Arlington Initiative Aims to Close Door on Wasted Energy

If Arlington County has its way, people here will be pulling open a lot more doors during their daily shopping and dining.

A new county initiative, the Retail Doors Campaign, asks businesses to pledge to keep their doors closed while the air conditioning or heat is running. Since the program launched two weeks ago, 14 businesses have made the pledge.

"It's something we've always done, so it seemed logical to sign up," said Rich Coleman, the store manager at Bill's True Value Hardware on Buchanan Street.

"Our doors are normally closed to keep the cats from running out," said Cindy Williams, owner of PetMAC, a pet supply store and adoption center in Virginia Square and another early participant. "But I think it's a great program. I go to these places that have beautifully air-conditioned spaces, and the door is wide open. It seems kind of silly."

The campaign is part of the Arlington Green Games, in which offices and property managers compete to cut energy costs and divert waste from landfills. More than 100 office tenants and property managers are involved in the games, which began in January.

The Retail Doors Campaign is the first step toward bringing retailers into the larger Green Games program. 

"The plan is to build the campaign into a more robust program for retailers," said Sarah O'Connell, the county's energy outreach coordinator.

That program will include initial assessments of how businesses are using energy, setting goals for implementing green strategies, and tracking their progress, as participating offices and property owners are doing now.

The games are part of the Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions, an effort by the county to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 10 percent below 2000 levels.

"Thirty percent of energy in commercial buildings is wasted energy," O'Connell said. "This is an effort to bring awareness to how businesses are losing money.