By Kevin McCarty
May 3, 2010

The U.S. Conference of Mayors and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently held another webinar in its series examining how ENERGY STAR tools and resources can support local initiatives under the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program. The April 20 session focused on how cities can leverage ENERGY STAR resources to promote citywide energy efficiency.

Leslie Cook, Public Sector Manager with the ENERGY STAR Program, provided an overview of available tools and resources that can help advance city energy efficiency initiatives. “With this series, EPA is working to bring to you ENERGY STAR resources and tools that are there for you, cost-free, that you can leverage off the shelf, and that you can use in your EECBG programs,” she said.

Webinar participants were encouraged to build upon the broad public awareness of the ENERGY STAR brand to advance city energy efficiency initiatives. Pointing out that only the Good Housekeeping seal scores higher among common brands, Cook said, “seventy-five percent of consumers recognize ENERGY STAR as a symbol of energy efficiency.”

“We want you and your cities to be able to join with ENERGY STAR and leverage our branded energy efficiency educational materials for your efficiency programs,” Cook said in describing EPAs program efforts. “Hundreds of cities are already ENERGY STAR Partners,” explaining that these cities are using program brands in their local materials.

Among the resources available to cities to support communitywide initiatives, Cook cited the programs many resources, including the Campaign Platform, national campaign materials, such as the ENERGY STAR Challenge, EPAs recognition initiatives and off the shelf brochures and readily available web content.

For homeowners specifically, Cook talked about several web-available products – Home Energy Advisor, ENERGY STAR at Home, and ENERGY STAR Yardstick – to provide the public with energy efficiency tips, a simple tool to assess the potential benefits of certain home improvements and a calculator to rank the relative efficiency of a home.

Citing growing local interest in Kilowatt Crackdown campaigns, she noted that such initiatives are now underway in the cities of Louisville, Portland, Seattle, and Phoenix and soon in Denver. Under these programs, she explained, building owners enroll in local campaigns and agree to benchmark their buildings with Portfolio Manager and other program resources, with successful efforts including top performers being recognized at the end of the campaign period.

Cook also recognized Chicagos Green Office Challenge, praising it as another successful example of a city initiative promoting sustainability whereby area office buildings use Portfolio Manager as the energy and water component to this challenge.

For cities developing local ad campaigns, Cook cited New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloombergs ad campaign promoting home energy efficiency actions by renters and homeowners where the citys materials were co-branded with ENERGY STAR.

Links to these ENERGY STAR'supported campaigns and other resources can be found at www.energystar.gov. For more information on the USCM/EPA webinar series, including a link to the archived April 20 webinar, go to the website www.usmayors.org/climateprotection/energystar.