Iowa City is focusing on its Eastside neighborhood for its fourth annual Earth Day Blitz. The program encourages sustainable living to meet the city’s climate goals of net-zero emissions by 2050.
Since its inception in 2021, the Earth Day Blitz has called on volunteers to go door to door in designated priority neighborhoods, where homes may be older and in need of energy-saving devices. The energy-saving kits contain items including LED light bulbs, shower timers, and furnace whistles.
Iowa City’s Climate Action Engagement Specialist Megan Hill recalled the large amount of community support they received for the first energy blitz in April 2021.
“We had a lot of volunteers despite being in peak COVID, and we were so successful, we decided to continue the event,” Hill said.
The blitz aligns with the City of Iowa City’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, which is the blueprint for the city’s goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
This year, the Eastside neighborhood was chosen as the priority neighborhood where volunteers will go door to door. There, morning volunteers will drop off kits containing everything from the usual energy savers like LED light bulbs but also new items for home weatherization like weather stripping.
Homeowners are encouraged to exchange the common home items for the energy-saving counterparts found in the kits. That same afternoon, volunteers will then pick up opened kits, which now contain used light bulbs and batteries that the city can recycle.
“We divert a ton of waste from the landfill because of that,” Hill said. “We don’t want any batteries, especially, going to the landfill because of fire hazards. So, that is a really important aspect of this program.”
Last year, Iowa City reported that the blitz saved each participating household an estimated $75 and averted 478,142 pounds of greenhouse gas. While an estimate hasn’t been made for this year’s blitz, the city’s Climate Action Analyst Daniel Bissell said its impact is still expected to be noticeable if residents take advantage of their kits.
“We maintain greenhouse gas inventory for the community and for municipal operations, and what we know from that is 95 percent of emissions happen in places that are outside of our control,” Climate Action Coordinator Sarah Gardner explained. “Maintaining community engagement is really the only pathway to addressing that remaining 95 percent.”
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Gardner said the city can make public buildings like city hall, the library, and even the fuel in fire trucks as energy-efficient as they please, but it’s up to the residents of Iowa City to make houses energy-efficient.
Gardner appreciates that the kits not only come with energy-efficient utilities but also information on how to make their households emit less greenhouse gas.
“Most people really understand renewable energy and the benefits of solar, for example, sitting on your rooftop. They’re less clear on what steps they could take to reduce energy usage in their households,” she said.
Bissell shared a similar sentiment, hoping residents will make use of the energy-efficient projects advertised, like the Insulate Iowa City program. The program provides residents with energy audits by Green Iowa AmeriCorps and offers free attic insulation and air-sealing services, helping income-qualified homeowners reduce energy consumption and lower utility bills.
“The kits can certainly help with reduced energy use and reduce gas emissions right away for folks who install those bulbs and install the weather stripping,” he said. “But it also raises awareness that there are other things that those households could pursue, like other weatherization services and energy audits.”