well it is great to have all of you here this evening for this kickoff rally i'm sure the mayor of holland it is really a thrill to see so many people from really a great cross section of our community and beyond gathering tonight on the evening on the year's first snowstorm how about that right there it's a bit of poetic justice i think in that as well we have a really great evening lined up you're going to learn more about this georgetown university energy prize if you don't know much about it even if you do know something about it you probably learn more new certainly learn more about our specific entry and the plan we're going to work over the next couple of years so we can win this baby so again it's great to have so many of you here we also are going to be enjoying a live stream tonight with the the fellow who is really the founder of this entire prize in this entire effort so it's a pretty unique opportunity for us to get a chance to speak with him to be a part it's a sort of learn what motivates him in this whole effort into just really get an understanding of who he is and frankly for him to get understanding of who we are as well we were doing a test run yesterday and  became pretty evident that not many if any other of the fifty three or so communities still in the running for this thing had had decided to do a live stream with them so it's a bit of a unique opportunity for us and i think you'll enjoy it very very much we're also pleased there we go i don't even have a clicker it's very nerve racking i can tell you to not have control over those kinds of things we're pleased to have recovered jackson with us tonight who's the director of the michigan energy office in the michigan economic development corporation and mr jackson i saw you earlier if you'd sort of wave areas right there so if we could welcome him first of all and you'll be hearing from him you'll be hearing from mr jackson in a few minutes after the live stream he has something special to present to us as a community well nights like this don't just happen as you can imagine if you've ever tried to put on an event you know that it is a lot of work and takes a lot of work and if it's done really works who have worked long and hard to make this happen i won't read all of their names to you but just know that this is this is the point of the spear of the folks who have been working hard to not only bring tonight's event to good fruition but also to really plan and make our part in this competition successful and very very strong so even if you don't know all of these names let's express our appreciation to them for all of the many hours of work they have  and then the other piece of course is that nights like this in the prize like this a competition like this doesn't just happen without resources and we have had tremendous partners including of course the board of public works in the city but tremendous community partners some of whom you see listed up here and representatives from many of those organizations are here with us this evening and our community partners and community support express our appreciation to them as well and then one more bit of thank you in appreciation is a group of people who this evening have made contributions directly to tonight's gathering at tonight's kickoff rallies you see some of the names on the board here as well so thank you for the support for  well perhaps you know a lot about the georgetown university energy prize perhaps you've been following it in the paper we've had a series of wonderful articles in holland sentinel perhaps you've been following it on the city's website or on the board of public works website perhaps even been following it on the georgetown university energy prize website but perhaps you haven't been doing those things and perhaps you're here for the first time tonight sort of wondering what this is and at the end of the day we hollanders like free food and free other things so you showed up regardless of whether you're an old hand at what's going on here or this is your first interaction with this prize in competition we want to make sure that when you leave tonight you're well versed as to what the competition is and frankly more importantly what our part in this prize in this competition is going to be what we are trying to do the plan we've set forth our efforts to try and work that plan to make sure that come two years from now we're standing here not just kicking off this celebration of competition but kicking off a tremendous celebration of winning this competition so to introduce what the plan is what our goals are and how we're going to go about doing it i would love to welcome forward our city manager ryan cotton who has worked long and hard on really working out all of the details and making sure that you all know what it is that we all are trying to do together so ryan please thank you mary it is indeed a pleasure to be here today and i think i picked the short straw dave costner is in the audience he is key to this and you're going to hear from a little bit and of course everyone else on that list but i need to mention and yours as well you've got us to this point this is a major moment in the history we believe of holland and hopefully in your lives as well i want to say three things today well actually there's three things we expect of you today one is to have fun please eat the food the second is to learn and i want to focus on that and then it and the third is there's a competition going on right tonight we have council members that are competing with each other plus the board of public works so the we need you to take bags before you leave and council members that's where you'll be when everyone's leaving making sure they take bags enough for their neighborhood and we'll see which one got rid of most of the bags   right first i want to tell you a little bit personally about this these are the fifty three communities that are competing for this prize and you're to learn from the founders here shortly so i'll keep that short but you'll see overland ohio that's right grew up i was part of their environmental activities back then i feel like gosh they're there partly because of what i did my play vermont that was a community i served on got it i helped write their master plan we talked about these things  are like you know you know how they are but we have a huge advantage we're in the midwest we don't do anything unusual you know we're normal and this is our chance to