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Program Description
The New England Carbon Challenge: Helping New England Households and Communities Reduce Their Energy Consumption The New England Carbon Challenge is a joint initiative of the University of New Hampshire and Clean Air - Cool Planet, both recognized leaders in climate mitigation and solutions. The NE Carbon Challenge works to educate, inspire and support sustained reductions in residential energy consumption. Roughly half of all climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions come from households through their energy consumption for motor vehicles, home heating, and electricity usage. Fortunately, there are many simple actions we can take in our homes to reduce our energy consumption and these actions will also save us money. The Carbon Challenge offers lots of ideas to reduce your home's energy consumption and our New England Carbon EstimatorTM will walk you through the process of identifying which actions are best suited to your household. It only takes about 15 minutes and you'll get a customized report on the savings your family can achieve. HOUSEHOLDS THAT HAVE TAKEN THE CARBON CHALLENGE ARE SAVING APPROXIMATELY $750 A YEAR IN FUEL AND ELECTRICITY COSTS.
We Can Help Your Community Too! For many New England towns, homes are the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Engaging households in reducing their energy consumption can build support among voters for municipal projects like a school energy audit. As residents reap the benefits of energy and dollar savings from improved efficiency in their homes, they will likely look for opportunities to make similar reductions at the municipal level.
Do you want your school, business, faith-based organization, civic group or town to be recognized as a leader in reducing energy consumption? Take the Challenge together as a community and be "on the map" as taking action on climate change. We provide communities with the tools, resources, strategies, and support to help households estimate their emissions, map out a plan to reduce these emissions, and chart your progress in achieving your goal(s). We can also link individual households to each other, to document your collective progress. And we also offer several incentives for taking the Challenge! See our 10 Great Reasons Your Organization Should Take the NH Carbon Challenge for an overview of our services.
Do You Live in Another State? Our on-line household carbon calculator, the New England Carbon Estimator is perfectly suited to help households in all six New England states reduce their energy consumption. If you don't live in New England, please be patient. We have plans to expand the Carbon Challenge, but that will take a little time.
The New Hampshire Carbon Challenge was co-founded by Julia Dundorf and Denise Blaha, whose backgrounds encompass small business ownership, non-profit management, earth science research, grassroots organizing and local political activism. Julia also serves as the Manager of Community Relations at Clean Air - Cool Planet and coordinates the Local Energy Committee Working Group while Denise is the project coordinator for UNH Cooperative Extension's Energy Answers program. Julia and Denise serve on a number of advisory committees such as the Green Alliance, Climate Counts, the Rockingham/Strafford Energy Alliance and New Hampshire Public Television's Planet Granite. The New Hampshire Carbon Challenge quickly spread to other New England states and in the summer of 2009, the New Hampshire Carbon Challenge became the New England Carbon Challenge. We're excited about the change and eager to move forward with plans to develop new tools and resources that will help New Englanders reduce their energy consumption further. The New England Carbon Challenge has a distinguished Steering Committee of scientists, community leaders, educators, and public policy analysts. Biographies of staff and steering committee member are available here.
Media Coverage:
2009 press coverage (.pdf) 2008 press coverage (.pdf) 2006-2007 press coverage (.pdf)
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