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County launches Sustain Fairfax Challenge app to help residents track climate actions
Summary
Fairfax County debuted the Sustain Fairfax public-awareness campaign and a web-based Sustain Fairfax Challenge app on Feb. 25, 2025. The bilingual campaign has run digital ads since December and the app allows households and teams to track actions, estimate household impacts, and access county resources and rebates.
John Silcox of the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination demonstrated the county’s new Sustain Fairfax public-awareness campaign and the Sustain Fairfax Challenge web app to the Environmental Committee on Feb. 25, 2025, saying the campaign has delivered roughly 5.6 million impressions since launching in December.
The Sustain Fairfax Challenge is a web-based platform built with vendor BrightAction (referred to in the presentation as Bright Action) that enables residents, neighborhoods and organizations to create accounts, complete a brief household profile, receive a household carbon-impact snapshot, and select tailored actions in areas such as energy use, transportation, food and waste. The app supports English and Spanish and links users to county programs and incentives such as the Energy Conservation Assistance Program and Charge Up Fairfax information.
Silcox demonstrated the app’s interface, showing an example "Be Energy Smart" action that offers weatherization steps, estimated costs and savings tied to a user profile, and localized resources and rebates. He said the app also permits users to create or join teams, track group progress, and share successes.
"Getting started is very easy. Visit that URL on the screen, create an account, and consider starting a team or group with your friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues," Silcox said. He asked supervisors to help amplify the campaign and to incorporate the app into community outreach plans.
The committee welcomed the tool and asked staff to distribute guidance to supervisors’ offices; the board deferred detailed follow-up questions to staff and encouraged members to share the resource with constituents. Silcox said additional how-to materials and outreach support will be developed over the following weeks to help offices and residents establish teams and interpret household profiles.
The Sustain Fairfax Challenge is live and available in English and Spanish; staff requested that supervisors’ offices help publicize the platform in their districts.
