Resources for Energy Efficiency Programs

1. General Reference
2. Financing & Repayment Mechanisms
3. High Road Standards
4. Marketing & Demand Generation
5. City Government Programs
6. State Policy
7. Weatherization Assistance Program
8. Multi-Family Buildings

1.   General Reference

• A Short Guide to Setting up a City-Scale Retrofit Program, by Green For All and COWS (June 2009). This guide provides a model for designing and implementing energy retrofitting programs on a citywide scale, with a goal of making such retrofits available to all, realizing their potential to address climate change, put people to work, and reduce our energy bills. 
  

• Efficiency Cities Network, hosted by COWS in collaboration with Green For All. ECN is is an informal policy learning network of government staff, researchers and technical assistance providers, and NGOs currently active in or committed to making scaled efforts at high-road energy retrofits of urban building stock.

• Enabling Investments in Energy Efficiency, by Merrian Fuller, May 2009. This excellent report studies programs that eliminate first cost barriers for energy efficiency investments in the residential sector. The report is a good primer for anyone looking for detailed guidance on the various financing options for retrofit programs, the challenges and benefits with each option, as well as case studies of energy efficiency and renewable energy programs around the country.
  

• Financing for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: This website and webcast series provides recipients of Recovery Act funding tools to launch energy efficiency and renewable energy financing programs.  The website describes various financing options available and includes a step-by-step online guide that walks users through the key elements to consider when designing a program. 

• Guide To Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Financing Districts: This "How To" guide produced by the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) at the University of California, Berkeley, provides information and advice on how to launch a Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program in your community. The RAEL website has many excellent resources on how to to establish a PACE program.
• Alliance to Save Energy (ASE)
  

• Funding Mechanisms for Energy Efficiency (Sept. 2008).  The first in a series of policy briefs, "Funding Mechanisms for Energy Efficiency" explores the four major ways in which states can fund energy efficiency programs.
• State Energy Efficiency Loan Programs (Jan. 2009). This paper focuses on loan programs in 30 states that are currently providing low- to no-interest rate loans to finance energy efficiency improvements.
• Paying for Energy Efficiency Upgrades through Utility Bills (2009). This brief focuses on on-bill financing programs that allow the customers to pay for energy efficiency upgrades through a charge on their monthly utility bills.

• Job Quality, Equitable Access, and Quality Assurance Standards in Residential Weatherization Programs by Community Benefits Law Center (Sept. 2010). These materials introduce and summarize the standards that support job quality, equitable access, and quality assurance in five distinct local residential energy efficiency programs from different parts of the country: Oregon, New Jersey, Delaware, Washington, and California.
• Community Workforce Agreements: The Pathway to Coalitions Between Labor and Community (Mar. 2010) by the Emerald Cities Planning Committee, Building and Construction Trades Department (AFL-CIO). This guide to Community Workforce Agreements is an appendix to the Road Map to Emerald Cities and provides a framework to use an innovation on the traditional Project Labor Agreement to give life and meaning to that social compact.
• Community High Road Agreement for Seattle’s Residential Retrofit Projects (July 2010). In partnership with Seattle Mayor, Mike McGinn, Green For All designed and led a stakeholder process to develop high-road standards for Seattle’s residential energy-efficiency projects. The resulting Agreement will lead to the creation of thousands of high-quality, family-supporting jobs for qualified, historically underrepresented contractors and workers in the clean energy economy. See the City Council endorsing resolution, press releases, and other information about Seattle residential retrofit program, Community Power Works at www.greenforall.org/seattle
  
  • Seattle's High Road Agreement (PDF 468KB)
  • Seattle's Community Works Contractor Application (PDF 296KB)
• Clean Energy Works Portland – Various Resources. This web page includes Portland’s Community Workforce Agreement (2009), the City Council Resolution endorsing the Agreement, press releases, a January 2010 case study on the program, and related videos.
• Clean Energy Works Portland – Contractor Applications. The 500-home Clean Energy Works Portland pilot program has been divided into five phases. The first four phases are serving to identify, finance, and complete work on 400 home energy efficiency upgrades, using roughly the same strategies for marketing, outreach and service delivery. Phase V of the CEWP pilot will be conducted using community-based partnerships with teams of non-profit groups and contractors.
  • Pilot Phase IV Invitation to Apply / Participating Contractor Application
  • Pilot Phase IV Contractor Participation Application
  • Pilot Phase V Contractor Participation Application
• Common Agreements on Green Jobs–Green NY Job & Contracting Standards by the Center for Working Families (July 2010). Developed among contractors, community groups, workforce trainers, and union locals, this document sketches out a proposed contracting model and standards for jobs and training for Green Jobs–Green NY, which is a statewide program to promote energy efficiency and the installation of clean energy technologies, reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions, support community development, and create opportunities for green jobs in New York. See also the two-page Summary: Proposed Training, Hiring, Employment, and Wage Standards for Green Jobs–Green NY.
• Santa Clara County AB 811 Program Draft Participating Contractor Qualifications and Requirements (June 2010). The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors has voted to adopt strong standards for contractors participating in its residential energy efficiency retrofit program. The victory helps establish an important high road model for the sector.
• Milwaukee Community Workforce Agreement between the City of Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation (July 2010). The Common Council of the City of Milwaukee adopted this CWA to govern the Milwaukee Energy Efficiency (ME2) Program, which is part of the Wisconsin Energy Efficiency (WE2) Project in the cities of Milwaukee, Madison, and Racine.
• Building Energy Efficiency Retrofit Performance Monitoring System Overview by O-H Community Partners (Aug. 2010). This summary outlines how performance monitoring can measure an organization’s or program’s clients, services/activities, and outcomes/results and how it fits into the “high road” strategy.

