Get Green While Being Green

Residents can bring more green to their homes in terms of cash and environmental benefits by taking advantage of a city-supported program.

Through a free program sponsored by the city, residents can get an energy assessment of their home and receive ideas and suggestions from Green@Home on how to use less energy in their homes, which in turn saves money.

“Nationwide, approximately 21 percent of our energy is used in our homes. We’re trying to reduce that piece of the pie,” says Elizabeth Sarmiento, outreach coordinator of Green@Home, which is funded by a grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

Green@Home is part of Palo Alto-based Acterra, a nonprofit merged organization formed in 2000 by Peninsula Conservation Center Foundation and Bay Area Action, which helps people in Santa Clara County and San Mateo County make their homes more energy efficient. Green@Home serves the communities of Cupertino, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Redwood City and, most recently, Mountain View.

Volunteers from all over the Bay Area are trained to do “HouseCalls” to help homeowners identify areas in their home that could benefit from things such as replacing a water-gushing shower head with a more efficient one, weather stripping around windows for better indoor climate control or replacing incandescent light bulbs with energy-miser CFL light bulbs.

The first half of a two-session training for volunteers is scheduled to begin Wednesday in Mountain View; the second session is scheduled for April 13.

Additional trainings are scheduled for May 10 and 17 in Menlo Park. Each session is from 5:30-9:30 p.m. and is ultimately free; once the requirements of attending the sessions and scheduled HouseCalls are completed, trainees will receive a refund of a $30 deposit.

Receiving a HouseCall requires no upfront costs and there is no commitment to follow through with the ideas and suggestions. There are bonuses involved with the HouseCall: Residents can get a free tree and apply for a $100 grant on top of the average $182 per year savings on energy bills after the visit.

“We want to bring people together for a healthy planet,” Sarmiento says.

To sign up for a free HouseCall, fill out a request form here or call 650-962-9876 ext. 350 to schedule it by phone.  Learn more about Acterra’s community programs at Acterra.org.