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From YouTube: Here/now: Green Arlington
Description
A segment of AVN's monthly magazine show, "Here/now", this in studio interview with Sarah O'Connell, the county's energy outreach coordinator, examines the ways that Arlington County is cutting down on both its energy costs and its greenhouse emissions.
A
Economy
and
the
car
is
global
warming.
There
may
not
be
a
hotter
topic
in
the
world
today
than
energy.
Everybody
wants
to
know
how
to
save
on
their
energy
bills
and
reduce
their
energy
emissions,
and
today
we
have
a
guest
with
us,
we'll
be
helping
Arlington
to
do
both
Sarah
O'connell,
who
is
the
energy
outreach
coordinator
from
the
fresh
air
team
Sarah
thanks
so
much
for
joining
us
today,
thanks
for
having
me
taranagar
glad
to
have
you
here,
what's
burning
on
my
mind,
Sarah
is
that
I
know
with
my
home.
A
B
It
actually
is
a
very
remarkable
portion
of
our
budget
here
in
the
county,
we're
doing
lots
of
different
things
within
the
county
to
help
manage
and
control
those
costs,
and
that's
the
key
really
is
that
energy
is
controllable.
It
is
a
controllable
costs
for
us.
What
we
we
know
in
the
county
is
that
energy
and
utility
costs
actually
about
11
million
dollars
a
year.
B
So
it's
a
pretty
sizable
part
of
our
budget,
so
just
like
homeowners
struggle
with
their
budgets,
we're
struggling
with
ours
too,
and
we're
really
looking
to
bring
that
number
down
through
a
lot
of
different
measures.
We're
aggressively
and
proactively
pursuing
energy
efficiency
upgrades
across
all
of
our
operations.
Actually
Arlington
really
is
a
leader
in
this
area
or
at
the
forefront
of
different
counties
across
the
nation.
B
Actually,
we
set
a
goal
to
reduce
our
emissions
by
ten
percent
by
2012
and
that's
actually
going
back
to
a
2000
baseline
so
and
we're
pursuing
that
in
a
lot
of
different
ways
through
energy
efficiency,
through
fleet
efficiency
and
also
employee
behavior.
Those
are
sort
of
the
focus
areas
for
us
under
this
fresh
air
program.
I'm.
Looking.
A
B
In
some
buildings
there
may
be
equipment
upgrades
such
as
a
boiler
replacement,
for
example,
and
we've
done
boiler
replacements
in
the
last
couple
of
years
in
a
fire
station
homeless,
shelter,
nature
center,
we've
also
done
dozens
of
lighting
upgrades
in
facilities
across
across
our
operations
and
and
what
we
find
is
that
there
are
opportunities
across
our
entire
portfolio.
If
you
will
a
building
so
whether
it's
a
fire
station
or
an
office
building
or
a
Nature
Center,
there
are
opportunities
for
improvement.
So
those
are.
Those
are
a
couple
of
examples
of
what
we're
doing.
How.
B
A
great
question,
and
actually
what
we've
found
is
that
our
typical
payback
period
is
about
five
years,
and
so
some
projects
may
have
a
shorter
pay
back.
Some
may
have
a
longer
pay
back
so
I
mentioned
earlier.
An
example
of
one
replacement
was
a
boiler
replacement.
Now,
that's
something
that's
rather
expensive,
but
typically
when
those
types
of
upgrades
are
done,
it's
a
piece
of
equipment
that
would
have
had
to
be
replaced
anyway,
because
it's
at
the
end
of
its
useful
life.
B
So
that's
worth
what
a
worthwhile
investment
other
investments
or
projects
may
have
a
shorter
payback
like
lighting
efficiency,
that's
typically
a
quicker
payback,
but
we
find
on
average
it's
about
a
five
year:
payback,
okay,
but
yeah.
Actually,
one
really
exciting
project
when
it
comes
to
building
efficiency.
Is
our
energy
performance
contract
going
on
at
the
Justice
Center
an
energy
performance
contract
is
one
where
the
savings
that
are
generated
from
that
contract
are
actually
guaranteed.
A
B
Well,
that's
a
challenge
too,
but
something
that
that
we
are
addressing.
We've
initiated
a
Action,
Program
or
campaign
for
our
employees,
and
the
goal
here
is
to
empower
our
employees
with
the
information
and
knowledge.
So
they
can
take
action
to
actually
be
part
of
this
budget
solution
and
helping
to
bring
down
our
energy
costs
as
a
way
to
reduce
our
budget
and
also
just
to
give
them
an
opportunity
to
to
make
a
commitment
to
the
environment
and
help
to
protect
the
environment.
It's.