Launched in 2010, Athens-Clarke County Solid Waste Department facilities house a 5-ton ground source heat pump HVAC system. Despite a seemingly small percentage of energy use that is renewable at this site, the ground source heat pump boasts a large sum in utility savings and over 14 tons of CO2 emissions are avoided as a result of renewable energy use. 

Geothermal heat pumps, or ground source heat pumps, are used to heat and cool buildings using naturally-existing heat from within the earth rather than through the use of fossil fuel combustion methods.