Homeowners Cited for Energy-Conservation Efforts

Six months after their homes with energy upgrades, Bedford saluted yet another couple of dozen this week as pioneers in energy conservation.

In a town hall ceremony similar to last December’s, residents taking advantage of the Energize Bedford program—which looks to cut home energy consumption by 10 to 40 percent—left with a seal, a participation certificate and the thanks of grateful town officials.

A leader in northern Westchester’s energy-conservation efforts, Bedford has targeted a 20 percent reduction in energy use by 2020. “Each of you,” Supervisor Lee V.A. Roberts told the certificate holders, “is helping us toward our goal, and we congratulate you.”

Tom Bregman, director of the Retrofit Project Program, made clear Tuesday just how far out in front Bedford has sprinted in energy-conservation efforts since roughly the end of 2010. Addressing the board and a large town hall audience, Bregman noted that Bedford residents—barely 10 percent of northern Westchester’s population—have initiated a third of all the area’s home-performance upgrades.

“What has happened has been dramatic,” Bregman said, “and it’s happened in the last 18 months.”

Bregman’s wide-angle focus goes with the territory, literally, for the retrofit director. While his job began as a town position, it was understood from the start—and spelled out in the federal grant money that funds it—that the program will expand its borders. Ultimately, Energize opportunities are expected to be available in all 14 communities of the Northern Westchester Energy Action Coalition.

Already, Bregman told his town hall audience, additional Energize programs are under way in the towns of Somers and New Castle as well as both the town and village of Ossining. Plans are on the drawing board, he said, for launches in three or four more towns.