BLUER's Accomplishments

Making a dent in a very large problem. We started by following ICLEI's roadmap:

Then we dove into the implementation of the CAP.

Council Urged to Reduce Greenhouse Gases; West Chester committee will present its recommendations

Daily Local News – September 13, 2006


By Brian Fanelli, Staff Writer

WEST CHESTER – The Borough Council’s Park, Recreation, and Environmental Protection Committee voted on Monday night to recommend that full council take the necessary steps to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.

The recommendations include having council create an ad-hoc committee, which is currently called Borough Leaders United for Emissions Reduction (BLUER), that would be made up of members for the community.

Read full DLN Article

2005 GHG Emissions Inventory

May 2008: BLUER completed the first milestone of the 5-step ICLEI Climate Protection Plan: A Borough-wide greenhouse gas inventory. We chose a baseline year of 2005. While this inventory took us approximately a year to complete, it was very worthwhile. It tells us where our emissions are coming from, and it will help us understand what we need to do to reduce our emissions.

In 2005, we estimate that we emitted 221,583 tons of CO2 into the air!

See charts of the aggregated inventory here.

BLUER's Goal: 10% Reduction in GHG Emissions by 2015

TBD date: Borough Council approved the goal of the BLUER committee to reduce the overall greenhouse gas emissions within the Borough by at least 10% below the baseline inventory of 2005 by the year 2015.

Climate Action Plan (CAP)

2008: The BLUER committee worked tirelessly on building a plan to achieve our goals of reducing dependence on fossil fuels and reducing emissions that have lead to global climate change. We reviewed guidelines from ICLEI and plan already adopted by other communities around the country and world. David Ward, our representative from Chester County took the lead on this project and was instramental in pulling it all together and making read like a comprehensive plan (even if just a first step) and not like a document written by a committee.

Download the full Climate Action Plan here.

CAP Phase I

April 2009: West Chester Borough Council approved BLUER's Climate Action Plan - Phase I. The plan is an evolving document that fleshes out the specific initiatives that BLUER and the Borough Council will be working on over the next year and puts them in the context of the other short, medium and long term projects.

Find a complete explanation of the CAP and a list of the first 10 recommended actions here. The Daily Local article describing the April vote is here.

Energy Star Ordinance

February 2008: The Borough of West Chester, Pennsylvania, has become the first known municipality in the country where, by law, private commercial buildings must be designed to earn the ENERGY STAR, thanks to a new ordinance passed unanimously by the municipality’s Borough Council. According to the new ordinance, a developer who is required to seek a “conditional use” approval for a project must design the building(s) to meet the energy performance goals of the ENERGY STAR program. One year after operation, the building owner must assess energy use and apply for the ENERGY STAR label. In West Chester, conditional use approvals are required for buildings higher than 45 feet.

Download the full press release here.

Green Home Guide

December 2008: The objective of this guide is to help improve the energy efficiency of our homes and the things in it that use electricity. It does so by showing where the average home uses and loses the most energy; by showing where your home ranks in terms of energy efficiency; and, most importantly, by showing how to lower your energy use and utility bills.

A workshop was held at the Chester County Historical Society in December of 2008, but you can download the pdf version of the booklet that was handed out here.

WCBLUER.ORG

May 2008: Through a collaberation with West Chester Henderson High School students and BLUER volunteers, a web site was created to establish an internet presents for BLUER and act as a repository for information about West Chester's contribution to and affects of global climate change. Since 2008 wcbluer.org has gone through several face lifts and expansions. There is also a Facebook page where you can contribute climate change related posts and give us feedback.

Wind Power

December 2009: Borough Council unanimously approved the motion to "Consider the Renewable Energy proposals opened November 17, 2009 and accept the Community Energy three-year proposal for purchase of wind energy."

The Community Energy proposal is a 3 year plan to cover increasing amounts of municipal electric use with Renewable Energy Certificates. The amount of RECs purchased will cover 20% in 2010 (1,400 RECs at $1.96/REC), 40% in 2011 (2,800 RECs at $2.58/REC) and 60% in 2012 (4,200 RECs at $3.56/REC). In 2012 we will reopen bidding for at least the next 2 years to cover 80% and 100% respectively.

