The City of Fairfield has been the lucky recipient of the Alliant Energy Hometown Rewards Program (HTR)- a 2 year program to help our residents and overall community reduce our energy usage in many fun and informative ways. The exact format that the programming has taken was created by a local steering committee and numerous classes and events have already taken place, including the tree planting that the volunteer center helped with on Earth Day. That event mobilized more than 700 volunteers of all ages and got more than 200 new trees planted throughout Fairfield.
Monthly classes have been happening at the library on the second Saturday of each month and have attracted numerous participants. Those classes will continue through 2013 and upcoming classes include Weatherization, Geothermal Energy & Lighting. Since the launch of the program this past spring total City energy use has been down, residential use has dropped 4.9%, and HTR is tracking above expected levels on 55% of their goals. Nearly 1500 people have participated in the Hometown Rewards Program in some manner. And this is only after the first quarter! One of the easiest ways to increase your own energy efficiency is to sign up for a free Alliant energy audit where a trained professional will visit your home and give you great ideas on how to reduce your energy bill and even leave you with some great products like compact flourescent lightbulbs! Having an audit performed on your home will also help Fairfield earn more rewards from Alliant. Upcoming volunteer opportunities with HTR include the ever popular community weatherization efforts in October. Contact Anna Bruen at annabruen@gmail.com or Scott Timm at stimm@iastate.edu to learn more.