Summer 2011

'Buy Local' Energy Programs in Chula Vista

The City of Chula Vista is interested in helping its local economy as well as reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the city. The City figured that purchases from a locally-owned business keeps 68% of that money on average in the local community through the use of local business services (engineering, marketing, accounting, etc.) and local supplies (equipment, signage, etc.) helping to generate local taxes (that support schools, police, etc.), local wages, and community donations. When purchasing from a non-locally owned business, 57% of the money spent leaves the local economy.

With this in mind, the City designed programs, over which it had control, to promote the use of local businesses and labor. City energy programs with the ‘buy local’ angle include appliance rebates, municipal street lighting and solar photovoltaic (PV) programs.

Using American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds, Chula Vista provides an additional rebate to augment appliance rebate programs offered by San Diego Gas & Electric, the local utility. The requirements for the higher rebate are that appliances must be purchased from a retailer within the city limits, and they must be more efficient than the standard SDG&E rebate requirement. All of the local major appliance retailers (Best Buy, Home Depot, K-Mart, Pacific Sales, Sears) have joined in this program. Sales of higher efficiency appliance models have increased, and the stores are now stocking the higher efficiency models due to increased demand because of the rebate.

In RFPs for work on its own facilities, the City gives additional points to proposers who buy local supplies and use local labor to perform the work. The RFPs ask respondents to “describe how efforts will be made to buy and hire locally.” This has helped to develop a local energy workforce and to locate material supplier businesses in the area. For example, Chula Vista is spending $3.2 million to place 500 kW of solar PV on 11 municipal sites. The winner of the RFP is opening a local office, hiring local workers and subcontractors, assisting the local community college on “green job” training programs, and purchasing many of the materials locally, such as solar modules, inverters, and electrical wiring. The City is also replacing 4,600 streetlights with new LED fixtures; it will be spending $2.2 million using local workers and purchasing materials (light fixtures and photocells) through a local vendor. 

Due to its success, the City is now looking to expand the ‘buy local’ angle to its community retrofit initiative, known as “Home Upgrade, Carbon Downgrade,” and to its formal municipal procurement policy.

For more information on the City of Chula Vista’s energy and sustainability programs, visit www.chulavistaca.gov/clean or call 619-409-3893.