Irvine, Calif., Wins Flex Your Power Award for Education and Media (12/08)

December 2008

The Achievements

In December 2008, the City of Irvine was honored with a 6th Annual Flex Your Power Award by the State of California. Irvine won in the Education and Media category for its Community Energy Partnership (CEP) program.

The CEP delivered outreach and education on a large scale to multiple sectors of the community. The program included the following elements:

• “A Brighter Future for Irvine,” a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) distribution program in which more than 69,000 free CFL bulbs were distributed to residents and businesses.
• Energy efficiency tune-ups for residences and small businesses, which covered water conservation as well as energy efficiency
• A standards-based science curriculum for 4th grade students (PEAK) that taught smart energy management in homes, schools, and the greater community.

The Key Step

CEP’s enormous success can be attributed to building key private/nonprofit/public partnerships and outreaching to all sectors of the community.  Personal interaction with Irvine citizens was labor-intensive but crucial since answering questions face-to-face ensured that information was relayed correctly and effectively and could be passed on to friends and family.

The Benefits

As a result of the CEP, Irvine residents and businesses are saving approximately $500,000 annually in energy costs and reducing approximately one million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions each year.  This reduction is equivalent to taking approximately 250 cars off the road.

[Source: City of Irvine press release]