Get Free Energy-Saving Trees

Pepco and the Arbor Day Foundation are offering free trees to help you conserve energy. Trees are available on a first-come, first-serve basis from March 20 through June 6, while supplies last. Distribution is limited to two, 2-to-4 foot trees per customer. To get your free trees, visit www.arborday.org/Pepco today.

Properly planted trees help reduce energy use through summer shading and by slowing winter winds. As your trees grow, they will have the potential to lower energy bills by 15 to 30 percent.

To help you plant your tree in the right place, the Arbor Day Foundation offers you an online mapping tool that will:

• Map your house
• Show you the right trees for your area
• Locate the best place to plant them
• Calculate how much you can expect to save

To learn more about this program, please visit www.arborday.org/pepco.

Save Energy and Reduce Your Electricity Bill

Did you know that if you plant the right tree in the right location on your property, you could save energy and reduce your electricity bill? Now you can do it for free. Last week, we announced that we are teaming up with the Arbor Day Foundation to offer 3,000 free trees to our customers.

If you’re interested in reducing your household electricity bills through strategic tree planting, visit www.arborday.org/pepcotrees. You can request up to two free trees that will be delivered right to your house. There’s also an online tool that will help you find the best place to plant the trees and calculate the amount you could save on your electricity bills for the year.

Speaking of saving money, make sure to check out some of our energy-saving programs. We have a number of programs that offer incentives in exchange for your energy-saving changes. There are plenty of things you can do to conserve energy – my personal favorite is simply switching out standard incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescent light bulbs, which use about 75% less energy and last up to 10 times longer. What are you doing to take control of your energy use?

Wes McNealy
Director, Environmental Services

Want a Free Tree? We’re Giving Away 3000!

Pepco is partnering with the Arbor Day Foundation to prove 3,000 free trees to Pepco customers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The collaborative effort launches the Arbor Day Foundation’s Energy-Saving Trees pilot that aims to helping conserve energy through strategic tree planting.

Pepco customers can reserve up to two free trees at www.arborday.org/pepco from today, September 26 until Saturday, November 12, 2011.  The trees will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, with 1,000 trees reserved for each of the territories we serve; Washington D.C., Montgomery County, and Prince George’s County.

In return for the free trees, customers agree to plant them in a recommended location on their property and care for them.  The planting location will be recommended based on its potential to create shade as the tree grows in height to reduce energy consumption.  To ensure that customers are planting the right trees in the most strategic location, the Energy-Saving Trees program uses an online tool where customers can map their houses, select a tree with energy-saving potential, learn the best energy-saving and safe locations to plant, and receive an estimate of the annual savings that may result when the tree grows.

Along with the estimated future energy savings, the online tool also provides estimates of other community benefits that trees provide, including air quality improvements, storm-water reduction, and carbon sequestration.

When a Pepco customer reserves trees, the two- to four-foot trees will be delivered directly to the customer for planting in the location identified online at the best time for planting this fall.  Customers should call 811 before they dig to avoid hitting underground utilities.  For more information on digging safely, log on to our service request webpage.

‘Til the next post,

Andre