This can happen anywhere and it’s a big deal!

Patricia DeMarco, PhD is an author, scholar, and environmental advocate based in Pittsburgh, PA. One of her many activities included serving as a member of the Forest Hills Borough Council for 8 years. During that time, the Council built the energy efficient Forest Hills Borough Building. 

Dr. DeMarco shared why she and the council decided to invest in energy efficiency, saying, “the thing that people of the community really wanted was energy efficient building. They also wanted no tax increase so those two things were kind of the driving force [behind the building].”

“What we ended up with was this passive solar design with geothermal heating – there’s geothermal tubes under this whole parking lot – and a solar photovoltaic roof. And the building is currently making more energy than it uses on an average annual basis. On a [sunny] day like this the meter will be running backward because we’re sending power to the grid. 

“It isn’t hard to have a building created like this one that makes more energy than they use on a routine basis. This can happen anywhere and it’s a big deal!”