The City of Cincinnati hosted its 2nd annual Employee Energy Fair on Friday, October 2. The event, organized by the City’s Office of Environmental Quality (OEQ), gave City employees the motivation and tools to save energy at work and at home. “Reducing energy use saves money, conserves natural resources, reduces dependence on foreign oil, improves the City’s air quality, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. How many opportunities do you get to do one simple thing that advances 5 important priorities?” said OEQ Director Larry Falkin. The Energy Fair, attended by more than 300 City employees, grows out of a pilot project that showed that City government can make significant reductions in its energy bills by encouraging City employees to behave in an energy efficient way.
The Energy Fair’s five training sessions and forty-six exhibitors provided practical information on reducing energy use, such as turning off equipment that is not in use, buying Energy Star rated devices, and using the power management settings on computers.
Other recent accomplishments for the City’s Office of Environmental Quality include:
- spearheading development of Energy Services Performance Contracts, which will deliver energy efficiency upgrades to 40 City buildings, with a contractual guarantee of more than $400,000 per year in energy savings.
- facilitating the transfer of the City’s natural gas accounts, saving more than $200,000 in the first 2 months of the new contract.
- managing remediation of abandoned, contaminated property in the City, yielding 135 acres of shovel ready development sites in 2009.
- negotiating contracts for an enhanced curbside recycling program, which will triple the volume of material recycled and create more than 50 new jobs while reducing the program’s net cost by at least $200,000 per year.
- providing the City more than $21 million dollars of revenue and savings through grants, energy efficiency, and recycling enhancements in return for an investment of only $600,000 to operate OEQ.
- Employee Energy Fair
- Energy Saving Tips
- Energy Services Performance Contracting
- Energy Management Plan Training Presentation
Reports
10-19-09: Energy Upgrades Underway in 39 City Buildings
