NO-COST Energy and Water Assessments for Bay Area and Central Valley Residents

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – JUNE 11, 2015

This summer, Rising Sun Energy Center’s California Youth Energy Services (CYES) program will provide Bay Area and Central Valley residents with no-cost energy and water conservation services through a partnership with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), local municipalities, and local water districts.

Since 2000, Rising Sun has provided no-cost energy and water conservation services to over 28,000 residents throughout the Bay Area. Last year CYES serviced 4,444 Bay Area households, helping residents achieve the savings of nearly 25 million gallons of water annually. This summer, Rising Sun aims to serve 5,000 households. CYES trains, employs and empowers local youth ages 15 to 22 to become Energy Specialists who provide their city’s residents with Green House Calls (GHC).

At each Green House Call, Energy Specialists:

• perform an energy and water efficiency assessment,
• install energy-efficient lighting, water-efficient showerheads and faucet aerators,
• perform a toilet leak detection test,
• provide e-waste pick-up and recycling,
• offer tips on recycling and energy and water conservation to save money on utility bills, and
• give an energy-conscious gift from Rising Sun Energy Center

—all at no cost to residents.

CYES provides services to all community members regardless of income, with a focus on serving hard-to-reach residents, including renters, low-to-moderate income households, seniors, and non-English speaking households.  The program helps communities reach their Climate Action Plan targets and do their part to address California’s drought.

Our clients rave about their Green House Calls:

“Love the program! Thank you [for] helping to educate and make our home more energy and water efficient.”

“The two youth represented your organization in the most professional manner. They were courteous and respectful. They were very knowledgeable and answered all questions we had.”

This year CYES will serve more residents than ever before, reaching households in Antioch, Dublin, Fairfield, Fremont, Hayward, Lafayette-Moraga-Orinda, Manteca, Marin County, Martinez, Oakland, Richmond, Santa Rosa, South Stockton-Lathrop-French Camp, Stockton, Suisun, Tracy, Vacaville, Vallejo and Walnut Creek.

Green House Calls will begin June 30 and run through August 6, and are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Reserve your spot now. Contact us today and start saving on your energy and water bills!

Call 510.665.1501 ext. 5 to schedule your Green House Call, or sign up online at http://www.risingsunenergy.org/content/greencall.html.

For more information about Rising Sun and its programs, visit www.risingsunenergy.org

Media Contact:

Marrion Johnson

510.665.1501 ext. 106

johnson@risingsunenergy.org

California consumers are not obligated to purchase any full fee service or other service not funded by this program. This program is funded by California utility customers and administered by PG&E under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission.

Los consumidores en California no están obligados a comprar servicios completos o adicionales que no esten cubiertos bajo este Programa. Estas ofertas son financiadas por los consumidores de servicios públicos de California y administradas por PG&E bajo los auspicios de la Comisión de Servicios Públicos de California.

Slowing Down to Enjoy Success in Dublin and Pleasanton

Dublin                                                                                                                                                  Jason Spooner, Leader-in-Field-Training

Rebecca and Sruthi, ESs show off the CFLs!

So far, this has been the most relaxing week for the Dublin site. A few people have been absent from work, so we decided to lighten up the schedule for a few days. This has given us a chance to catch up on organizing our office and further train the Energy Specialists on calling clients and booking FREE Green House Call appointments. Most importantly, this was the first time all summer we got a chance to slow things down and bond as a site.

Marie, our Site Outreach Manager attended a neighborhood watch meeting booked by our City of Dublin contacts, Martha Aja and Kathy Southern. It turned out to be our most successful outreach event this year. Every member of the community was enthusiastic about the service and she ended up with about 20 clients signing up! Other that that, we have had a very entertaining week here in Dublin. Every day we are climbing closer to our goals, and I am pleased with the way things are going. Check us out on the City of Dublin Website!

Pleasanton                                                                                                                                  Deepak Singh, Leader-in-Field Training

Things are going smoothly in Pleasanton. We changed our teams in the beginning of the week to switch things around and to let everyone experience working with a different partner. We are installing a lot of measures at each house we serve. Even though we are only half way through our program, we have already surpassed our goal for the 15W floods lights. We just started door-to-door canvassing in Pleasanton, and I noticed that we needed a little more practice on our pitch. So for the professional development this week, we worked on elevator pitching the program for signups and Adrian, the Community Outreach Manager was nice enough to come and help us with it. The week ended on a high note as we had a full schedule for Friday and things looked great for Tuesday as well. We still want to serve lots more houses in Pleasanton though, and only have 2 weeks left! If you’re interested, sign up here: http://www.tinyurl.com/ghcinfo.

Adrian and the Pleasanton ESs work on their canvassing pitches.

