Energy / Fort Collins, Colorado: 2010 Smarter City - Energy

“We have put all of our efficiency and renewables initiatives into a carbon framework,” says the city’s Energy Services Manager John Phelan, “with a priority on achieving reductions from efficiency and conservation.” To help reach their goals, the city is also prioritizing an expansion of its already successful Climate Wise program for local businesses, which has saved Fort Collins 116,970 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent each year and more than $12 million in energy costs since it’s creation in 2000.

Business Wise

The Climate Wise Program in Fort Collins began with the voluntary participation of just 13 local businesses, who were each provided with an on-site assessment of the businesses energy use, pollution output, solid waste, and business-related travel and transportation, followed by an action plan for implementing conservation projects. In exchange, each participant attends two meetings per year, where they network and share feedback with other members and stay abreast of related innovations, and submits an annual report detailing progress.

As of 2009, the program has saved Fort Collins over a million tons of heat-trapping pollutants, or 40 percent of the city’s overall reduction since 2000, while participation has increased to nearly 200 businesses. Fort Collins aims to capitalize on this success by expanding the program with 130 new partners and expects to ramp up the savings on heat-trapping pollutants to over 200,000 tons in 2010—more than double the programs savings in 2007. To help new partners get started and veteran partners implement more conservation projects, the city will be bulking up the Climate Wise team and resources. The success of the program thus far earned it recognition as one of Harvard’s top 50 Innovation Government Programs in the United States.

Not So Strictly Business

It’s not just businesses that are getting energy savings help from the city. According to Phelan, a new home energy efficiency program rolled out in January. “For the first time we are able to look at homes from a whole house perspective,” says Phelan. To get that perspective, the city is offering “highly subsidized energy efficiency audits” at 25 percent of the true cost that is technically available to all electric customers, though it may take a while to reach them.

And the savings don’t stop at the audit. The city also has an extensive list of rebates for residential customers, covering upgrades including air sealing, insulation, windows, fan motor replacement, furnaces, boilers, central air conditioning, heat pumps and evaporative coolers. Phelan says residents can also take advantage of rebates for clothes washers and dishwashers, incentives for CFLs at local retailers, and in some cases multiple rebates for one purchase. “You could get a rebate from us, a rebate from the gas company, a rebate from the governor’s energy office and a federal tax credit. So it’s a good time to do things,” he says.

In keeping with that attitude, the city’s plans also include the Utility Directors 21st Century Utilities Project that will have city workers assessing and upgrading water pipes and electric services that have been underground for 50 to 60 years, and a $15 million city investment, matched by the Department of Energy, to implement a Smart Grid system. “The ball is rolling,” says Phelan.