Baltmore Neighborhood Energy Challenge

as one of the initial projects stemming from the baltimore sustainability plan, the baltimore office of sustainability, in partnership with the baltimore community foundation, is launching the baltimore neighborhood energy challenge (bnec) to motivate households to reduce their energy use. based on social marketing research that suggests a few neighbors taking conscious steps to conserve energy can influence the rest of the neighborhood to follow suit, bnec challenges participating communities to achieve energy reductions against their own baseline. in its initial phase, bnec will be a 9-month pilot program in 6-8 baltimore communities designed to raise awareness, reduce residential energy use, stimulate demand for energy conservation services, and learn lessons on how to motivate behavior change related to reducing residential energy use. after the pilot, we hope to use what we learn to expand bnec citywide and connect the program to other efforts aimed at creating jobs to make baltim