Cottage Grove Greening the Grove Challenge

The City of Cottage Grove is already recognized as a desirable place to live and work. Having been named an All-American City on multiple occasions, the City is now challenging its businesses and residents to lead the way on issues of energy independence, regional air quality, sustainable economic development, and global climate change.

In November 2007, the Cottage Grove Council displayed impressive environmental leadership by agreeing to offset 10% of their electricity consumption with renewable energy. That means for every 10 kWh used by the City, 1 kWh has been generated from the power of the wind and delivered to the northwest power grid. There are considerable environmental benefits associated with the City¹s commitment. When the City uses electricity that is not generated from fossil fuels, the impact is equivalent to re-moving 39 cars, and their emissions, from the road for a year or planting more than 44,000 trees.

Over the course of the next six months, the City of Cottage Grove will be partnering with EPUD Renewables and Pacific Power Blue Sky to help the local community choose renewable energy. Many residents and local businesses are leading the way. Lane Community College and Cottage Grove and Pacific Aviation are two EPUD customers that have decided to support wind power.

By "greening their electricity" the community of Cottage Grove will be joining a growing list of American cities that are making a difference for generations to come. After reaching the goal, the city will be recognized as one of the nation¹s Green Power Communities by the U.S. EPA. Most significant, though, will be that Cottage Grove will have helped the environment by avoiding 2,500 tons of CO2 emissions ­equal to planting 600,000 trees or taking 630 cars off the road for a year.

Greening the Grove Events

You can find out more about the Greening the Grove renewable energy challenge at a number of events in Cottage Grove over the course of the 6-month challenge. Representatives will be available from participating organizations to answer your questions and help Cottage Grove residents enroll in a green power program. If you enroll in a green power program at any of the Greening the Grove Events, you may receive a token of appreciation from your serving utility. The next event is:

Make a difference for the community and the planet by signing up for renewable energy during the Greening the Grove Challenge! To enroll in the EPUD Renewables program and purchase wind power to offset all, or a portion of, your electricity use, click here http://www.epud.org/renewnrg.aspx or call 746-1583. If you live in Pacific Power territory you can enroll in their Blue Sky program by clicking here http://www.mypoweroptions.com/bluesky, or by calling (800) 769-3717.

Join the Greening the Grove!

Visit Cottage Grove’s Greening the Grove site.
Here’s a factsheet about Greening the Grove.
Here’s a story KLCC did on the Greening the Grove Kick-off March 13.
Click here for information on the Greening the Grove Challenge and EPUD's Wind Power sign-up form.