The Floyd-based Association of Energy Conservation Professionals held its tenth annual Green Living and Energy Expo over the weekend, demonstrating to visitors that there is a better, more environmentally friendly way to live. The eighth AECP show that has been held in Roanoke ran the gamut of green exhibitors, from hybrid and electric cars, to fluorescent light bulbs and bicycle clubs.
Information booths from the Western Virginia Land Trust, Roanoke Valley Greenways, the Sierra Club and others were also on hand to help encourage people to think green. Roanoke County’s table at the Roanoke Civic Center’s events center featured information about the citizens-led RC-CLEAR group, the Roanoke County Community Leaders Environmental Action Roundtable.
This new committee works with county officials, brainstorming about ways to make energy conservation and the reduction of carbon footprints as easy as lowering a thermostat or plugging leaks in windows and doors.
Jim Vodnik, the Assistant Director of General Services for Roanoke County and the environmental coordinator, said they joined a group of local governments that advocate sustainable practices (ICLEI), then they set up the RC-CLEAR committee with members from each sector of the county.
“The primary purpose…is energy conservation and greenhouse gas reduction,” said Vodnik. RC-CLEAR will come up with an action plan “and take it out to the community. We need really large participation from the community in order to have an impact.”
Roanoke County has set an ambitious goal of reducing its carbon footprint, the so-called greenhouse gas emissions, by 30 percent in the year 2020. Vodnik said anything the county government can do – like the hybrid cars it uses more and more of, or the LEED-certified public buildings it now constructs, will amount to just one percent of that total.
The remainder of that 30 percent – 3 percent a year until 2020 – must come from businesses and residents that reduce their energy consumption, use alternative transportation, etc. “We’ve got to have community input,” said Vodnik, who appreciated being around others of the same ilk at the AECP expo. “A lot of good ideas are promoted here.”
Other booths displayed wind turbines, solar panel systems, electric or hybrid cars, insulation systems and the like. Executive Director Billy Weitzenfeld founded the expo ten years ago; the statewide organization held its first two trade shows at Virginia Tech and in Salem before settling in at the Roanoke Civic Center.
Weitzenfeld said the AECP doesn’t push any particular green agenda; it just wants to show what is out there in the way of technology for those interested in curbing greenhouse emissions and their carbon footprint.
“The growth of this event has really reflected the growth and awareness on the part of consumers, students, professionals and contractors,” said Weitzenfeld, a builder who oversaw a weatherization program in Floyd for several years. “The purpose of the event is to get people excited…so that when they leave here they take action.”
By Gene Marrano [email protected]