A Staunton, Illinois resident will receive a new energy-efficient refrigerator with help from the Ameren Illinois ActOnEnergy® program. Beth Fernandez, a married mother of two, was the grand prize winner of the utility’s Take the Pledge campaign, a contest that awards a $2,000 energy efficiency shopping spree to a customer that has pledged to reduce energy consumption. Fernandez selected her new appliance today at the John Hicks Maytag in Gillespie.
“I have wanted a new refrigerator for a while; our current one really isn’t meeting the needs of our family. Thanks to Ameren Illinois’ Take the Pledge contest, I will now have the fridge I want, which will be much more efficient and less expensive to operate, and have helped support our local economy,” Fernandez said.
Take the Pledge is an annual contest where individuals are asked to pledge to take an energy efficiency step. The pledge may be as basic as switching one incandescent light with a high-efficiency compact fluorescent light (CFL) or more extensive, such as replacing all old lights with CFLs or installing a high-efficiency natural gas furnace. Three prize winners are randomly-selected through a drawing.
The second and third-place winners are Kari Runyen from Olney and Angela Beach from Gibson City. Runyen received a $300 gift card to Lowe’s, and Beach received a $100 gift card to Menards.
For the last four years, Ameren Illinois has been recognized as a national leader in the ENERGY STAR Take the Pledge campaign for its efforts to encourage customers to be more energy efficient. Ameren Illinois residential customers have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 31.1 million pounds, electricity by 17.1 million kWh and gas by 33.5 billion btus, which combined equals the energy used by 3,418 homes. This places Ameren Illinois in the top five among all sectors nationally and second in the energy efficiency sector in encouraging its customers to take steps to reduce their carbon footprint.
The Take the Pledge campaign is one of Ameren Illinois’ ActOnEnergy initiatives that are geared towards helping customers become smarter, safer energy consumers. Each year, Ameren Illinois offers about $75 million worth of energy-saving tools and incentives for residential, commercial and industrial customers, which have resulted in approximately $314 million in customer savings to their utility bills due to the energy efficiency changes they have made through ActOnEnergy.
“Ameren Illinois is committed to helping our customers reduce their energy costs and manage their energy usage by providing them with tools to help them be more energy efficient,” said Ken Woolcutt, managing supervisor of Energy Efficiency for Ameren Illinois. “The Take the Pledge campaign is just one example of the programs available through ActOnEnergy that are bringing more visibility to environmental stewardship, making it more affordable for customers, and helping us meet our energy efficiency goals.”
Ameren Illinois delivers energy to 1.2 million electric and 806,000 natural gas customers in Illinois, and our mission is to meet their energy needs in a safe, reliable, efficient and environmentally responsible manner. Our service area covers more than 1,200 communities and 43,700 square miles. For more information, visit AmerenIllinois.com or find us on Twitter @AmerenIllinois. For more on the ActOnEnergy program, visit actonenergy.com.
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