Latest News and Information
November 5, 2020 | 10:26AM
On October 23, 2020, Fairfax County received nearly $55,000 in rebates from PJM, a regional organization that coordinates the movement of electricity across 13 states and the District of Columbia. The rebates were awarded to recognize work done in recent years to improve the energy efficiency of specific county-owned facilities. All told, 58 energy efficiency projects completed over the past four years achieved a total permanent energy reduction of 945 kW, which is equivalent to taking 10 small libraries completely offline.
The Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination is charged with several major initiatives including implementation of the county’s Operational Energy Strategy. This strategy, approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2018, includes a goal that the county will reduce overall energy use in our facilities by 20 percent between 2019 and 2029. This amounts to an approximate decrease in energy use of about two percent per year.
Energy efficiency projects are one of the best steps we can take toward achieving this goal. By addressing possible inefficiencies and working to identify areas for improvement, we can make great strides toward energy savings. Many of the projects completed in recent years were lighting retrofits, removing and replacing lighting fixtures in county buildings to ensure we are using the newest, most efficient technology, like LEDs.
To date, lighting retrofits have been completed in a variety of county buildings including fire stations, community centers, police stations, libraries, and office buildings, like the Government Center. Lighting retrofits in the Government Center alone led to more than 120 kilowatts of energy savings, making a major dent in our operational energy use.
Energy efficiency work is also critically important in addressing climate change, and Fairfax County is committed to making smart choices about county operations that reduce our overall carbon footprint. These same choices are also fiscally responsible, saving taxpayer dollars and allowing the county to allocate cost savings toward services and programs that improve quality of life for county residents.
County and school facilities and operations account for just three percent of greenhouse gas emissions, the rest are from community sources like cars and trucks on our roads, energy use in our homes and businesses, and our waste management processes. Even though county operations only account for a small fraction of our overall emissions, it is imperative that we do our part.
The rebate check the county received is expected to be the first of many. While this check is related to work we’ve done in past years, we will continue to make energy efficiency improvements to our properties and we hope to receive additional rebates each year going forward.
October 30, 2020 | 04:37PM
Since its inception, development of the Community-wide Energy and Climate Action Plan (CECAP) has been driven by the county’s interest in having community representatives bring their expertise, experience, and perspective to discussions about goal-setting and greenhouse gas mitigation strategies.
The COVID-19 pandemic required the planning process to move online, with meetings being held virtually via WebEx since the summer. This unexpected change introduced new challenges to the development of the CECAP and led county staff and the CECAP consultants to reimagine the planning process.
As of October 24, the CECAP Focus Groups and Task Force were merged into a single, new group – the CECAP Working Group. In the original model, the Focus Groups served in an advisory role to the Task Force. In this new model, all members have an identical role and can participate in discussion and decision making. There are three primary reasons for this change:
1. To address complications in the planning process due to COVID-19.
2. To promote equity among CECAP participants, to ensure all voices are heard.
3. To facilitate a robust and productive discussion around sector-specific goals and strategies.
All members of the Focus Groups and the Task Force have been invited to participate in the new CECAP Working Group. For the next several meetings, the Working Group will be divided into sub-groups focused on specific sectors. This is considered a best practice for planning for sector-specific emission reduction. Each Working Group member will belong to one sub-group, based on their interests and areas of expertise. Once the discussion of sector-specific strategies concludes, the Working Group will meet as a whole to draft and finalize the CECAP.
For more information on this process update, and the newly formed CECAP Working Group, please visit our Climate Change Planning and Action webpages.
October 30, 2020 | 04:32PM
In late September, the Community-wide Energy and Climate Action Plan (CECAP) Task Force met to review the results of the public engagement that took place in early September, and to discuss greenhouse gas mitigation goals. The meeting was very productive and resulted in the Task Force making final recommendations for both a long-term target goal and an interim year goal.
The Task Force heard reports from representatives of each of the nine district level Focus Groups before reviewing the feedback provided by the public in late August and early September via a survey and three public meetings. Highlights of the public feedback shared with the Task Force included the fact that 1,957 individuals completed the online survey, and more than 150 people participated in the public meetings. The majority of survey respondents indicated support for the work being done by the Task Force and were interested in a variety of goals, ranging from carbon neutrality to less aggressive options.
With this information in mind, the Task Force proceeded to discuss options for long-term target goals and interim year goals. Ultimately, the following goals were approved by the Task Force:
· The long-term target goal is to achieve carbon neutrality with an 87 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 from a 2005 base year.
· The interim year goal is to achieve a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 from a 2005 base year.
The long-term goal incorporates both a desire to achieve carbon neutrality as a community, which could involve purchasing carbon offsets or offsite renewable energy, and the desire to achieve an actual, direct emissions reduction of 87 percent from community sources within Fairfax County, like cars and trucks on our roads, or energy used in our buildings. This multifaceted goal will help to focus community efforts to make changes that will have a lasting, positive impact on our collective carbon footprint.
The interim year goal sets an intermediate target to ensure that we stay on track as a community, making steady progress toward the long-term goal. Sector-specific goals have not yet been set and will be discussed by CECAP participants later this fall in connection with a conversation about specific strategies.
CECAP was the subject of a staff presentation at the October 27 meeting of the Board of Supervisors Environmental Committee. In this presentation, staff described a change to the CECAP process effective October 24. The revised process is described in the CECAP Process Update.
