The City of Berea, in cooperation with the Kentucky Environmental Foundation and Sustainable Berea received a grant to develop a comprehensive Berea Energy Cost-Savings Plan (BECS) for the entire city, including households, businesses, and other institutions.  The Berea City Council accepted the plan on September 18, 2012 by unanimous vote.

There are several benefits in implementing this plan for the city:

  • The plan program saves energy and thereby saves money
  • Improves public health through decreased air pollution
  • Improves the city’s economic attractiveness and creates green jobs
  • Improves the city’s fiscal position
  • Improves city fuel emergency preparedness

Potential consumer energy savings recommendations cover a wide range of energy improvements from no cost, to low-cost, and finally, some cost.  And with constantly rising energy costs, it makes good sense to start saving energy as soon a possible because the earlier the cost savings begin, the larger the savings over time and as prices rise.

The plan was a five-step process beginning with an inventory of all community energy usage and all city government energy usage.  Using an extensive community and city staff input process, this was followed next by setting savings targets, writing a plan, an implementation program, and on-going monitoring to measure progress over time. The most important things about the plan are that it creates a baseline to measure future progress and makes recommendations how to get there.  Please click the links to the see the plan, which included a three-page Executive Summary,  Appendix B, and a two-page fact sheet describing the plan.

 

Contact: Thank you for your interest.  Please contact Henry Jackson, BECS Project Manager, at hsjack310@aol.com with any questions, comments, or suggestions.