For over 40 years, Energy Resource Center has been serving income-qualified individuals and families with energy efficiency upgrades at no cost to them. Why does this matter? Often members of our Colorado communities have to choose between their medication, feeding their families or paying their utility bills. In our harsh Colorado winters, that can even mean choosing between buying groceries and heating their homes. We are proud to serve these families but our impact has a larger reach. We work to make homes more efficient, which in turn makes the homes we service less reliant on our local power grids. The less reliant we are on our power grids and fossil fuels, allows us to have a cleaner Colorado.
So what does this mean for you and why should you care? Well, every time you drive your car from Denver to the mountains or fly from DIA to another destination, you are emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air. CO2 pollutes our air and in fact, Denver was recently named the 4th most polluted city in the United States in a recent study by BuyAutoInsurance.com that analyzed data from the Environmental Protection Agency. This wasn’t the case several years ago, but with the rapidly growing population of Colorado, we’re seeing more air pollution and more homes on the power grid than ever before.
So what can we do? One opportunity is to offset our carbon. Carbon offsetting is a relatively new concept but it allows residents to offset the negative impact made by driving, flying and even turning on the power in our homes and businesses. These offsets are dollars that equate to the amount of carbon emitted that benefit an organization working to reduce our carbon footprint. This could be organizations that help replant trees in the rainforest or working to make businesses globally to be more energy efficient. Let’s say you drive from Denver to Vail. You can go to a carbon offsetting calculator, enter your mileage and/or place of origin + destination and it will calculate the amount to donate to one of these verified carbon-offsetting organizations. Pretty cool, right?
So what does this have to do with the Energy Resource Center? We’re glad you asked! Turns out, we’ve been offsetting carbon for over 
40 years in Colorado. Every time we service a home, we’re making that home more energy efficient and less reliant on the power grid, as we mentioned above. But, instead of impacting the rainforest (which is still very important), we’re reducing the carbon footprint right here in Colorado. Your donation to ERC allows us to service more of these homes and continue to make an impact by installing solar panels, replacing inefficient furnaces, and adding insulation to homes that have inadequate protection from the heat of summer or freezing temperatures of winter… all at NO COST to the home owner. We’re helping those in need all while making Colorado a cleaner place to live.
Want to learn more? Our Carbon Offsetting site is COMING SOON! You’ll be able to offset your carbon and make a LOCAL impact. Happy offsetting!