October 2018 Progress Report: Home Energy Challenge
The Charlottesville Climate Collaborative’s fall Home Energy Challenge is off to an enthusiastic start!
Since the Challenge kicked off in September, more than 60 homes have registered as participants. And best news of all – those homes have already reduced their household impact by 33 tons of CO2! Our reduction goal is 100 tons of C02 by February 2019, when we’ll start up a new season of the Challenge.
Just to recap: What IS the Home Energy Challenge?
It’s a fun, informative, and social way to reduce our collective carbon footprint and make a difference here in the Charlottesville area.
How it works: People host or attend a house party, fill out their energy profile at cvilleclimate.org (to establish a baseline), and then begin taking actions as individuals or in teams. Our live, online platform helps you chart your actions, see the impact of your actions in estimated savings on your personalized dashboard, and then see how your actions are contributing to the larger community.
You no longer have to wonder, are my actions really making a difference! This makes your actions: tangible, measurable, and well DO-able!
So how’d it happen? By making gradual adjustments inside and outside of your home and to your household lifestyle that make sense for you and your family!
Cvillechallenge.org lists out a range of actions homeowners and renters can take to reduce their carbon footprint and make their living space more sustainable, from taking shorter showers (easy) to switching to CFLs or LEDs (medium effort) to two families that made the switch to purchasing an electric vehicle (challenging)!
If you’re ready to really up your eco-game, installing solar panels or weatherizing their attic would require more investment, but it would definitely pay off in the long run. Here are some of the most recent actions participants have taken during the fall season of the Challenge.
In addition to reducing their carbon footprint by 33 tons, thus far in total, Challenge participants have saved 4,459 kilowatt hours, 1,109 gallons of gas, 66 therms of natural gas, and 1,560 gallons of water. And not only are local households saving energy and integrating sustainable habits into their homes, but their SAVING MONEY too, to the tune of almost $4,000 across 63 homes, which equals out to more than $64 in savings for each household so far!
Ready to get in on the action and start saving energy and money in your home?
Come out to our community lunchtime Pep Rally Tuesday, October 30 from noon-1pm at CitySpace and learn more about how to join in and make an impact. RSVP HERE. We encourage you to bring a friend (or more!) and your laptop/iPad (a smart phone works too) so you can sign up for the Challenge on the spot. FREE lunch will be served!
Now is the time to take action. We’re relying on everyone to do their part to ensure future generations have safe and healthy environment in which to live. Help the Charlottesville-Albemarle area go carbon free – sign up for the Home Energy Challenge now!
Or see you at the Pep Rally!
