Transcript: Adrienne Esposito, CCE

AMANDA: (0:00:00) Now what is the citizens campaign doing for Green Levittown?

ADRIENNE: (0:04:07) We are very involved in Green Levittown. Green Levittown is an innovative program that brings together businesses, government, the public and also environmental groups. Our role right now is do the community outreach and the community education so that the community of Levittown understands what their options and opportunities are to implement energy efficiency programs so that they can save money and save the environment at the same time. So what CC is actually doing is we hired a number of staff people to go door to door in the Levittown community and give out information, talk to members the community at their home and help them to understand the options. In addition CCE is also then doing follow up phone calls to those homes who have said that they are interested in knowing more and want to participate in the Green Levittown program. So we are doing extensive community outreach overall.

AMANDA: (1:02:07) How successful has the community outreach been in Levittown?

ADRIENNE: (1:05:07) It’s been fairly successful. There are 17,000 homes in Levittown and we have probably knocked on about 10,000 doors so far. And we have about 3,000 people who’ve said they would absolutely like to participate and implement some type of energy efficiency program in their home to reduce their carbon dioxide output, to save money and to also really combat global warming.

AMANDA: (1:29:24) Have anyone you’ve spoken to or your volunteers have spoken to, said anything about the economy being how it is now that they are not interested?

ADRIENNE: (1:39:26) Yes. It’s actually a double -edged sword. What we‘re finding is that the economy is a hindrance for people to lay out money but by the same token now with oil up way over $100 per barrel and peoples home energy bills skyrocketing it really forces people to have to think about well I need to save money. And the best way that people can to save money by putting in new boilers, which are now 30% more efficient so when you use 30% less oil, you’re saving a lot of money. So there are programs designed for green Levittown that will help people save money right now as soon as they implement them and reduce their oil costs. That’s actually a pretty big deal for people. So on one hand the economy makes it harder but on the other hand the cost of energy is so high right now and so daunting for the average home owner that it is really an impatience for people to make some changes.

ADRIENNE: (2:39:19) Anything from insulating peoples attics, putting in new windows so that the energy from the home is not literally going out right the window. As I said earlier new boilers, even just changing the light bulbs from the old standard light bulb to the new compact fluorescent bulbs. This will save people, if they change over 5 light bulbs per home, it can save them up to $200 per year in energy costs. So there are real and meaningful things and changes that people can make, that can really will make a difference in their household budget and make a difference for the environment.

AMANDA: (3:17:00) Do you think that Levittown will eventually spark other communities on Long Island and in the nation to follow in their path?

ADRIENNE: (3:23:28) We’re really hoping that Green Levittown will be a pilot program for an expanded concept such as this. So we started with Green Levittown, we’re learning a lot as we’re doing it. There was a lot that we needed to adjust and to improve on the program. We’re hoping that it will be a prototype for many communities to come. Perhaps the next step is to expand to one Suffolk and then do green Long Island. This is something that can be replicated and is designed to be able to be replicated throughout communities across the country. All communities should be implementing energy efficiency because it really is the cheapest, the easiest, the most effective thing we can do immediately to reduce our energy consumption, reduce our energy bills and save the plant at the same time.

AMANDA: (4:14:07) Is there anything else you would like to add about the campaign or about green Levittown?

ADRIENNE: (4:17:26) Well the goal of green Levittown is to get 5,000 people to participate in some way in this program. And our hope is to reduce the carbon dioxide output by 10% in the Levittown community. We should know probably in a couple of months if we’ve attained that goal or not but we’re really finding that people need a couple of months also to think about and implement these kinds of changes. So whether they’re going to get new windows or insulation or whatever it is that this takes time. So this is a yearlong project, we’re in it for the long haul. It’s not going to be a quick easy fix to save the planet and to save money. But yet it’s very real and very doable. So we’re excited about it and we think it’s going to be a big success.