Federal Energy Star® Program Honors O&R's Energy Efficiency Achievement

Orange & Rockland Utilities (O&R) has been honored by the federal government’s ENERGY STAR® program for helping save O&R customers more than 55,000 MWh of energy in 2020 by effectively promoting ENERGY STAR® certified products through O&R’s online energy store, its instant incentives in big box stores and its marketing campaigns.

The ENERGY STAR® program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) department that provides simple, credible and unbiased information for consumers and businesses to make well-informed energy efficiency decisions, named O&R a 2021 Partner of the Year for Energy Efficiency Program Delivery.

The 2020 highlights that led to ENERGY STAR® honors for the O&R program include:

• Offering instant rebates for ENERGY STAR® certified smart thermostats at major retail outlets.
• Saving over 32,000 MWh of energy through its lighting program and increasing the number of retailers participating in the program to include stores that serve hard-to-reach customers.
• Adding a low-income distribution plan to its lighting program to directly ship ENERGY STAR® LED light bulbs to food pantries, which were seeing a higher demand for resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Arranging incentives for ENERGY STAR® certified heat pump water heaters sold at retail or installed by a contractor in conjunction with the installation of an air source heat pump as part of the New York State Clean Heat program.
• Providing merchandizing support and sales training that featured ENERGY STAR through more than 500 store visits.

O&R’s Vice President for Customer Service Janette Espino said, “ENERGY STAR®’s recognition of O&R’s innovative energy efficiency programs is a significant tribute to O&R’s substantial work to help our customers save money while saving energy and helping the environment.”

Since 1992, ENERGY STAR® and its partners have helped American families and businesses save 5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity, avoid more than $450 billion in energy costs, and achieve 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. Over the lifetime of the program, every dollar EPA has spent on ENERGY STAR® resulted in $350 in energy cost savings for American business and households. In 2019 alone, ENERGY STAR® and its partners helped Americans save nearly 500 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and avoid $39 billion in energy costs.

About Orange & Rockland

Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies. O&R is a regulated utility that provides electric service to approximately 300,000 customers in southeastern New York State (where its franchise name is Orange & Rockland) and northern New Jersey (where it’s Rockland Electric Company), and natural gas service to approximately 130,000 customers in New York.