FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – APRIL 16, 2020
Stacy Mitchell, Director of Communications & Outreach
Local non-profits expand services to homes and businesses under the Viridiant name
(Richmond, VA) Two Richmond-based non-profits are merging to provide expanded services to central Virginia and beyond. Staff from the Richmond Region Energy Alliance (RREA) will establish a new Community Energy Services division under the Viridiant name to offer energy audits, financial assistance, technical expertise, and education directly to homes, businesses, and organizations in the Richmond metro region.
Expanded services will include:
- home energy audits discounted using rebates from utility companies;
- technical support for energy-efficient mortgages;
- an update to RREA’s popular SolarizeRVA bulk-purchasing campaign; and
- community educational programming to explore the connection between energy use and climate change.
This partnership was conceived before the COVID-19 crisis as an effort to increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness, but those goals are even more salient now, as local institutions navigate a much-changed world. The public health crisis makes clean energy solutions more important than ever, as sheltering in place reminds us the importance of resilient, efficient shelter.
Of the organization’s merger with RREA, Viridiant Executive Director KC Bleile said, “By combining our organizations, we can really focus on bringing resources and immediate benefit to our community and the built environment.”
Andrew Grigsby, Energy Services Director for the newly established Community Energy Services division within Viridiant and former Executive Director of RREA, shared, “Viridiant and RREA have always shared the same vision and worked towards complementary goals. Together, we can provide more advanced energy services to our community, help more households and businesses save money, and accelerate a carbon-neutral future.”
As 2020’s Virginia Clean Economy Act has committed the Commonwealth to 100% clean energy by mid-century, Viridiant will have greater ability to help existing buildings – traditionally the most difficult market for clean energy applications. The expanded services under Viridiant will advance on-site solar, tried and true efficiency techniques, and cutting-edge innovations in smart homes, behavioral energy efficiency, big data, and more.
About Viridiant: For 14 years Viridiant has partnered to advance energy efficient buildings across the Commonwealth and has supported the delivery of over 25,000 high performance homes to families, primarily under the EarthCraft certification. In 2018 alone, Viridiant certified 2,550 homes, saving these families over $1 million collectively in energy bills and eliminating over 4 million pounds of coal burned. These families, and the thousands of families served before them, now have access to more affordable, more livable, and more durable housing in a healthier community.
About the Richmond Region Energy Alliance: Since 2010, RREA has provided the Richmond, Virginia region with technical assistance, quality referrals, discounts and rebates for efficiency and solar energy, research, advocacy, and leadership to promote and deploy clean energy solutions.
For more information and to learn more, visit www.viridiant.org/energy-services.
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