N2NEC: Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge begins

As I've been mentioning since last December, Cheshire is one of 14 towns that was included in a recently announced $4.2 million energy grant. The 14 towns are aggregated in four clusters. Bethany and Cheshire constitute one of the four clusters.

Though I heard about it last year, the actual grant application wasn't approved until May.* And by June I reached out to a few people and got the ball rolling on the first Bethany / Cheshire meeting for the Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge (N2NEC).

Although I didn't fully understand it back in December, I now see the goal of the grant is fairly simple... though difficult to achieve.

The idea is to get 10% of all households to participate and to reduce their total energy consumption by 20%... and to measure everything, including what works and what doesn't work. Then use that information to roll out the successful measures across the state.

I'll post more on this. But in the meantime if you're interested to learn more, visit the N2NEC FB page here or block out a time on your calendar for the first N2NEC brainstorming session for the night of either Monday Aug 16 or Thursday Aug 19... I'll give you a date certain after I hear back from a few more people.

Last, but not least, if you know anyone looking for a job... this program is looking for an experienced organizer... and may very well have some job postings on this page in the near future for recent college grads who are passionate about energy and the environment.

Tim White

* Much of the credit goes to Congressman Chris Murphy for gaining the support of CTs seven legislators.