The Town Creek Foundation and the Center for Environment & Society (CES) at Washington College today launched the ShorePower Project, an initiative that will help municipalities on Maryland’s Eastern Shore significantly reduce their energy expenditures.
The ShorePower Project aims to replicate in other county seats the success CES achieved with a pilot project in Chestertown. Between 2008 and 2011, Chestertown’s electricity consumption dropped by roughly 300,000-kilowatt hours per year. This amounted to a greater than 11 percent decrease and an avoidance of more than $130,000 annually in costs. It also constituted an overall reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 200 tons per year.
In the first year of the ShorePower Project, staff will work with partners Cambridge, Easton, Salisbury and Snow Hill. Partnerships with other county seats on the Eastern Shore will be forged in the future.
ShorePower is funded by a $150,000 grant from Easton-based Town Creek Foundation. Established in 1981 by retired printing industry executive Edmund “Ted” Stanley, Town Creek Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation dedicated to a sustainable environment.
The ShorePower Project is being led by Briggs Cunningham, Energy Programs Manager at CES, and Mary Yates, recently hired as ShorePower Project Coordinator. In shaping the program, the two have consulted closely with officials from the Maryland Energy Administration, the Maryland Department of the Environment, and the Maryland Municipal League. Going forward, they will work with agencies and vendors to inventory each municipality’s energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions, develop recommendations for achieving energy savings and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and build capacity for ongoing tracking and evaluation. A 15-member ShorePower Advisory Board, drawn largely from regional experts in environmental science and policy, will help oversee the project.
The ShorePower Project was officially kicked off at an event Friday afternoon, January 17, at the Tidewater Inn in Easton. Speakers included partners from the project plus Abigail Hopper, Director of the Maryland Energy Administration, and Robert Summers, Secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment. For more information on the ShorePower Project, please contact Briggs Cunningham at 410.810.7174 or [email protected].
The Center for Environment & Society (CES) at Washington College was founded in 1999 to promote interdisciplinary learning, research and exemplary stewardship of natural and cultural resources. The Center’s educational resources include a Geographic Information Systems lab, a public archeology lab, two research vessels, and the 5,000-acre Chester River Field Research Station.
Kay MacIntosh, Director of Media Relations, Washington College
office: 410-810-7408 cell: 443-480-2363
[email protected]
Briggs Cunningham says
Editor,
Check out more information on this important regional initiative at: http://www.shorepowerproject.com. Everyone can participate in this effort by turning off anything that uses electricity when not in use.