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Last updated on Saturday, May 18, 2013
(BLOOMINGTON) - The City of Bloomington has been accepted as a partner organization of the Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) Climate Corps program for this summer.
The Climate Corps program matches specially trained graduate students with organizations across the country to help those organizations build a business case for energy efficiency.
The city applied to the program in fall 2012 and was recently matched with Ian Champ, a graduate student from the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). Through the EDF program's funding, Champ will be able to work at the City full time this summer.
"We're so happy that Ian was matched with the city," said Sustainability Coordinator Jacqui Bauer.
Champ, a first-year SPEA graduate student, is an Indiana native and has already been working as one of the City's SPEA Service Corps Fellows since last August.
"We've already decided on several projects for Ian to focus on this summer, and we're eager to get started," Bauer said.
Projects will include assessments of certain City-owned facilities, establishment of standard operating procedures for facility operations and sharing information with other local organizations to help build on what the City learns.
"I'm honored to have been accepted into this program and can't wait to start this May," Champ said.
He will attend a training session in San Francisco in May and will begin work right after returning to Bloomington.
Energy efficiency is a low-cost way to slash the nation's electricity usage and environmental impact, and can help reduce municipal budgets. The EDF created the Climate Corps program to help organizations across the nation identify and prioritize energy efficiency investments and to overcome barriers to implementation.
The EDF reports that past fellows have found an estimated $1 million in potential savings for their organizations each year.
The City will fund about 10 percent of the student's time (or $1,300), with the remaining 90 percent paid by EDF.
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