Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has announced that more than 10,000 customers have completed the Energy Upgrade California® Home Upgrade program across PG&E’s service area, saving a total of 13,019 metric tons of carbon—the equivalent of taking 2,741 cars off the road. As PG&E’s implementer of the Home Upgrade program, Build It Green (BIG) couldn’t be more proud.

“Kudos to PG&E for its leadership in delivering a successful energy rebate program that works for homeowners and contractors alike,” says Build It Green Interim CEO Larry Simi. “We are proud to support this effort and we look forward to celebrating another 10,000 customers.”

As the Home Upgrade program implementer in PG&E territory, Build It Green recruits, trains and supports Participating Contractors, helping them to grow their businesses as they help homeowners save energy and money. BIG also manages a call center, performs desktop review and field inspections, and maintains the program website and job submission portal. In collaboration with PG&E, BIG has introduced program design changes to simplify Home Upgrade for contractors, and has scaled a unique contractor mentoring and key account program to help many contractors dramatically increase their volume of Home Upgrade jobs.

Home Upgrade is achieving results that benefit individual homeowners—and all Californians. The program encourages homeowners to take a comprehensive, whole-house approach to energy efficiency to maximize savings, rather than making upgrades one at a time. Participating customers reduced their home energy usage by an average of 18 percent with some customers saving as much as 63 percent. Their actions include a range of upgrades such as updating heating and air conditioning systems, insulating walls and attics, sealing air leaks and more. Customers have received over $27 million in incentives to help offset the cost of energy efficiency upgrades.

If you are a contractor interested in Home Upgrade, visit our website at www.homeupgrade.org for details on how the program can help grow your business.