Seattle Community Garden

In Seattle one of the major sustainable trend taking hold in the urban center are community gardens. Community gardens can offer many benefits to a city in terms of making it more sustainable. For instance community gardens can often times help spur the local economy providing a source of income for whom the farm serves.

Providing locally grown food is also beneficial in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the amount of fossil fuel used to transport food from other regions.

The Danny Woo Children’s Garden is located in the international district adjacent to the 5 free way and nested between Yesler Way and S. Main Street. The garden serves to unite the community in the international district by bridging the gap between older immigrants and the children of the community.

Agricultural practices developed during the industrial era has disconnected us from our food system and the average person does not know where his or her food comes from.   The community garden such as the Danny Woo Community garden helps to reconnect traditional values and practices which just so happens to be sustainable and healthy.

When people talk about sustainability they often refer to technical approaches such as reducing GHG but what is often left out is the social aspect of sustainable systems. The Danny Woo Children Garden not only reduces GHG but it also improves and strengthen social fabric making the community more desirable to live in. A system can be sustainable but if it does not address social

LADWP- Feed In Tariff

Feed in tariff also known as FIT is a widely used policy mechanism that first started in Germany. The purpose of FIT is to increase the deployment of renewable technologies such as solar PV, Wind generators etc. Unlike many incentives currently used by utility agencies, cities, and states the FIT program offers an opportunity for private owners whether it is residential or commercial to sell electricity back to a central grid.

Programs and Efforts in Promoting Energy Efficiency

CHERP (Community Home Energy Retrofit Program) and HERO (Home Energy Retrofit Opportunity) are ongoing programs that are working with cities to improve energy efficiencies in buildings.  Both programs share many similarities but still have many distinct differences in their approach. CHERP unlike many programs stem from the efforts of the community, without the willingness of volunteers and community groups CHERP would lose the main component of its operation.

HERO similar to CHERP also works closely with cities but it differs in that it does not include the community, instead it works with municipalities to finance projects for homeowners.

Rebates and Financing

CHERP does not offer direct rebates or financing for retrofit projects. It does however act as a resource to connect homeowners to rebates and financing offered from sources such as utility agencies, state and federal organization. In California the main organization that issues out rebates and financing is Energy Upgrade California.

Unlike CHERP, HERO’s main quality is its financing program. In order for HER) to come to a city the local government must first approve and sponsor the program. Homeowners then finance their home project through Property assessed clean energy (PACE) financing. This means of financing allows homeowners to pay for upfront cost by paying for it through their property tax.  Through this method homeowners can increase their property value and gain the benefits of reduced energy bills once the project is completed. Meaning that even with the increase in property tax home owners can still have a net gain.

Engagement

The wonderful thing about the CHERP program is in its community engagement. A major barrier currently is the poor flow of information from agencies to homeowners. Most people are simply unware of the many rebates and programs that the utility and governmental agencies offer.  The General public is also very wary of making changes to their homes. CHERP acknowledges this barrier and in doing so their model is based off of engagement and education.  It is very evident from their website that their efforts build trust within the community. Their website offers many testimonies and their plans are all very transparent and straight forward.

	Rebates and Financing	Engagement	Website	Measurement	Awards
CHERP	Energy Upgrade California	Volunteer based. Works with city and community	Lack of data Base	Has a goal for particular cities to retrofit certain amount of homes	Top Energy Champion
HERO	Financing through mortgage and property tax adjustment	Works with municipalities	Contractor data base and product data base more extensive	Does not have specific indicators for cities	Cool Planet Award

Claremont Energy Conservation Measures

The city of Claremont has become a leader in community sustainability in the state of California. Currently it is the only city that has met the goals in energy reduction set by CHERP, retrofitting 1% of their residential homes. Claremont has also been awarded the Gold Statues in the Energy Leader Partnership

In Claremont 80% of the total energy consumed comes from the residential buildings. Of the 80% energy used, the dominant fuel type is Gas and electricity. Within residential consumption it was reported in 2009 that 41% went to space heating. The enormous amount of energy consumption is attributed to energy waste that comes from the lack of proper insulation in old and new homes.

The Community Home Retrofit program is Claremont’s response to the massive energy usage that is deriving from residential buildings. The CHERP program is a non-profit organization that helps cities organize and educate their residents on retrofitting their homes. The program is one that takes a ground up approach which involves the community and stakeholders and is purely volunteer based.

This approach has proved very effective in Claremont, and they just completed phase 1 of the project, retrofitting 130 homes. Phase II will be retrofitting 10% of their residential homes, 1,300 homes.

Part of the education of CHERP is informing homeowners of the different rebates and finances that the state offers for their retrofit project. They have identified that the two major obstacles are (1) the lack of awareness of current technologies and (2) lack of contractors that are specialized in Whole-house energy efficiency systems.

Claremont Energy Efficiency

In response to global climate change The City of Clermont has created an grass root level community home and energy retrofit program also known has ( CHERP).  CHERP focuses on energy efficiency within homes, acknowledging that residential homes on average waste 50-60 percent of the energy they use. It is also estimated that in the United States 48% of the total energy used derives from building and in Claremont 80% of the total energy consumed comes from residential buildings. With the creation of CHERP Claremont has become the only city in Los Angeles County to reach the 1% goal of retrofitting homes.

Currently the goal of CHERP is to reduce energy consumption by retrofitting 1% of residential homes in Phase 1 of the program, equating to 130 homes. In Phase 2 10% or 1,300 homes.

Retrofitting project can include various aspects of the home, just so long as it reduces the overall consumption of the building.  One of the most common improvements to homes are improvements in insulation.

CHERP provides many resources which can be found on their website http://www.claremontenergy.org/ to help owners gain access to rebates, contractors and financing programs .