Moving Forward in Fremont and Union City

Fremont                                                                                                                                              Geron Stevens, Leader-in-Field-Training

This week in Fremont, we started the week off slowly and carefully with an entirely redesigned system to help us work more efficiently. The ES teams swapped partners and adjusted to the new efficient system as effectively as possible. Professional development Fridays are going extremely well with all the ESs. So far, I’ve taught them about effective communication and self-development, as well as branding oneself in order to determine your target audience. I’ve asked each ES what they are interested in learning about on Fridays, and the best answer I heard was more information about our non-profit organization, Rising Sun Energy Center as a whole. Furthermore, I think this site is moving forward each and every day, taking in all sorts of new information as well as new professional skills. For example, the other day we gave a Green House Call to a Fremont Council Member’s home, so the ESs worked even harder to deliver their message as clearly and as effectively as possible.

The ESs at Fremont Council Member Suzanne Chan’s home. Courtesy of Suzanne Chan’s facebook page!

Union City                                                                                                                                     Yuni Salas-Linares, Leader-in-Field-Training

This week in Union City, we performed more than 100 Green House Calls and we are well on our way to reaching 150 houses served per week! Although it was our roughest week yet, we still managed to pull together and overcome the obstacles we faced. Since our outreach manager left early one day, and we had some absent ESs throughout the week, our site persevered until our teammates returned. We are at the halfway point and after finishing this week strong, I think we can continue to face any challenges that face us.

Developing Skills in Marin and Antioch

Marin County

Chris Luther, Leader-in-Field-Training

Over in Marin things are happening at a quick pace. Our Energy Specialists are working faster than ever getting Green House Calls done at a blistering speed. My management is working hard to get enough appointments for them to do during the day because they are so quick.

I am embracing my mentorship role as the Marin LIFT. This week in professional development I taught our youth about résumé writing. It was a challenge to have a lesson planned for a range of résumés. It was exciting to help some of our youth develop and create their first resume. Marin has definitely got the hustle.

Some of the Marin crew at an outreach event!

Antioch

Billy Spivey, Leader-in-Field-Training

This week, I was able to learn from what Community Outreach Manager Adrian facilitated on determining our personal brand and applied that to teaching the ESs later in the week about interviewing for jobs. It was difficult at first because I do not normally think about what people think of me when they see me, nor do I take time to consider what kind of image I am portraying to those in my environment, so the insight I gained really helped me to aid the the ESs in polishing their skills when the time comes to interview for challenging positions.

Meanwhile, the Energy Specialists have been getting much better at keeping track of their installations. Moreover, they have serviced a wide array of clients in terms of demographics – from the 5 bedroom homes off of Canada Valley to the small 2 bedroom apartments off of Wilbur Ave across the freeway and both high-income and low-income families alike.

In other LIFT news, we’ve been working on securing donations for the barbecue at the end of the program. Communication plays a key role in our success because we encourage each other in the email updates and feedback that we send each other. I’ve been out to more than ten businesses to solicit donations for our barbeque, including Target, Walmart, Chili’s, and Buffalo Wild Wings. I feel confident that they will be able to contribute after speaking with the managers on the phone. Hopefully the amount of donations I receive for this year will exceed my total from last year.

Racking up Successes in Berkeley, Emeryville and Richmond

Berkeley/Emeryville                                                                                                                    Rosie Nketiah, Leader-in-Field-Training

ESs Marie and Sophie, Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, ESs Melina and Arturo, and Vice Mayor Linda Maio pose at the Air Dry for the Environment event

This week at the Berkeley/Emeryville site, our team participated in Rising Sun’s first EVER Air Dry for the Environment event, held at MLK Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley!  In addition to Rising Sun’s interns running and contributing to the event, all partakers lent a hand in setting up the clothesline, hanging the clothes, and more. Berkeley Vice Mayor Linda Maio, Berkeley City Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, and Executive Director of Rising Sun, Jodi Pincus, gave speeches explaining the benefits of air drying clothing and promoting energy sustainability in the local community through programs, such as California Youth Energy Services (CYES). Two of our Energy Specialists gave brief accounts of their experience working under CYES and how “going green” impacted their lives, while others engaged in local media interviews and expressed similar standpoints. Overall, Air Dry for the Environment was a success and allowed our site to take outreach and networking to another level. Berkeley/Emeryville is still going strong and looking forward to serving the community in any way possible.

Richmond                                                                                                                                           Phon Chanthansasak, Leader-in-Field-Training

Manager David and ESs Verbin and Souriya review paperwork

This week in Richmond, our ESs serviced a total of 111 houses. Our teams are doing  a great job educating the clients and making sure their homes are energy efficient.

Each week we have our team goals; last week it was to install as many CFLs as possible. The record-holding team for our site installed 65 CFLs in one house, while another installed 52 CFLs at one site!

This week has been really busy. I was out in the field taking over for one of our ESs most of the time. When not in the field doing GHCs, I was out giving donation request letters to local businesses for the CYES barbecue at the end of the summer. It was a nerve racking experience in the beginning, but after a few tries, I think I am getting the hang of it! Hopefully I will hear back from the businesses soon.