EPA names Efficiency Vermont ‘Partner of the Year’
Winooski, VT
Efficiency Vermont is honored to receive the 2022 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.
2021 was a year of recovery and transformation for Vermont. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued to disrupt lives, Efficiency Vermont maintained a focus on the hardest hit sectors of the economy. Energy-saving programs helped Vermonters and businesses lower costs, build resilience, and reduce carbon emissions.
Efficiency Vermont is being recognized for its sustained accomplishments, “demonstrating exemplary commitment and dedication to leadership in energy efficiency and the ENERGY STAR program,” and delivering “significant energy savings to Vermont businesses and residents,” said Ann Bailey, Chief, ENERGY STAR Labeling Branch of EPA’s Climate Protection Partnerships Division.
In 2021, generous incentives for the statewide weatherization program, Home Performance with ENERGY STAR, helped low- and moderate-income Vermonters tighten up their homes. The Home Energy Loan program continued allowing those families to benefit from low- or no-interest financing for weatherization and other energy projects.
Efficiency Vermont strengthened virtual services in 2021 to allow Vermont businesses and residents to continue to invest in efficiency even when in-person visits were not safe. Video consultations helped customers identify the next steps for their efficiency projects. For businesses alone, consultations resulted in 5.3 million net kWh and 4,273 net MMbtu in savings. As more consumers shopped online, Efficiency Vermont provided incentives for online sales. This contributed to a 64 percent increase in efficient product sales in 2021 over 2020.
As the longest running statewide energy efficiency utility in the country, Efficiency Vermont has worked in every sector of the economy to deliver energy savings since 2000, delivering lifetime savings of more than $3 billion to Vermonters and eliminating over 13.2 million tons of carbon emissions.
“Our close partnership with ENERGY STAR year after year helps us deliver high-quality efficient products and services to Vermonters,” said Rebecca Foster, Interim Director of Efficiency Vermont. “Energy efficiency is the most cost-effective way to reduce carbon emissions and lower energy burdens for all Vermonters, especially the most vulnerable. The quality of ENERGY STAR products and services helps ensure that our work across Vermont has the greatest impact possible.”
Each year, the ENERGY STAR program honors a group of businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through superior energy achievements. ENERGY STAR award winners lead their industries in the production, sale, and adoption of energy-efficient products, homes, buildings, services, and strategies. These efforts are essential to fighting the climate crisis and protecting public health.
Winners are selected from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners. For a complete list of 2022 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR’s awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.
About Efficiency Vermont
As the nation’s first Energy Efficiency Utility, Efficiency Vermont has helped Vermont avoid over 13.2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions and has received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence award for the last eight consecutive years. Efficiency Vermont works with partners to help our state transition to more affordable, low carbon energy use through education, incentives, and support for our clean energy workforce. Learn more at www.efficiencyvermont.com.
About ENERGY STAR
ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations—including more than 40 percent of the Fortune 500®—rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped American families and businesses avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs and achieve more than 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. More background information about ENERGY STAR’s impacts can be found at www.energystar.gov/impacts and state-level information can be found at www.energystar.gov/statefacts.
Efficiency Vermont Press Contact
Matthew Smith
Phone: (802) 540-7662
[email protected]