show dr slepian everybody that even in the midwest we can make a change in terms of environmental and also here's the main point we'd like to save money that's the point we want to share with your neighbors next  energy efficiency is the most important source of energy if we save energy the b w will sell it to somebody and that's pretty good for us it's also clean energy going to be doing the natural gas power plant that's a lot better than coal power so  by saving it we create other sources the challenge here is to come up with a plan as i showed you that is innovative replicable and we can go to scale innovative we know we are world class replicable you'll see boots on the ground as it were adopting many competitions and you'll see all that in the bags i think that will make a difference in scalable that's where the five million dollars prize will come in as mayor doctor said in a couple of years will be here or some similar play celebrating our win and we will have a check for five million dollars that check we believe will go into the new entity called the holland energy trust which will be  used to be a revolving loan fund it will create more competitions to expand that the knowledge and the capability of saving money and to educate so in those ways we'll hopefully reach out to communities that need support so consumers can save dollars governments can save dollars will have energy independence and will be more sustainable which has all these environmental goods for your your children and your grandchildren so we can when we've got  head start the whole point of our community plan is ensure competitive economic economic competitiveness provide reliable for the energy and protect the environment so we will begin with learning more tonight the energy price wise and we have a video to show you buildings public school there are many ways residents are evil to help reduce their energy and so on a home energy checkup a certified technician will come and walk through your home with you and point out what's the fish at harrah's library there are kits that you can check out just like a library book it's a home monitoring kit and again it has a white meter and that you can plug in to different appliances see how much electricity they are consuming in december  well there you go now you've learned a bit more about what it is that we are doing in this community to be part of this great competition at this time i am thrilled to be able to assuming our technology kicks in well which i'm sure it will to be able to introduce and welcome to our conversation tonight dr francis slay key and katherine huber can you hear us ok well we trust that the weather in washington is a wee bit nicer than what we're experiencing here in west michigan we're getting our first snow and i don't suspect you are not well the weather here well we'll send it your way to the audience here doctors like he has written a really wonderful book that this is the city managers copy it's called to the last breath a memoir of going to extremes dr  that's fantastic and you should know and one of the members of our city council is a librarian and you should know that ryan has devoured this book in substantial ways he's got pages folded over you know he  written all over it i mean i was always told that you know folding pages is not a good idea but ryan apparently didn't get that memo so question for you have have you surf lake michigan by any chance know i have absolutely any time you want and over the past week or so we've had some tremendous winds and there has been some surfing probably not on the scale that you perhaps are used to and i don't imagine you've also climbed mt kisco  interview with you right i'm sorry i missed that so this must be an offer to serve with you and climb that mountain with you know something along those lines yeah close close what would you mind just telling us a little bit i have two people here today one is your community liaison huger and also the real muscle behind the prize the hardest working guy in washington d c right now is chris nelson and there's christmas to see again at a map but at some point over my journey that three thousand mile journey around the world i decided it's time to move on and it was time to do something meaningful and now when i look at a map of the world i see places like holland michigan you know that's where meaningful things are happening right now and here's how i know that i ended up at georgetown and had the good fortune to be able to create the george chain university energy prize with that was just an idea it's it's all of you all of you here today it's what you're going to be doing over the next two years that make it real and that's what makes the energy prize meaningful for the nation well that's fantastic go and no we're not having earthquakes now we've got a really wonderful group assembled and it's really again a treat to have you with us tonight is you think about whoever wins the prize what really are you hoping to see come out as a result of this whole competition so i you know i have this really modest invitation all i want to do is transform the way this country uses energy because very modest inflation you know right now we are wasting half the energy that we use in this country and we can't afford to keep doing that and the georgetown university energy prize is trying to lay out a path to a better future for the country and we're already seeing that happening we're seeing it happen here today actually and in your very room right now the actions you guys have already taken and one more thing is your city came up with a phrase that i have now use all across the country and yes don't worry about i always give you guys credit when i use the phrase and the phrase is five million plus change yeah one c is going to win a five million but we're all going to get a change and i couldn't have said it any better than that change that's what i want to accomplish with the prize and it's cities like holland michigan we're going to show america the path to a cleaner and cheaper energy future that's fantastic do we have anyone in the audience who would love to ask a question and if you want to just shout it out i'll make sure that it gets into the microphone so that our guests can hear what it is but we want to certainly make this as participatory as we possibly can someone here has a question we know you do  we had the question of ok so who's behind the i don't we don't assume that you're writing