County ENERGY STAR Program

NACo and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program have partnered to help counties make their buildings more energy-efficient and to spread the energy-efficiency message to their communities. 

The ENERGY STAR Challenge encourages Americans to improve their energy efficiency by 10% or more. Counties play a vital dual role in the Challenge-they lead by example by improving their own buildings, and they leverage their relationships with private sector organizations to motivate them to make energy efficiency improvements. A wide variety of free tools and resources are available to assist participating counties.  To register your county as a participant click here.

ENERGY STAR Partnership offers counties a unique opportunity to leverage ENERGY STAR. As partners, counties can use the ENERGY STAR mark and logo, develop an energy management plan, become nationally recognized by ENERGY STAR, and more. To become an ENERGY STAR partner click here. Partner counties are automatically registered for the ENERGY STAR Challenge. 

For more information, contact Jared Lang at 202-942-4224; jlang@naco.org

12/01/2008 - ENERGY STAR Trainings
ENERGY STAR offers free online trainings to help you improve the energy performance of your organization. To see more events, please visit the Green Calendar of Events located on the right toolbar of this page.

12/01/2008 - Counties go for the 'green' in two competitions
This article summarizes the efforts of counties in two NACo sponsored green competitions.

Bring Your Green to Work
Shares tips and advice on how to make your workplace more environmentally friendly and energy efficient.

ENERGY STAR Challenge Toolkit
The Challenge Took Kit provides counties with resources on how to promote energy efficiency to their communities. The Tool Kit includes publications, posters, and information on improving energy efficiency and encouraging community involvement.

01/07/2009 - County Energy Efficiency Spotlights 2008 (pdf)
This presentation outlines the work of 25 counties across the country on how they are being energy efficient in their county buildings, policies, and education/outreach. The document will be continually updated. To submit your county’s case study information contact Kelly Zonderwyk at kzonderwyk@naco.org.

12/01/2008 - Working with Groups in the Community
ENERGY STAR offers a series of fact sheets that provide information on energy use, energy efficiency opportunities, partnership possibilities, and key leverage points for major groups, assisting counties in helping to promote energy efficiency in their community.