State and Local Climate and Energy Program
Hailey Community Climate Challenge
Hailey, Idaho
Federal Funding: $472,429
Project Timeline: February 2011 – December 2013
Latest Update
The City of Hailey continues to make progress on all six areas of the Community Climate Challenge. The City continued to accept applications for energy efficiency rebate checks under the Energy Audit and Retrofit Program, called Save-A-Watt. As of September 2012, 31 rebates have been issued. The City has launched testing of the bike share system and has completed replacement of street lighting with efficient LED lighting. The construction of the Green Building Demonstration building is well underway; the building is designed to achieve LEED certification by addressing several priority areas including energy performance, transportation, and solid waste management. Lastly, the City continued to promote solid waste diversion through the construction recycling pilot program, assisting with the demolition of one large house to salvage reusable items, and holding a workshop on how to build chicken coops from reclaimed materials.
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Project Summary
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in a Small Community
Hailey, Idaho, is showing that any small community can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from municipal and community sources by forming a strong alliance of community partners and implementing coordinated GHG reduction projects. All of the projects build upon current climate change mitigation efforts in Hailey, and will contribute to significant and continued GHG reductions.
The Hailey Community Climate Challenge is building community and government capacity within to reduce GHG emissions, achieving many benefits, and is easily replicable by other small communities. The project elements include:
- Energy Audit & Retrofit Program with Renewable Energy Incentives
- Green Building Demonstration
- Solid Waste Management Capacity Building
- Downtown Bike Share System & Energy Efficient Streetlight Upgrade
- Hailey Government Capacity Building
- Education, Outreach and Replicability
The City of Hailey is building on existing commercial and residential energy audits and an energy efficiency retrofit program funded by the Idaho Office of Energy Resources. Hailey is expanding funding for the program to provide additional audits and retrofits and is also funding renewable energy system rebates to three individuals per grant cycle. The project includes biannual community workshops on 1) ways to improve energy efficiency and information on existing financial incentives and 2) ways to implement small-scale renewable energy systems.
Hailey is also demonstrating the benefits of green building for the community by capitalizing on an approved plan for a LEED-certified interpretive center at the Hailey Rodeo Park, located at Hailey's city entrance. By working through perceived barriers about the cost and difficulty of building green, the demonstration project will help encourage higher building standards for future city and community development projects. This demonstration project involves extensive stakeholder outreach to enrich community understanding of green building concepts. Outreach includes: an interpretive exhibit that at the new center on how the project achieved LEED certification and GHG reductions, and why those reductions are important; newsletter updates, media releases; and on-site demonstrations and tours.
Hailey is alleviating landfill capacity pressures and encouraging better waste management by implementing the following:
- Deconstruction/Material Salvage – Hailey will increase the capacity of the Building Material Thrift Store to do the deconstruction and salvage work associated with big commercial or multifamily housing projects.
- Construction Material Recycling Pilot Program
- Plastic Bag Source Reduction – Hailey will continue the EPA materials management grant project focused on source reduction of plastic bags (called “Just Bag It!”).
This Challenge component includes workshops, brochures, fact sheets, websites, ads, media releases, and temporary public art installations.
Hailey is implementing a bike share system and upgrading to energy efficient streetlights in downtown Hailey. The bike share system will ease congestion and reduce vehicle miles traveled, and will have 3 stations and 18 bikes located in close proximity to the City's major park and ride transit station, the Green Building Demonstration project (southside), and a northside location near affordable housing. The energy efficient streetlight upgrade retrofitted 70 downtown lights with energy-efficient bulbs. This project also includes outreach: ads, a brochure, a web page, and a kick-off event.
Hailey is also creating a new Community Climate Specialist position to lead Hailey's climate protection program. The position supports implementation of the Challenge, and builds municipal capacity to continue reduction of GHG emissions through city and community initiatives and projects.
Finally, Hailey is raising awareness and fostering a change in consumer behavior through education, outreach, and replicability. To do so, Hailey is:
- working with the local non-profit, ERC, to coordinate the outreach and education components of the project,
- producing a 30- to 50-minute documentary film about the Challenge, and
- producing a project how-to booklet, including all elements tackled by the Challenge, for other cities to use as a guide to how they can implement similar GHG reduction activities.
Public benefits of the Challenge are diverse and wide-ranging. Greenhouse gas reductions of 525 metric tons of CO2e/year directly address climate change and protect the environment, while robust public education and outreach will engage the community, raise awareness, and foster behavior change. The knowledge will be sustained and built upon by the creation of the Community Climate Specialist position, which assures continued public education and benefit.
Community Characteristics
| Population | 7,854 |
|---|---|
| Area | 3.2 square miles |
| Government Type | City |
| Community Type | Rural |
| Median Household Income | $51,728 |
Program Results
| Reported Results (as of September 2012) | Projected Cumulative Results | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual GHG Reductions | 455 mt CO2e | 102 mt CO2e |
| Annual Cost Savings | $13,967 | $12,763 |
| Streetlights Retrofitted | 52 | 70 |