the check personally but you know who is our sponsoring the prize if you give us something out of that place sure look we have a variety of sponsors and what we're going to do is we're going to announce them all at once and so when we announce the towns that actually get into the semifinals we're going to announce the full suite of sponsors at that time as well excellent but i can tell you that they'll be companies that you're very familiar with and i've seen a few suggestions of who might be involved and i can tell you it's a group from industries it's a group agencies it's a group of organizations it's really a very much a cross section of every sector you can think of and to me at least that has been one of the really exciting things about the competition and the whole question of conservation because regardless of what motivates you to get to the point of conservation whether it's saving the planet or saving in your pocketbook or some combination of both you get to the same spot it's right that's right and i should you say you know you said exactly right it never dies so we have sponsors are coming from industry because they have a real commitment to this from utilities they have a real commitment from the federal government they have a commitment to the national league of cities i mean we're seeing we're seeing support from a variety of different stakeholders and it's really refreshing to see all of those groups coming together because they all realize the importance of putting the country on a better path to energy efficiency yeah absolutely how about another question will do that trust me they're horrible just absolutely horrible i mean they look then they look fantastic mind you but they're terribly uncomfortable pine and other kinds of wood they don't give a whole lot so we'll send you some shoes in about five pairs of socks to wear along with that i'm going to have one more question for our guest tonight before we again appreciate their being with us oh my this is a really unfair question for you the question not petitions so that's that's bigger than major league baseball that's bigger than the national football league so yeah there's going to be some serious competition and it's certainly it'll be a friendly competition but winning won't come easy and one of the things that's going to have to happen is the winning city is going to have to have a whole community involved and it's a closure to see that already happening in holland michigan doctors like you christine here thank you so much for your you know in addition to having really three rock stars with us tonight we've got a fourth it's almost like getting the beatles back together again robert jackson from the state of michigan is here and i bet you've never been compared to any of the beatles before and if you have we're go conversation i was blown away with the great things that end was doing in what holland was doing and i just after that meeting i was just so impressed that i want to define an opportunity to come back and to help so you and i'd like to say that that the the michigan energy office pledges the support we'd like to be up there is a sponsor and whatever help and support that the office could provide we would love to be able to do it so that i  that that on behalf of the people of of michigan let it be known that is my distinct honor to recognize the city of holland's effort to earn five million in change as part of the national georgetown university energy challenge you have taken the challenge and you're you're one of only fifty three communities nationwide that are working to bridge the gap between knowledge and action and home and energy efficiency please allow me to congratulate you for striving to create new knowledge and environmental outcomes in your community and throughout the state of michigan by providing new knowledge that can be shared in replicated you have a stablish as a leader in strengthening the energy capacity of the communities in our state i am confident that michigan will long reap the reward of your positive contribution for years to come as we continue our work to make michigan a better place to live work and raise a family we appreciate your commitment your committed effort to improve and invest in the future of our state on behalf of the people and community communities of michigan congratulations and thank you for your effort to preserve our state's resources create new knowledge and strengthen our economy your dedicated dedication to each goal is commendable i look forward to continuing our work of promoting michigan as an energy smart state that would be on the cutting edge of innovation for generations to come and special tribute therefore this document is signed and dedicated to the city of holland city council and the holland board of public works i sincerely thank you for your continued commitment and dedication to provide energy efficient future for the people of holland and for the entire state of michigan sign rick snyder governor mr jackson thank you so very much for being here thanks for the quick yes of course we were taken yes as long as it took we're just glad to have you here tonight and if you have not interacted much with the michigan saves program or the michigan energy office but check them out they're really doing some great things and we've had the great privilege of partnering with them in a whole host of things already in fact there's some legislation that passed the house and is pending before the michigan senate that will allow some of the efforts we're trying to do to work a whole lot more smoothly b p w staff city staff has worked tirelessly with our local elected representatives senator me cough representative harman and other committee chairs throughout the state but a special plug has to go out to the mission energy office they've been fantastic to work with and completely supportive so please take that message back to lansing with you when you head back that we really do appreciate all the efforts that you and your staff and the whole team is doing in lansing for us thank you well it's my privilege now to sort of give the give the introduction for kind of our rah rah leader who will tell us exactly what we're headed into and send us with a lot of energy and excitement brian birch is a member of the city council and he runs his own p r firm and ad agency each just really a sharp sharp guy and he has been passionate about these efforts ever since we started talking about conservation