Rethink Energy: Honored with 2017 Climate and Energy Leadership Award

This regularly-scheduled sponsored column is written by the Arlington Initiative to Rethink Energy team (AIRE). This county program helps you make smart energy decisions that save you money and leaves a lighter footprint on the environment. 

• County program recognized for helping residents to cut energy use and save money
• Arlington County first in nation to implement Energy Lending Library concept
• Program works to achieve Arlington’s Community Energy Plan

Our Rethink Energy Program is delighted and honored to receive the 2017 Climate and Energy Leadership award from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) for our innovative efforts to help residents save energy and leave a lighter environmental footprint through its Energy Lending Library program.

Arlington’s Initiative to Rethink Energy (AIRE) in partnership with the Arlington Public Library launched the first-of-its-kind Energy Lending Library program in 2016. The goal of the Energy Lending Library is to increase energy awareness and support residents to take actions that make their homes more energy efficient.

The Energy Lending Program allows residents to borrow free energy efficiency tools from their local library, along with the information needed to identify and act on energy efficiency opportunities. These tools include: a thermal camera, a sampler kit of 10 different LED lightbulbs, an energy meter to manage home electricity use and Do-It-Yourself energy retrofit books.

Since the launch of the Energy Lending Library, the demand for thermal cameras and LED samplers has been so high that additional cameras and bulb boxes were added to the library to reduce the wait time — underscoring the program’s success and the community’s motivation in helping reduce energy waste. In conjunction with the Energy Lending Library roll out, Arlington County also introduced the County’s Home Energy Rebates to incentivize residents to insulate their homes and replace old equipment with energy efficient air conditioners, furnaces, and water heaters.

The Energy Lending Library, home energy rebates and other AIRE programs offer the community energy-saving resources to help rethink energy use and achieve the goals outlined in Arlington’s Community Energy Plan, which calls for a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent by 2050.

To check out energy-saving tools and literature, visit the AIRE: Energy Lending Library webpage.

Learn more about Arlington’s Initiative to Rethink Energy.