Energy Breakfasts

October 2009: BLUERs first business outreach event was held at Penn Oaks Country Club. Paul Spiegel of Practicle Energy Solutions gave a presentation about the need for energy use analysis and gave several examples of common sense changes that can save a facility thousands of dollars and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example - having your heater and air conditioner active at the same time is probably not an efficient use of ones energy.

The event was video taped by the Great West Chester Chamber of Commerce and preserved for eternity on YouTube - part 1, part 2, part 3.

April 2010: The second Energy Breakfast was titled Smart Energy Management, a panel discussion of area experts in energy efficiency and alternative energy use. Panelists included: Paul Spiegel of Practical Energy Solutions, Bill Ronayne of Brandywine Valley HVAC, Richard Potocek from Mainline Solar and Byron Woodman from Community Energy. Borough business owners and representatives were invited for this free event to listen to the panelists discuss prepared questions by BLUER and ask questions of their own. Several energy businesses also attended as vendors.

See the press release for this event here.

BLUER Business Award Program

September 2010: The Business Outreach subcommittee, lead by Scott Torneck, established an award program intended to recognize the efforts already taken by Borough businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A selection criteria was established and a nomination form was distributed via wcbluer.org and in a mailing by the Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce. In July of 2011 BLUER presented its firsst award plaque to The Hickman Senior Living Center, primarily for the attention to green building practices and design for the Mary Taylor House extension on Walnut St. The Mary Taylor House has achieved a LEED Silver certification. BLUER hopes to recognize many more forward thinking businesses in the months to come.

See information about the Business Award Program here. See the press releases of the awards given to The Hickman and New Street Catering.

Green Permit Questionaire

2011: BLUER (led by David Mazzocco) worked with the Department of Building, Housing and Code Enforcement to create a non-binding questionnaire to be used to both educate the applicant about Green Building measures and to inform the Borough about the specific green initiatives contained in a building project. The questionnaire is given to all commercial building and multi-family housing project permit applicants.

The current checklist can be found here.

Residential Energy Improvement Checklist

2011: Our Residential Outreach sub-committee, led by Denise Polk, compiled a checklist to help Borough residents reduce energy usage, save money and of course reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The suggestions, which mostly require no investment, are organized into several categories, including: Heating/Cooling, Aire Leaks, Lighting, Hot Water Heaters, Water Use, Computers and more. The checklist is being handed out in the welcome packages of several Borough rental agencies and the tips are spread across the calendar given to new and returning WCU students in the fall.

Download the residential checklist here.

Solar Canopies on Parking Garages

April 2011: The Phase II CAP included at item to investigate and support the development of a solar power canopy for the top level of the Borough's parking garages. The first opportunity to contribute to this effort arrived in 2011 when Borough Council considered bids for constructing a 70 kW system on the top level of the new Chestnut St Parking Garage, which had been architected specfically to accomodate such a project. BLUER voiced its advocacy of the project in the March and April council meetings with contributions for solar professional and BLUER member Sean Diamond. The USA Electric bid was accepted in the April council session.

See the discussion and voting of the solar garage project in the council meeting minutes for April.

Policy Research and Recommendations

BLUER supports Borough Council, Chester County Commissioners and State Representatives by doing research and making recommendataions about issues or policy proposals that are related to climate change. BLUER is by no means a panel of expert scientists, but BLUER is comprised of several energy professionals and people that have kept up to date with policy developments that do or could affect our local or global environment.

Some of our support is done informally - through verbal or email communication. But occassionally we take on something big enough to warrant a formal position paper that is contributed to and reviewed by the whole BLUER team. Such is the case for the Marcellus Shale Legislation Position Paper done at the request of Rep Dan Truitt and distributed in August of 2011. The research and postion was drafted by Dianne Herrin. We hope that it will have some positive influence on this improtant issue. Download the full report here.