East Peoria's business community has been known for its rapid growth, but it received an honor for a different reason last week.

On Jan. 23, Ameren CILCO announced that East Peoria was one of four municipalities to be given the "Most Progressive Local City" award.

This award recognizes cities that have a significant number of businesses participating in Ameren's Act On Energy program. This initiative incentivizes businesses and organizations that complete environmentally-friendly projects for their workplace.

"A lot of businesses in East Peoria took advantage of the rebates Ameren offered and basically got a lot of their rebates through the projects," said Robert Cole, facilities manager for East Peoria.

Over the recorded time period for the project, 23 businesses in East Peoria completed 30 projects that Ameren offered. The businesses received $241,143 in incentives and the  projects saved 7.9 million killowatt-hours annually.

Cole said the East Peoria city officials take the implementation of green initiatives seriously.

"Everyone works together," he said. "It's fluid that everyone understands that it is important to save costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout the city."

Examples of projects that businesses have completed include installing energy efficient lighting, refrigeration, motor systems and HVAC systems. One of the city's projects was the fire department's installation of an infrared heater, which East Peoria Mayor Dave Mingus said is "more efficient and effective."

"(The award) is significant because as a community we are reducing energy costs and it does help us to be more competitive with our pricing," Mingus said. "It was encouraging to see 30 community projects."

Officials from Ameren added that businesses and organizations can save money through the projects.

"Our business customers can realize significant savings when they participate in our program," said Cheryl Miller, the business program manager for Act on Energy in a press release. "Replacing a standard T-12 fluorescent light fixture with a high-efficiency T-8 light fixture can reduce electricity consumption by 33 percent."

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