Fairfax County is stepping up efforts to meet its carbon neutrality goals with new programs and tools to help residents go green, starting next year.
First outlined in May, the three-part plan includes a public awareness campaign, a climate action tracking app and a home energy advisory service to help residents transition to clean energy and reduce their carbon footprints.
County officials say they have moved beyond the planning phase and are now actively working toward implementation.
Sustain Fairfax campaign launches
This month, the county’s Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination launched a “Sustain Fairfax” campaign, which uses digital outreach in English and Spanish to promote energy-efficient home improvements, electric vehicle adoption and flood resiliency measures.
“The goals of this campaign are really to help raise awareness … increase participation in the programs that we already have available, and to encourage folks to take advantage of the resources that are available to them, and to encourage that action that we need our communities to take to help us reach our climate goals,” OEEC spokesperson John Silcox told the Board of Supervisors during its environmental committee meeting last Tuesday (Dec. 10).
The county is collaborating with the Ashburn-based marketing company Identika to launch a media campaign that will guide residents to a new website featuring detailed information on existing county programs, as well as resources and initiatives set to launch in the near future.
The website isn’t yet live, but Silcox says it will be rolled out in phases over the next year, building momentum as the county’s other clean energy strategies are implemented.
“We’ve developed some resources, toolkits, some social media, infographics, content that [residents] can share within their communities help us amplify the message,” he said. “We’ll be looking to partner with them in ways to tailor that to their communities, as well as find out what they need in order to help us make this as successful as we can.”
An app that tracks your carbon footprint
Complementing the awareness-raising efforts, a climate action tracker app called “Bright Action” is slated for launch in early 2025. The web-based platform will let individuals, neighborhoods and community groups monitor their carbon footprint, set reduction goals, and engage in friendly competition to inspire action.
“If they wanted to do some joint efforts with family, friends, neighbors, within their places of worship, within their community association, within their homeowners’ association, they will be able to do that,” Silcox said.
Clean energy concierge pilot planned
Additionally, the county is establishing a home energy advisory pilot program that could come online as soon as April or May. The concierge-style service will give homeowners information on federal, state, and local energy efficiency and electrification rebates, and help them find qualified contractors to complete upgrades.
Like their counterparts in other localities like Arlington and Alexandria, OEEC staff have been overwhelmed with resident requests for information and technical support on solar energy, EV charging stations, and efficiency upgrades, according to Silcox.
“They often seek advice or referrals from the county and from our office, and we’re limited in the information and referrals that we can provide,” Silcox said.
To meet the demand, the county plans to hire a contractor to create a pilot program modeled after the Virginia Department of Energy’s proposed “one-stop-shop.” The program will serve as a referral service, connecting residents with information and resources for energy-saving projects like installing solar panels or EV charging stations.
“The goal of that program is going to be to complement the … one-stop shop that’s being developed at the state level, that will also be supporting single family residential energy efficiency work electrification and renewable energy retrofits,” Silcox said.
The OEEC plans to fund the energy concierge program with money originally allocated for the creation of a green bank, along with a federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG), Silcox said. Other initiatives will be covered through the office’s general operating budget.
Progress on emissions goals
The county’s clean energy push comes as Virginia gets ready to roll out more than $180 million in federal rebates for home energy efficiency and electrification in 2025. Supervisors say they want to make sure residents know about and take full advantage of the programs.
“We’ve been asking for these elements for a long time, and I still contend that if we make it easy for people, people will do the right thing,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said during the meeting. “Our job on the environmental front, a lot of ways, is to make it easy for people to know what the right thing is, and this is a major step towards that.”
OEEC staff plan to update supervisors in February on the county’s progress toward its goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2040.
Fairfax County reduced its overall emissions by 30% between 2005 and 2020, even as its population grew by 12%, according to data from the Metropolitan Council of Governments.
Government operations have cut back emissions by 20.3% since 2018, keeping the county on track to drop emissions 50% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, according to a 2023 county report.
Tree canopy coverage has reached 55%, with ongoing efforts to expand it in underserved areas.
Meanwhile, more than 37,000 homes have been retrofitted for energy efficiency, bringing the county closer to its goal of 100,000 retrofits by 2030.
“These three components, they really work together by raising awareness among our residents and our community in encouraging their participation in the climate work that we’re doing as as a county,” Silcox said.
Photo via Raze Solar/Unsplash
