Hydro-AgriVoltaics (HAV) Team
Sustainable, Year-Round Farming Through Innovation
Bob Morton, HAV Project Manager
Chief Operating Officer, Massachusetts Human Resource Fund
Bob has extensive solar industry experience including photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation and passive solar
techniques. He is also knowledgeable in software, data acquisition systems, environmental consulting and non-
profit fundraising. He has led grass roots projects for youth sports organizations including instructional leagues
and building fields and facilities through cooperative community action.
He holds a BS in Biology from Yale University and an MBA from Northeastern University.
He is responsible for overall project management for the HAV project with particular focus on PV, passive solar
and building science climate control. He will also lead the fundraising efforts for this project.
Dave Dumaresq, Chief Agricultural Advisor to HAV
Founder and Chief Agricultural Officer – Famer Dave’s, Dracut, MA
Farmer Dave’s began with 15 leased acres in Dracut in 1997 and has since expanded to 95 acres of farmland
across Dracut, Tewksbury and Westford. The Dracut “home farm” is protected by an Agricultural Preservation
Restriction (APR) while featuring a year-round farmstand, kitchen and bakery and pick-your-own (PYO)
strawberries, blueberries, and apples. Farmer Dave’s operates farmstands in Tewksbury and Westford, and
manages 10 farmers markets, a 1,000-family Cooperative Share Agricultural (CSA) program and wholesale
accounts.
Farmer Dave’s employs approximately 100 team members in growing a diverse selection of vegetables including
tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, carrots, beets, radishes, potatoes, onions, garlic, scallions, and leafy greens, as well
as fruits like apples, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and melons.
Greenhouse operations have been a core pillar of year-round, sustainable farming expanding from 800 square
feet in 1997 to over 2 acres of greenhouse space featuring advanced systems for climate and irrigation
automation, root-zone heating, needle seeding, germination, graft healing chambers and indoor grow shipping
containers. These investments allow the farm to extend the growing seasons, reduce disease and pest pressure,
and support the local food system through all four seasons.
Dave has implemented sustainable technologies: multiple solar arrays, geothermal heat pump systems, water
reclamation cisterns, electric delivery vans, and EV charging stations powered by on-site solar.
Dave has volunteered in the Republic of Georgia and consulted with Deloitte’s Economic Prosperity Initiative to
establish a winter greenhouse vegetable industry to reduce the country’s reliance on imports. Implementing
geothermal heating via specially engineered systems using free-flowing hot water as a renewable heat source,
enabled cost-effective greenhouse production suitable for organic growing.
Many of Dave’s former interns and trainees operate the largest modern greenhouses in the Georgian Republic.
That program’s success has led to producers exporting winter-grown vegetables to Russia.
In 2018, Dave co-founded the Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture (psagric.com), an agricultural development
consulting firm. From 2021 to 2024, he worked on a USAID Feed the Future project in Tajikistan, making multiple
trips and working remotely to design programs that supported greenhouse and field farmers in the Khatlon
region.
Dave is an active member of several Massachusetts agricultural organizations and, in 2024, was appointed to the
Massachusetts Food Policy Council where he collaborates with legislators, agency leaders and other appointees to
advance a robust, sustainable food system for the state.
Dave’s steadfast commitment to sustainability, greenhouse innovation, and food security provides leadership
through adaptation, education, and advocacy to support New England’s farming future.
Douglas J. Leaffer, PhD, PE, HAV Senior Technical Advisor
Executive VP and Director of Engineering, MA Human Resource Fund
Doug is a civil/environmental engineer with extensive project experience in water resources and environmental
engineering. His career highlights in this field include design and development of large-capacity (3 MGD)
municipal water wells, groundwater supply and contamination-treatment studies, inflow and infiltration (I/I)
studies for wastewater treatment collection systems, and experience in stormwater flow monitoring and
assessment.
He is licensed as a Professional Engineer (P.E., Civil) in Maine, in the discipline of environmental and water
resources. Doug is additionally licensed as a Professional Geologist in several states and is a Fellow of the
American Society of Civil Engineers (F.ASCE).
For the building and construction trades, Doug is a staff consultant for the Green Building Research Institute
(GBRI) in NYC, training engineers and scientists on the WELL Building Standard and LEED Green Associate
certification. He is also a WELL Faculty and Advisor to the International Well Building Institute (WBI) in NYC.
He currently teaches undergraduate engineering at Northern Essex Community College and as an adjunct
instructor at Merrimack College. In these roles he empowers and mentors STEM students to become more
proficient in engineering design and analysis and has often included alternative energy concepts in his curriculum.
With more than 12 years of post-secondary teaching experience, Doug has supported educational pathways from
high school and vocational technical school to college for highly motivated, technically inclined students.
Doug earned two graduate degrees (MS and PhD) in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Tufts University,
Medford, MA and an undergraduate degree in geological sciences from the Univ. of Miami.