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Powering Families Towards Sustainability

WGC World Environmental Day Celebration

Carter Medved�Westchester Green County

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Problem: Peaker Plants in our Community

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Source: Clean Energy Group

Peaker plants are power plants used to meet excess energy demand on peak days

Run on fossil fuels
Emit 2-3x more carbon
Cost 13x more than traditional power plants
Average of ~50 yrs old

In NYC alone, 750K residents live within a mile of a peaker plants

78% are low-income & people of color
Abnormally high rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases in these areas

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Solution: Simple Behavior Change

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GridRewards: An app that incentivizes reduced energy usage during peak times, typically on hot summer days

Requirement:

5-10 energy reductions annually for 3-4 hrs.
Users are notified to adjust usage around peak events (e.g. pre-cool your house, run laundry at night)

Reward:

~$100 annually/family
$1,000s for businesses
New Rochelle’s school system earned $24K for participating in the summer of 2023 alone

Project Goal:

Increase adoption of app across the county

However there is something very simple that we can all do today to minimize the use of peaker plants
All we need is some simple behavior changes, like cooling our homes in advance of the hottest hours, or running your laundry at night, so we’re putting less stress on the grid during peak demand
There is an app called GridRewards that helps notify consumers and businesses as these peak events approach
Not only does it allow participants to help our planet and community, but it actually pays them to do it!
Peaker plants can cost 13 times as much as a traditional plant, so utilities like ConEd are incentivized to keep them dormant.
Families that participate in the program make $100 annually on average
Businesses can make thousands
The New Rochelle school system participated this past summer and earned an incredible $24K reward
My project focused on building awareness and increasing adoption of this simple solution

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Strategy & Execution

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Youth-Powered Community Outreach

Launched CrushCarbon Challenge
Solicited support from every principal and environmentally-focused student club in the county
Incentivized participation by offering $1,000 prize
Conducted training sessions with participating clubs
Provided marketing tool kits with materials and strategies for success
Enlisting support of local government

In partnership with Sustainable Westchester and Westchester Youth Congress, we launched a youth-powered campaign called the Crush Carbon Challenge
We challenged school districts to raise awareness of the GridRewrds app and its financial, environmental, and social benefits
We reached out to every school in Westchester, first to the principals and then to every environmentally-focused club that we could find
We Incentivized participation by offering a $1,ooo prize, generously donated by the GridRewards team, to the school club that makes the most impact
Further, we conducted training sessions with school clubs where we

Educated them on the program and
Provided a marketing tool kit containing materials and strategies for success. We offered suggestions like:

Outreach through weekly school newsletters, School PTA, Presence at school-wide events like Science Fairs and upcoming Earth Day celebrations, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram posts

We also reached out to local government for support. Paul Feiner, Greenburgh Town Supervisor, generously shared the Crush Carbon challenge on the town website and to all residents by email

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Resources/Partnerships

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Westchester Youth Congress

Mentorship, Introductions and Outreach support

Sustainable Westchester & Logical Buildings

Incredible guidance from Lauren Brois, Director of GridRewards at Sustainable Westchester
Provided marketing support and program training
Collaborating to promote success of New Rochelle
$1000 donation from Logical Buildings

Industry Experts: interviews on wattsherpa.com

Dr. Sussman, American Council on Energy and Environment
Dr. Winterich, Penn State University

I have had some incredible support in putting together this initiative
Notably through introductions made by fellow members of the Westchester Youth Congress. This led to a partnership with Sustainable Westchester, which became the cornerstone of the project.
Through an incredibly supportive collaboration with Lauren Brois, Director of GridRewards at Sustainable Westchester, we've worked together from the initial concept, through outreach, to educating students about GridRewards' impact, and sharing the success of the New Rochelle Program
This partnership also facilitated the connection with Logical Buildings, the app's developer that donated the $1,000 prize
Additionally, through my website WattSherpa, which promotes energy efficiency, I gathered insights from experts on consumer behavior, Dr. Reuven Sussmann and Dr. Karen Winterich. Their advice on fostering sustainable behaviors was incorporated into our initiative.
And lastly I’ll note that I requested zero budget from Bedford 2030
I am just hoping that winning the competition can help raise awareness of the campaign and amplify its impact

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Results

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Initial

Outreach to over 100,000 residents through aggregate media channels across school, nonprofit and government partners

Long Term

Running competition through the end of Earth Month to optimize impact
Aim to drive secondary push with press

Working with PBS on a Demand Response story to showcase solutions nationwide

Key is to maximize downloads prior to summer & engagement during peak events

This is a long term campaign that we chose not to wrap up by today’s competition
We felt that we could optimize support for the project if we ran the competition through Earth month when awareness and opportunities to participate in community events is maximized
We are thrilled that all of the partners we have been working with have helped us communicate with over 100,000 residents already
GridRewards will be able to help us measure the app downloads driven by the competition at the end of April
We are hoping to get additional press coverage for the school that wins the campaign
I am also very excited that PBS’ Student Reporting Labs has agreed to let me put together a story on Demand Response programs. They will publish it through their national online platforms, and possibly even on television if we do a great job.
We will continue our efforts through the summer since it will be important to ensure the app is fully utilized during peak times
My goal is to first raise awareness of these types of solutions here in Westchester, and then share that as a case study with other communities across the country.

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THANK YOU!

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Please scan the QR codes here to sign up for GridRewards!

Westchester Green County

Website - oneworlduv.com/wgcusa/

IG - @greencountyusa

Email - westchestergreencountyusa@gmail.com