News

It’s that time of year again: Energy Month events planned to help boost awareness, cut costs

  • Published
  • By Brian Shreve
  • Robins Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  For some, October means post-season baseball, college football or raking leaves.

But for Team Robins, it also happens to be an opportune time to learn more about resource conservation as Energy Action Month kicks off here and around the Air Force.

With this year's theme, "I Am Air Force Energy," the 78th Civil Engineer Group Energy Management Office looks for October's campaign to promote awareness of the little things everyone can do on a daily basis.  

"The simple things we can do are what make a big difference," said Allen Quattlebaum, base energy conservation program manager. "Turning off lights, radios or fans when we leave the office - or even unplugging them - are easy fixes for us as we think about reducing consumption. We're all paying for it as taxpayers."

Highlighted events are set to include online energy awareness training, the Children's Energy Lesson and Poster Contest, an electronic energy survey and the start of a base-wide conservation competition which will award any organizational team "demonstrating outstanding energy-related contributions," said Quattlebaum.

Nominations for the contest will come from within each mission partner and be selected by the energy office. Teams will be judged for cost-avoidance initiatives in their work areas spanning a period of January through October and rotating on a quarterly basis from there.  

Winners of the competition will receive a trophy donated by a local energy company.

As for the Air Force Energy Awareness Training, Quattlebaum said all employees are requested to complete the course via Advanced Distributed Learning Services and to report on the final statistics to the EMO.  

The Electronic Energy Survey, titled "What's the State of Energy Conservation Within Your Facility?" is aimed at sampling the awareness level of employees concerning costs savings as they perform their daily work duties.  

Officials from a local energy company will present the Children's Energy Lesson, explaining how energy is used and the necessity to conserve it, at the Robins Youth Center on Oct. 6.

This event will also begin the poster contest, with submissions due to be turned into the Youth Center by Oct. 10. The posters will go on display at the Base Restaurant, where patrons will vote on them - the top three being awarded ribbons by the end of the month.

"Especially with cuts in the Department of Defense, energy conservation becomes more important," said Quattlebaum. "We need to take action, and that occurs by changing people's culture in terms of being aware."

As a whole, the Air Force seeks to reduce energy intensity by 30 percent by the end of fiscal 2015, starting from a baseline of 2003, a goal that has so far been achieved by a nearly 16-percent decrease since then.

Utility expenses at Robins are roughly $25 million a year, according to Quattlebaum, and represent one of the largest portions of the Operations and Management budget.

For further event details and links to the competition, survey and training, visit the Robins Energy home page at https://cs.eis.afmc.af.mil/sites/energy/WR/default.aspx?CalendarDate=10%2F24%2F2014.