Portsmouth and Keene Compete in Carbon Challenge

Both Keene and Portsmouth have a pretty green reputation.
Portsmouth was one of the first cities in the state to require all municipal buildings be built using environmentally friendly techniques.
Keene was the first city in the nation to draft a plan to adapt to a warming climate.
So it seems only natural that the two cities would be the first to compete in a household carbon challenge.
1:24 B (I have no doubt we are going to win)
That’s Rhett Lamb, Keene’s Planning Director, and a pretty confident guy.
Rhett2 (1:30 Keene has been a leader in this field and this sort of green movement for quite some time, and Portsmouth has been in the same category as us for a long time as well, so to have a challenge set up by the NH Carbon Challenge has been real exciting for us)
Here’s how it worked:
Both Keene and Portsmouth city leaders asked their employees to take an online survey called the carbon challenge.
Denise Blaha, Co-Director of the New Hampshire Carbon Challenge, says survey asks homeowners some basic questions.
Denise1 4:21 we look at vehicles, we look at electricity emissions, we look at home heating and cooling and also recycling.
It factors in things like how many miles families traveled and how often, and if they use energy-efficient appliances or light bulbs.
Blaha says armed with that, the website software calculates their carbon footprint.
Denise2 “They can walk away with a to-do list if you will of actions that they want to take to reduce their energy consumption and energy costs.”
Portsmouth and Keene had just 17 days to get its employees to participate.
Rhett Lamb says while many Keene employees were excited about it, others took some convincing.
Rhett3 “What we did to excite that group was to talk about energy savings, and put it in terms of money, because there’s a big potential with these changes in lifestyle or changes in the way you use energy to save money, and that appeals to everybody.
The average homeowner following the advice of the carbon challenge has reduced energy use by about 16-percent and saved about 800-dollars a year.
Peter Britz, Portsmouth’s environmental planner and sustainability coordinator, says some employees were leery of participating because they had “so much work to do.”
But the challenge usually takes only 15 minutes and Britz says having the competition with Keene helped.
Peter1 “When I was trying to get staff people to take action it really helped to not just say reduce your carbon footprint and save money, but ‘we got to beat Keene we can’t let Keene win’ so it really helped that part of it, the competition part of it.”
Britz says employees were also surprised at how simple steps – like replacing light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs – could make a big difference in a household’s carbon footprint.
New Hampshire Carbon Challenge has been tracking both cities’ participation rate.
Just two weeks into the competition, co-director Julia Dundorf was impressed.
“Julia1” in just two weeks, we’re seeing over two million pounds in co2 reduced, and over 175, thousand dollars worth of energy costs that will be reduced through these pledged actions, and that’s just two cities in less than two weeks.”
The last publicized count showed Keene in the lead with 50-percent participation.. Portsmouth had 40.
Besides the recognition and the bragging rights, the winning city will get a carbon reducing gift – a tree, planted by the losing city.
Organizers say today’s announcement is just the beginning.
They’ve planned another competition between the cities’ residents.
And they hope the carbon challenge will catch on in other communities across the state.
For NHPR news, I’m Amy Quinton.