Community Energy Saving Programme

Transcription

[music] Emma Zinsmeister/EPA: Across the country the Climate Showcase Communities are doing a wide range of projects that demonstrate the value of local government work to reduce green house gas emissions. They cover things from energy efficiency to renewable energy, transportation, waste management and other projects that ultimately help them save money and reduce their green house gas emissions. [MUSIC] The most meaningful impacts are when they're really able to engage the residents and citizens in the work that they're doing. Kate Lilja: So our Climate Showcase grant is called Sustainable Transportation for a Sustainable Future. So we are really focused on encouraging individuals to think before they hop in their car to get from point A to point B. Can you carpool? Can you bike? Is it walkable? Is it within two miles of your home. So our program is really focused on encouraging the use of alternatives to driving alone that are more sustainable, result in less vehicle emissions, and less green house gas emissions. Andrea Denny/EPA: The impact that the climate showcase communities program is having across the country is really two fold. First there's the impact that the direct actions that the 50 communities we funded are taking. We invested $20 million in those 50 communities and by 2015 we expect that they're savings from the programs they implemented will be much higher than that $20 million. We also are expecting significant green house gas reductions, criteria air pollutant reductions; improvements in quality of life in those communities. But now we're also seeing that those communities are implementing other things that they've learned from each other and we're seeing communities outside of the network start to implement things that those communities are doing, and so as that's taking off the potential for this program is just, is really uncountable. Kate Lilja: The EPA funding has has kept a very, very important program alive for us. It has made the difference between scraping by and actually being able to grow; to expand our program, build on our successes, save more trips, save more miles, and start reducing our personal vehicle trips in the Salt Lake Valley in the state of Utah and also see those reductions in green house gas emissions. Emma Zinsmeister/EPA: The relationship that we've been able to build with these communities is really unique and it's something that EPA really wants to be able to continue and so we're learning as we see the resources, the templates, the communication materials, all those things that those grantees are developing we're learning so much about what makes this work successful and are thinking of ways to continue that work by making those resources more broadly available. Andrea Denny/EPA: It's really important for EPA to be investing in what local governments are doing because in order to combat climate change we really need to look at the way that we live, we drive, we work, and local governments are the ones that can actually impact those decisions. [music] decisions. [music]