City-Scale Retrofit Programs Satya Rhodes-Conway COWS June 18, 2009

COWS “Milk for the Movement”  Research center at UW Madison  “Think-and-do tank” for high-road economic development  Good jobs and clean energy

The Problem(s)  High energy use and bills  GHG emissions  Inefficient buildings  Cost of improvements  Hard to get and pay back a loan  Unemployment  Dead-end jobs

 Buildings cause:  38.9% of U.S. energy use  38% of U.S. CO2 emissions  Low-income households spend 14% of their income on energy, compared with 3.5% by other American households

The Solution: Energy Efficiency Retrofits  Measures like:  air sealing  insulation  lighting and appliance upgrades  Relatively low-cost  Reduce energy bills  Cost-effective GHG reduction  Can provide good, entry- level jobs Pete Davis

Costs and Savings from 10-year payback measures in Milwaukee, WI # UnitsAvg. CostTotal Cost Avg. unit annual savings Total annual savings Rental126,793$1,278$162.0M$482$61.1M Owner Occ*83,052$911$95.8M$251$22.2M Total209,845$1,158$243.1M$397$83.3M *Units with most need for retrofits: owner occupied built before 1960 and all rental properties

Who Does this?  Energy Service Corporations (ESCOs) and/or large contractors (large industrial or institutional buildings)  Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) contractors (low-income residential properties)  small contractors (private residential or commercial properties) Sammy Avedon, Town of Babylon

Why isn’t this enough?  Funding available only to:  income-eligible individuals  individuals with sufficient up- front capital to pay for the work  Rely on inefficient referral systems or trust customers to come to them  Residential or commercial buildings, but not both  Variable job quality and advancement opportunities Sammy Avedon, Town of Babylon

City-Scale Retrofit Programs Four key components:  Capture the financial savings from retrofits and use them to pay back the loan  Any jobs created are good jobs and provide training for a career pathway  Achieve economies of scale and consider including both residential and commercial buildings  Target the program to low-income communities, both in terms of where the work is done and who is hired to do it

City-Scale Retrofit Programs  Issues to Address a. Financing b. Establishing the Coordinating Entity(ies) c. Technology and Materials d. Job Training e. Community Access to Jobs f. Working with Unions g. Ensuring Job Quality h. Ensuring Retrofit Quality i. Targeting by Geography and Building Type j. Marketing k. Customer Service/Service Delivery l. Certification of Savings m. Secure Cost-Recovery n. Evaluation and Improvement

How to set up a program: Key Areas  Stakeholders  Involve as many as possible  Policy  Do you need changes to state or local law?  Program Structure  Who manages?  Targeting and Marketing  “One stop shop”  Quality Control and Evaluation  Financing and Repayment  Labor Standards and Workforce Development

Financial Structure  A revolving loan fund  with on-bill repayment  that follows the property or the meter  Revolving loans make funding available into the future – long after ARRA is gone and the grants are spent  Allows convenient payment from energy savings  Not a personal loan – a service to improve the property

Financing  Sources:  Energy Efficiency And Conservation Block Grants  20% can be used for loan funds  Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds  Municipal bonds  State public benefits funds  Don’t forget about rebates and tax incentives

Repayment  Utility Bill  Portland, Michigan  Municipal Services Bill  Milwaukee  Benefit or Local Improvement Assessment Districts  Babylon, Berkeley, Boulder

Labor Standards  A green job is a good job:  Higher than poverty wages  Paid sick leave  Health care benefits  Job security  Safe working conditions  Organizing rights  Pathways to advancement Alliance for Affordable Energy

Workforce Development  Don’t reinvent the training wheel  Build on established training pathways in state and local workforce systems  Apprenticeship is a well- established pathway to a good job  Targeted hiring from disadvantaged communities

Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership  Entry Level Construction Skills (ELCS)-Weatherization Certificate  Initial Assessment and Community Partners  Employer-Driven Training  Leveraging Resources for Training  Mentoring and Worker Support

More Information:  Efficiency Cities Network    Satya Rhodes-Conway   Available at

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