SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Jerry Brown presented the Home Energy Renovation Opportunity (HERO) Program with the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award.

The state presented this award to recognize the success of the HERO Program, which is a public-private partnership between cities and counties and the private sector that helps property owners to become more energy efficient. In less than two years, the HERO Program has become the largest Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing program in the nation.

The Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA) is California’s highest environmental honor. The program recognizes individuals, organizations, and businesses that have demonstrated exceptional leadership and made notable, voluntary contributions in conserving California’s resources, protecting and enhancing the environment, building public-private partnerships, and strengthening the state’s economy. The GEELA program is administered by the California Environmental Protection Agency.

“The HERO Program is honored to accept this award on behalf of all the cities and counties that are participating in the HERO Program,” said JP McNeill, Renovate America CEO. “In the past two years, the HERO Program has helped over 6,000 property owners to make energy efficient upgrades to their homes which will reduce their annual energy consumption by over 67 gigawatts and reduce annual CO2 emissions by 17,000 tons. The work associated with these projects has helped create more than 1,000 new jobs and more than $208 million in economic stimulus in the state of California. The award acknowledges both the economic and environmental benefits it brings to cities and counties in California.”

HERO is now available to nearly 10 million California residents who reside in 13 counties including Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Sacramento, Merced, Kern, Solano, Stanislaus, Imperial, Fresno, and Santa Clara County.

More than 150,000 types of improvements are available to property owners with financing through HERO. Among the most popular upgrades are HVAC, solar power, energy-saving windows, solar thermal (pools and water heating), and insulation, among others.

For more information on the HERO Program, visit www.heroprogram.com.

Publication date: 12/30/2013

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