Oberlin, Ohio ??? January 14, 2015 ??? Today, Oberlin officially advances to the Semifinal round of the Georgetown University Energy Prize, a national competition that is challenging communities across the U.S. to rethink their energy use. At a press event in Washington, D.C. today, Oberlin was announced as one of the 50 communities who are leading the way on energy efficiency.

???Oberlin has made a commitment to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions below zero by the year 2050 and energy efficiency is a huge part of that equation. Right now, the average Oberlin home is losing an estimated $450-500 per year in missed energy savings at today???s energy prices. We have access to efficiency programs that will, in most cases, nearly triple a homeowner???s investment. Some income-qualified programs pay for all the work. Collectively, over the course of the two-year competition, the status quo in Oberlin will lose us nearly $8 million. So while winning the $5 million prize purse will help these efforts, we have an opportunity to ???win??? a far greater amount of money in the process. And those savings will continue after the competition ends.??? ??? Sean Hayes, The Oberlin Project

Over 200 Open Houses at Over 100 Tour Sites, 7 Guided Tours Across Ohio will showcase clean energy and green design in events throughout local areas. Oberlin is offering a guided tour on Saturday, October 5 from 10 am ??? 3 pm. The public is invited to take the FREE ???Green Energy Ohio Tour??? and network with friends and neighbors using renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green design. 

For the last 11 years, the educational non-profit organization Green Energy Ohio (GEO) has sponsored the tour on the first weekend in October tour to showcase the industry across the state. A few years ago GEO changed the "Ohio Solar Tour" name to the"Green Energy Ohio Tour" to more accurately describe the tour that features not only solar, but tour sites with wind, energy efficiency, biomass and other green energy technologies.  

Why have a vegetable garden?

Oberlin Community Service???s June networking lunch was crowded???perhaps 50 people were there. A panel of nine represented the diversity of local food and gardening projects in Oberlin from school to neighborhood gardens.

Several months ago my wife and I, along with a friend, drove our new Prius plug-in hybrid 40 miles on state roads to an evening picnic. The battery was fully charged and on arrival the dash board display showed 100 miles per gallon (mpg) for the trip. Being the first local trip out of Oberlin on which I noted the mileage, I was surprised and said to our friend, ???That seems high.???

On the way back we were in hybrid mode, which means the car is powered by a gasoline engine as well as an electric motor using electricity generated by the engine and when the car coasts or breaks. Each of us made a guess for the return trip mpg: my wife, 65; our friend, 70; and I guessed what I thought would certainly be too high, 75. Back in Oberlin, the dashboard display showed 73 mpg. We were impressed!

The public is invited to take the FREE ???Green Energy Ohio Tour??? and network with friends and neighbors using renewable energy, energy efficiency and green design.  There are many open houses and guided green energy tours taking place across the State of Ohio. Oberlin will be participating with a guided tour on Saturday, October 6 from 10 am ??? 4 pm.

For the last 10 years, the educational non-profit organization Green Energy Ohio (GEO) has sponsored the tour on the first weekend in October to showcase the industry across the state. A few years ago GEO changed the "Ohio Solar Tour" name to the "Green Energy Ohio Tour" to more accurately describe the tour that features not only solar, but tour sites with wind, energy efficiency, biomass and other green energy technologies.  

Older buildings are often unfairly maligned as great energy hogs and money pits that are too expensive to rehabilitate.  While not every building can be preserved, demolishing existing buildings to make way for new is costly, gobbles up new resources, and adds to the landfills of the country.  Many older buildings have irreplaceable architectural details and a strong sense of space and pride of place that is rarely found in new construction, no matter how "green."   

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, together with local preservation organizations such as the Cleveland Restoration Society and the Oberlin Heritage Center, are working to encourage property owners of older buildings to weatherize, retrofit and rehabilitate them in ways that both retain their character defining special features and adapt them for 21st century living.   Start by having an energy audit; you can call POWER at 440 789 4531 for a 1 hour assessment, or call Columbia Gas at 1-877-644-6674 to receive a thorough heat loss inspection. Then learn what you can about your building's history.  Get to know your building, inside and out.  Inspect it regularly, and be proactive in addressing maintenance concerns.  

How much can we rely on technological advances to solve our energy problems?  Some new technologies have the potential to be a powerful way to save energy.  For example, automating HVAC systems and enhancing their digital control capabilities has saved lots of energy and money in buildings. However, many technologies -- including these -- require some level of human intervention to fully benefit from them. If people don???t use the technology properly, the expected benefits will not be realized.

The most important people are those who directly manage the new technology:  building operators, facilities staff, etc. If they are given a new system, but not taught how to use it, the system will not work properly.  I have witnessed this first hand during a recent installation of an automated and digitized HVAC system at a local institution. The Operations & Maintenance Staff didn???t have the required knowledge and experience to operate and maintain the new technology, and the system underperformed.  Also, too many staff members had the ability to change system operating parameters without a full understanding of how these changes would impact the operation. There was also reluctance from a few staff members to actually experiment and optimize the new technology. Eventually this harmed the equipment energy performance.

I don???t know if it???s hot as you???re reading this, but it is HOT while I???m writing it.  In Oberlin, the days we use the most electricity are the hot ones ??? everyone has their air conditioning on, and the refrigerators are working over time to keep things cool.  As the planet heats up, we are going to have more and more hot stretches to make it through.  But we can be smart about how we do it.

My family survives most of the summer without using AC ??? and the house never gets above 78 degrees (80 degrees is my freak-out point, and no one wants to go there!).  We have two main strategies:  The first is keeping heat out of the house in the first place.  The second is to get in as much cool air into the house at night as we possibly can, then lock it in during the day.

Now that summer is here, many of us are heading off in our cars on vacations and day trips.  We???d all be vacationing out at the Reservoir if we didn???t have the power of gasoline to take us hundreds of miles away.  Let???s get the most out of this superfuel.

With gas often $3.50 a gallon, there???s an obvious financial benefit to using it efficiently.  And the hot summer temperatures remind us that a planet that???s 2 degrees warmer will not be a pleasant place for our children to live.  Decreasing our gas use helps decrease our dependence on foreign oil as well.  The Consumer Federation of America estimates that simply increasing our fuel efficiency by 5 miles per gallon would save about 23 billion gallons of gasoline each year, and cut oil imports by about 14 percent.

Food is energy. Not much thought is given to it, but every time that we eat, our bodies convert food calories into a fuel that powers everything that we do, from typing at a computer, making art, walking or biking into town, fixing a house, or digging a garden bed.

Over the past 10,000 years, humans have developed agriculture -- the cultivation of land and active management of crops and animals to increase the food-calories available for growing human populations.