Rising fuel prices and concern about climate change have created a groundswell of community volunteers who are interested in helping their community save energy and money through energy efficiency.
The Vermont Community Energy Mobilization Project provides an opportunity for communities to: reduce energy use;  save money; increase awareness of energy efficiency services in Vermont; develop community ties; and, leverage the potential of grassroots energy in promoting community change and adaptability with regards to energy use.

The Vermont Community Energy Mobilization Project (VCEM) was initially offered by Efficiency Vermont as a pilot project in 2009. This project involved Efficiency Vermont providing training and energy savings materials to local groups and volunteers. Local groups organized volunteers to conduct Home Energy Visits, free of charge, in which home owners received immediate energy savings through the installation of compact fluorescent light bulbs, water efficiency measures and programmable thermostats. Volunteers also conducted a brief ?walk-through? to identify potential areas of energy loss in the home, worked with homeowners to calculate the home energy efficiency, and provided home owners with a discussion as to incentives and opportunities available to them to further reduce their home energy usage. Read the full Evaluation Report for the VCEM 2009 projects.

Due to the success of VCEM 2009, Efficiency Vermont will be offering this program again in partnership with local groups. VCEM 2010 goals are:

• to achieve 100 comprehensive, deep energy retrofits through the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® program in 2010. For information about this program, please visit (and provide direct link to the HPwES page)
• to achieve the statewide goal of achieving 100 comprehensive energy retrofits; a statewide target is to achieve 1000 home energy visits.
• to achieve the statewide goals mentioned above, local partner goals are to achieve 10 comprehensive energy efficiency retrofits through conducting a minimum of 75 home energy visits. 
• to work with 10-15 local groups, many of which will be aggregates of smaller groups located in the same geographic area.

After a competitive application and review process, 5 primary groups have been selected to partner with Efficiency Vermont to roll out the Vermont Community Energy Mobilization Project in their community. Home Visits will be conducted through April 30, 2010 and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Interested in volunteering or receiving a Home Visit? Please use the contact information below.

If you have any questions about the general program or application process, please contact:

Paul Markowitz
Vermont Community Energy Mobilization Project Co-Coordinator
paul@markowitzvt.com
802.229.6307

or

Gabrielle Stebbins
Vermont Community Energy Mobilization Project Co-Coordinator
Efficiency Vermont, Implementation Specialist
gstebbins@veic.org
888.921.5990, ext. 1132