as a holistic system in the city of holland brian helped facilitate an early meeting of some of the community stakeholders to talk about how it is that we can really develop a meaningful plan that not only will help us win this competition but really make a difference in the way we use and consume energy in our community so brian it's great to have you here tonight and please fires up  and the fact that holland has been at the leading edge of so many things that maybe we don't think about or maybe we do the fact that our streets melt on their own it's amazing you know this town actually the phones we use almost every day that the technology that allows us to do that was invented here that guy who has the patents owns those patents are right here in town in holland and we also were the home to holland furnace company which at one time was the largest furnace company where we heated america at one time i mean that's how important holland has been to energy and technology and innovation in this country so this competition is really kind of critical and we need to get people going so we can get people motivated so we're doing this competition amongst the wards and what we're trying to find is you know a bunch of fun and rivalries to emerge friendly rivalries you know not so much michigan ohio state michigan state michigan but maybe something like i don't know michigan state minnesota i don't know but something there that we don't hate each other at the end we're friendly about it but do we want to get everyone in it to win it it's not just a phrase it's we need people to really take action because competition is critical to motivating people into action this is the map and you can see everyone knows we have wards in this town we actually have six wards those words are kind of small so we've kind of clustered them together and now we have teams we were up against guys  y i hope you can like make this all right there we go nancy de boer yes and jim story yeah so these are wars we've broken up and so what we're going to do is we're going to go in trying to rally people and we're going to get our friends and we're going to get our neighbors and we need you to do the same thing too and that starts with kind of these quarterly competitions and the first one being q one so every quarter we're going to have a different competition the first one is a furnace tune up which you know might sound kind of boring but it's but we're doing this amazing thing where if you get a food furnace tune up and we're measuring it through like all the furnace  companies between general first of march thirty first you'll be entered into a competition and you could win a brand new furnace at energy efficient furnace now here's the thing with a furnace tune up that has the potential to save five to ten percent off your energy bill like that that little bit and we start adding these things up they make a big difference in our goal against the competition so we want to see all of that happen and then again the prizes the energy efficient furnace or a nest thermostat does anyone know what that is yes bob's got one yeah we got some people in here who have them already well let's some other people get into this than to because they're awesome then we also have sustainability events so if you didn't see the flyer for the first one that's coming up on this monday and that first one is all about getting connected and kind of learning some tips on what you can do to save energy so it's going to early phase right now that you can implement starting january first gets you rallied up and you get to go and then there's another one on january thirteenth and that's really about knowing your number understanding home energy efficiency ratings and really how you can explain that number and the meaning of that to your friends and neighbors and communities are now it now we are informing people and now we have a a measurement by which we can compete and how we can defeat the evil ward night light which my i know i have in my house because i have kids who are afraid of the dark not that you should you can talk about that but there's all kinds of like coupons look oh what's this oh my gosh only eighty dollars off on a furnace tuneup look at that look at that coupon in this bag that goes toward the prize in the first competition what amazing thing and there's all kinds of other like energy saver tips so please take these take ten hand them off to your friends go door to door tell your friends do it before this eight feet of snow do it soon and so we can get this thing going on january first there's also door prizes tonight and so i hope everyone got a tear off card are we are we picking that right now am i doing that zero two seven right there right there big winner come on up come on second winner four six zero zero seven two oh we have an audit someone has an audit already fascinating fascinating the plot thickens four six zero zero five one five one yes come on zero five zero fifty fifty and four six zero zero zero four right there big winners that's a four hundred twenty five dollars value my friends when you realize that it's a big deal so cool if you want to know more about what's going on in this thing go to holland energy prize dot com it's a brand new web site went live two days ago it looks spectacular find out more about the competition otherwise you can always e mail your council members myself you can always email j she loves your e mails and he'll know more about everything and then so if you have questions there's people who can answer them to the best of our ability otherwise grab a bag on your way out grab some food grab a beer or glass of wine and then let's go out and win this thing yeah brian that was amazing i just want to grab your attention just a second is there michelle gibbs in the house michelle michelle could you come up here quickly the community energy plan is a forty year plan part of it  education outreach part of it is to grow that capacity so we're we're proud to announce thanks to the community foundation home board of public works the city of holland that we have a first ever sustainability director for holland hope college sustainability institute i wanted you to know that michelle gibbs is that person so welcome michel so already we have reinforcements and if you if you heard this it's all about innovation if you heard brian we holland is all about innovation this is the opportunity to bridge the gap between knowledge and action so