Culver City became the first public agency to complete an energy efficiency upgrade under The Energy Network - going from kickoff meeting to completion in just over eight weeks!

The Energy Network helped Culver City, a city of about 40,000 residents just west of Los Angeles, upgrade lighting at one of its public parking structures. The city replaced old high-pressure sodium lights with modern induction units at Watseka Parking Structure, a 300-plus capacity garage in a busy commercial district. The new lights are expected to cut energy consumption by 56 percent.

For Culver City, time was of the essence. After completing other energy upgrades using federal grants, the city had about $70,000 remaining, which could be used for the Watseka Parking Structure project. The challenge was, the grant expired by year's end and it was already late September.

"We had a very short timeframe," said Charles Herbertson, Culver City's director of public works. "The Energy Network was able to do things so much faster. They immediately jumped onboard. We would not have been able to get the project done on time under our normal process."

One of the innovations of The Energy Network is a Turnkey Project Delivery process that assists and guides agencies from start to finish. It also includes an expedited procurement process that cuts time to construction in half.

 
The Energy Network is off to a fast start, helping public agencies, businesses and residents save energy and money while improving our environment. But another important sustainability goal of the program is to build a robust local workforce for the clean energy jobs of the future.

As part of The Energy Network's workforce development and training efforts, Los Angeles County recently held a Green Cities, More Jobs Economic Summit in East Rancho Dominguez to promote clean energy jobs. Through the efforts of The Energy Network and its community and business partners, the program will upgrade homes, businesses and public facilities, and demand for those workers should increase.

A unique partnership of L.A. County, Citi Community Development and Emerald Cities Collaborative was forged to train low and moderate-income residents to green L.A. County public buildings - libraries, firehouses and other community facilities - to use no energy and emit no green house gases.

"It is imperative that we change our ways for the future of our children and grandchildren," said Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas who hosted the event. "Green building is here to stay and we are embracing it for its environmental, economic and social benefits."