Celebrate Earth Day 2014

Celebrate Earth Day 2014 by hosting your own Hands On Workshop with Clean Energy Durham this April.  Here’s how easy it is:

1. Pick a date in April to host your workshop.
2. Contact Clean Energy Durham and reserve your Elite Pete® for that day.
3. Invite your neighbors and friends over to your house for a workshop.
4. Have a great time with your neighbors and friends learning about easy, affordable (some are even free!) ways to save energy around your house.

It’s just that easy!  During the workshop, you and your neighbors will learn easy-to-do activities  as well as find out how simple changes in behavior can save you lots of energy and money in your home.  Everyone there will learn and do at least three energy-saving activities that they can then repeat in their own home. 

Read our other blogs posts or check out our website to get an idea of what happens in our Hands On Workshops.  To schedule your own workshop, contact Ann at 919-323-3244 or info@cleanenergydurham.org.

New Elite Petes in Lee County!

Our first Lee County graduating class!

Elite Petes® continue to spread throughout North Carolina! Our most recent graduating class is in Lee County, thanks to a grant from the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice. The Elite Petes were trained how to run the Pete Street® Basic Energy Education and Hands On workshops. Their mad skills with rope caulk and outlet insulators are matched only by their enthusiasm for wanting to tell their neighbors how easy it is to save money (by saving energy) in their homes.

We look forward to having Kate Rumely, Patt Likes, Ruby Andrews, and Crystal Escobar helping their Lee County communities get more energy efficient! If you are interested in hosting a workshop in Sanford or want to become an Elite Pete yourself, please contact Patt Likes at Brick Capital Community Development Corporation, phone number (919) 775-2300 or at pattlks@live.com
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Other North Carolina Pete Street communities include the city of Asheville and Buncombe County, Towns of Chapel Hill & Carrboro, Halifax County, Greensboro, Siler City, Warren County, Wilson County and of course, Durham!

New Elite Petes right here in Durham!

Thanks to a generous grant from Durham County, we recently trained eight new Elite Petes® to run Hands On Workshops throughout Durham.  Staff members from Housing for New Hope, Urban Ministries of Durham, and Genesis Home spent two days with us learning how to teach no-cost and low-cost activities to help people save energy and therefore money in their homes.  These fabulous staff members plan to incorporate Clean Energy Durham’s two cornerstone workshops, the Basic Energy Education workshop and the Hands On Workshop, into their programs, helping their residents to save money when they transition into their own homes.

One of our new Elite Petes said that the “training was fun and easy to learn. I’m looking forward to teaching people what I learned.”

The Elite Petes learned how to effectively run workshops as well as receiving practical experience by actually doing the activities.  They are all looking forward to going out into their communities to teach what they learned.  We are proud of them and are looking forward to seeing what they will accomplish.

Turn out the lights!

Check out the fabulous video that Green Opportunities, our wonderful Pete Street® partner, in Asheville, NC made.