Iran state TV shows vehicles burning amid night of mass protests in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (Iran state TV via AP)
This frame grab from a video released Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, by Iranian state television shows cars driving past burning vehicles during a night of mass protests in Tehran, Iran. (Iranian state TV via AP)
In this frame grab from video taken by an individual not employed by The Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows people blocking an intersection during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Thursday Jan. 8, 2026. (UGC via AP)
