Community Corner

You're Invited: Claremont Celebrates Energy Efficiency

A "city-wide" celebration will be held Thursday to recognize Claremont's success when it comes to home energy improvements.

The city of Claremont will celebrate Thursday an achievement that puts it first in Los Angeles County when it comes to retrofiting homes for energy efficinecy, it was announced.

"Claremont is Los Angeles County’s leader in home energy retrofits, with more than 1 percent of its single-family homes completing or undergoing the process of an energy upgrade," Claremont officials announced in a press release.

According to the Claremont Home Energy Retrofit Project, or CHERP, 151 homes have already undergone an energy upgrade.  Now, residents, nonprofit organizations, businesses and city officials will mark their accomplishment with a public celebration that commemorates this milestone and plan to a new goal: 1,300 home energy retrofits, representing 10 percent of the city’s entire housing stock.

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“The City of Claremont has a compelling story to tell the nation,” said Ken Alex, Senior Policy Advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown.  “We are excited at their leadership and what the people of this community have been able to achieve, and are proud to showcase their accomplishments as a model for other communities to follow.”

WHAT: City-Wide Celebration of Energy Efficiency

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WHEN: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24

WHERE: Taylor Hall, 1775 N. Indian Hill Blvd., Claremont

WHO: Ken Alex, Senior Policy Advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown Andrew McAllister, California Energy Commission Member Howard Choy, General Manager L.A. County Office of Sustainability Larry Schroeder, Mayor of Claremont Devon Hartman, Co-Founder of CHERP INFO: The celebration is open to the public.

Refreshments will be served, and the public is invited.

 CHERP attributes the local effort’s success to four key factors:

  • Education: Spreading awareness of the impacts energy upgrades can have on an individual, community and global scale.
  • Collaboration: Bringing together a core group of people, and ultimately other organizations, who are dedicated to the cause.
  • Public/Private Partnerships:  Working cooperatively and deeply with top-notch, certified contractors that are committed to the building science of making a home radically more comfortable, healthy and energy efficient.
  • Superior Results:  Accomplishing deep energy retrofits -- far exceeding the average -- in order to demonstrate the physics and economics behind the effort and to set a high bar for quality installation and performance results for the entire industry.

According to CHRP, the organization was formed "when residents, businesses, the City of Claremont, and several nonprofit organizations came together in a partnership facilitated by the community umbrella organization Sustainable Claremont."   

“It takes hyper-local community engagement to net tremendous results,” explained Devon Hartman, a Co-Founder of CHERP, who has put on hundreds of workshops to spread the word about the importance of energy efficiency. “We have an extraordinary message for homeowners about the power and benefits of energy efficiency, and we now have a community organization case-study model that can be replicated in other cities to help them achieve similar success.”


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