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The City of Oak Ridge is wrapping up its two-month long Green Power Community Challenge with a day of service on Saturday, June 21, at the University of Tennessee Arboretum, which is located at 901 S. Illinois Ave. in Oak Ridge.
The Green Power Community Challenge encouraged local residents and businesses to buy green power and help Oak Ridge become an EPA-designated Green Power Community. The effort has been a tremendous success—more than 300 new customers enrolled in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Green Power Switch program, more than triple the original goal, a city press release said.
Twenty volunteers are needed for the day of service. The volunteer work will be focused on a half-day project at the Arboretum in Oak Ridge. Specifically, volunteers will conduct a creek walk to clean up trash and debris, and construct benches for their new creek access area near the Arboretum entrance road.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to buy green power. To be designated as a Green Power Community, a local government must purchase or produce green power in amounts that meet EPA minimum purchase requirements as determined by community electricity usage. On July 14 at the City of Oak Ridge Municipal Building, there will be a presentation recognizing the City of Oak Ridge as an EPA Green Power Community, the first in the Southeast.
To volunteer for the day of service, contact Marlene Witt at (865) 425-3400 or mwitt@oakridgetn.gov.
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