A new program kicked off in Rochester this week that is going to help residents track their carbon footprint. It's called "Cool Rochester."

It's a challenge being posed to everyone in our community. Whether you rent, own, or lease, you're being asked to cut back on the amount of carbon dioxide you generate.

"It's a daunting problem we are facing but a lot of the solutions are as easy as reaching over and turning off a light we aren't using," says Bob Siegel, Executive Director of Cool Rochester.

The program aims to reduce Rochester's carbon footprint by one billion pounds of the next three years. "That's about 5% of total rochester CO2 emissions a year and that's about 10% of household emissions," says Jim Tappon of Cool Rochester. "The way we're going to do that is raising awareness among people. Businesses and individuals and neighborhood groups and walk them through ways they can save energy reduce carbon and save money at the same time," adds Tappon.

Right now they are recruiting team leaders. Then, individuals will log on to the Cool Rochester Website and track their progress online.

"What we really want to do is track what people are doing because I am firmly convinced that unless we measure something we really aren't going to make improvements," says Tappon.

Last year, they tested out the idea with a pilot project. About 40 households were involved for six weeks. And they saved about 25% on their energy bills.

For more information, click here.