Small Town Feeling, Big Energy Efficiency Commitment
Residents of Beaumont live in a small town, and they wouldn’t have it any other way, regardless of how big they grow.
While living in a town that traces its history to 1912, civic leaders and residents alike have maintained the feeling of a small, tight-knit community, while fully embracing modern energy efficiency. Downtown may be lined with antique stores, but their approach to energy efficiency is state of the art.
Breaking the Tape
Beaumont is committed to leading the region in en- ergy efficiency. “We really like to see our whole city as a leader,” says Mayor Brian DeForge, “we like to be first, we like to be leading the way, we like to break the tape.”
To fully realize their commitment to energy efficiency, city officials are working with the Southern California Edison (SCE) Energy Efficiency Partnerships Program. Through the partnership, and with impressive teamwork and cooperation within city agencies, they have implemented a variety of ‘green’ projects that are delivering significant energy savings.
Leading by Example
‘Going green’ is more than just a slogan to city officials — it’s something that they fully embrace in city facilities. Proof of this is clearly visible in the Civic Center retrofit project.
They have retrofitted the entire Civic Center building with new florescent lighting, replacing inefficient T12 and T8 fixtures with energy efficient low- wattage T8 and T5 fixtures. They have also replaced many wall mounted light switches with occupancy detectors, further reducing energy use. These changes resulted in savings of over 18,000 kWh a year.
Taking ‘green’ to the next level, the city is even retrofitting a recently purchased old school building and converting it into a new police station, as well as additional office space. As a lead building official explains about the project, “We’re working with Edison’s Partnership Team from the get-go, retro-commissioning it and working diligently to make sure that it’s energy ef- ficient. We’re recycling our old public buildings!”
It’s not just building retrofits that are contributing to energy efficiency in Beaumont. In the western part of the city is the newly built Mesa Lift Station, which utilizes two Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) pumps to move waste wa- ter from new homes on the city’s west- ern boundaries to a water treatment facility on the south side. By utilizing VFD pumps, Beaumont is taking advan- tage of lower operating costs, extended pump life, and reduced maintenance costs. This project has resulted in sav- ings of over 375,000 kWh. Incentives from this project will enable the city to embark on another energy efficiency retrofit project at the police station, as well as other city facilities.
“Hit them 3 times”
Among the most impressive results in Beaumont’s energy efficiency efforts has been their success with the Direct Install Program. This program deliv- ers technical assistance, energy audits, financial incentives and energy-efficient hardware retrofits to small businesses. Beaumont’s success with this program has been unprecedented.
The secret to this success was great planning and coordination. According to Councilman Larry Dressel, “Our goal was to hit the businesses with informa- tion about the program 3 times.”
Step one was a letter from the Mayor, sent to local businesses, announcing the new “City of Beaumont Goes Green” program, along with information about the city’s partnership with SCE’s Energy Efficiency Partnership Program. This set the tone for a full campaign of education and community involvement.
The second step was the creation of a special flyer with details about the ‘Go Green’ program and the SCE Partnership, highlighting the Direct Install Program. This flyer was then hand delivered to business owners by Code Enforcement officers, Building Inspectors, and the Fire Inspector. Business owners were reassured that this was a legitimate program, offering real benefits, with the full support of city officials.
Lastly, the City’s Chamber of Commerce got involved. “We have a very active Chamber” stated Chamber Director Kathy Munyas, “and we are continually looking for ways to assist our local businesses.” The Chamber sent emails about the program to each qualified business owner who was a Chamber of Commerce member, further reinforcing the message to the business community.
Helping the Heart of the Community
“We want people to feel that this is a small town,” said Mayor DeForge, “we want them to feel that they can walk downtown and shop our antique stores, and feel like they’re in a kind of May- berry. That’s why people love it here.”
Many of Beaumont’s antique stores are in the downtown area – an older part of the community. Many of the buildings there were built in the 1960’s, ‘50’s and even back to the ‘40’s. These buildings are in the most need of energy efficiency retrofits.
Economic conditions were creating challenges for many of the antique dealers, so city employees were “ecstatic” to see that most of them would be participating in the Direct Install Program. “We want to keep them here,” said the Mayor, “we want to ensure that that part of our community — the heart of our town, of our culture — is alive and growing.”
The result of this 3-step coordinated effort has been a tremendous success
for Beaumont’s business community. While normal participation rates for this type of program are usually near 30%, the participation rate in Beaumont was over 60%, and has resulted in over 440,000 kWh saved!
The work being done in Beaumont is an example of a small town that thinks big about energy, and is working with SCE’s Energy Efficiency Partnerships program to get things done right. As one city staffer says, “I just can’t say enough positive things about our partnership with Edison.”