• Increasing Demand for Home Retrofits: Community-Based Outreach and Mobilization, Green For All. This brief captures the best practices of members of the Retrofit America’s Cities Community of Practice on the benefits of and strategies behind using existing networks and relationships to generate demand for residential efficiency.
  
• "Increasing Demand for Home Retrofits: Community-based Outreach and Mobilization":  Listen to this Communities of Practice Learning Call to hear about how community-based outreach and mobilization efforts are increasing demand for energy retrofits, and why such community involvement is key to achieving triple bottom line solutions: solutions that are good for people, the environment and the economy.
• Recommendations for Community-Based Energy Program Strategies,  by David, et al. Energy Trust of Oregon. This report presents recommendations regarding the potential role of community-based energy programs in driving demand for efficiency based on a review of 13 such programs from around North America. 

• "Consumer Education Program for Residential Energy Efficiency" (CEPREE), Cornell University, College of Human Ecology and the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis.  This website includes educator resources, energy efficiency fact sheets, press releases, public service announcements, and presentations from energy town meetings.

• Best Practices for Energy Retrofit Program Design: Marketing Recommendations, Home Performance Resource Center (HPRC). This brief compiles industry best practices on topics such as how residential retrofit programs should market at their launch, the kinds of marketing strategies and tactics that can help programs succeed long-term, and how programs can use marketing campaigns to increase audit-to-retrofit conversion rates.

The following examples of local retrofit programs are represented in the Retrofit America's Cities Working Group and provide examples of the different types of funding sources and financing structures that have been deployed for such programs.

• Clean Energy Works Portland: This innovative program in Portland, Oregon enables homeowners to access low-interest, long-term financing for easy and affordable investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements to their homes.  Homeowners pay back the cost of the investments on their utility bills.  Green For All worked with the City of Portland to create a Community Workforce Agreement to ensure job quality and access for the jobs created as a result of this program.
  

• Long Island Green Homes Program: The Town of Babylon, New York established this innovative program under existing statutory authority for special assessments. The Town passed a resolution expanding its definition of solid waste to include carbon which, in effect, allows the Town to quantify home efficiency based on carbon emissions and then use resources from its solid waste fund to improve energy efficiency in homes. The Babylon model also resembles a Municipal Services Bill model, because customers are billed monthly rather than paying via their property tax bill.

• Seattle Green Building Capital Initiative: The City of Seattle has instituted a host of programs which together form the Green Building Capital Initiative, whose goals are to improve energy efficiency, create job opportunities within the green economy, and save residents and businesses money on energy costs.  This initiative was defined and proposed by the Green Building Task Force, which spent a year developing the program and monitoring its pilot programs - Residential Energy Performance Audit and Residential Energy Efficiency Loan Pilot Programs.
• Oakland Weatherization and Energy Retrofit Loan Program:  The City of Oakland used money from Stimulus CDBG funding to seed the Weatherization and Energy Retrofit Loan Program (WERLP), launched in January 2010.  Through WERLP, low to moderate income homeowners can take out zero interest loans for a variety of measures that include home rehabilitation to traditional weatherization.  WERLP is being managed by the City's Residential Lending and Rehabilitation Services department, which was able to quickly expand to include energy retrofitting, and hopes to increase interest in weatherization by offering a complete range of home improvement options under one department's scope.

• CaliforniaFIRST:  Beginning in Fall 2010, property owners throughout many parts of California, will be able to take advantage of Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing through CaliforniaFIRST, a statewide program in development by California Communities, Renewable Funding, and RBC Capital Markets.  Through the program, property owners will be able to finance 100% of the upfront costs of energy efficiency, renewable energy and water efficiency and attach repayment to their property tax bills over periods ranging 5-20 years.  Repayment obligation is attached to the property, not the owner.
  
• State Energy Efficiency Policy Briefs, by Matthew Brown for the Alliance to Save Energy. This series of policy briefs is  designed to provide state officials and those who track and analyze state legislation with a concise and focused review of the policy options available to state governments in promoting energy efficiency.
  

• Green Jobs-Green NY: New York State legislation to increase consumer demand, provide job training, and achieve energy efficiency retrofits of an estimated 1 million housing units and generate between 5,000 - 15,000 jobs.  Energy retrofits will be financed by a revolving loan program, administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).  The initial funding comes from the auctioning of carbon emission credits and property owners will repay the cost over time on their energy bills.  Expected energy savings will be more than the cost of the improvements, resulting in a net savings for the property owner.

• Enabled by state legislation, "Green Jobs/Green New York" Bill (Enacted September 2009)
  

7.   Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP)

• Weatherization Assistance Program Technical Assistance Center (WAPTAC): This site provides technical assistance and support to the DOE national headquarters, state and local WAP agencies, and other stakeholders. WAPTAC also coordinates an orientation for new WAP staff. Weatherization Assistance Program Ramp Up Tools is a page of information, tools, templates, and materials designed to ease the ramp up process.

• Carnegie Policy Outlook on Weatherization Assistance Program,  Carnegie Endowment. This report provides background and a history of the Weatherization Assistance Program, and focuses on whether increased funding from the Recovery Act can be spent effectively.
  

• Economic Opportunity Studies: This DC-based non-profit provides resources to community action agencies, community-based organizations, and private or government organizations that are partners in expanding economic opportunity for all. 

8.  Multi-Family Buildings

• Bay Area Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC): Their Green Connection Program offers a comprehensive approach to green community development that brings environmentally sound principles into practice by bridging innovative best practices with traditional building methods to anticipate the rapidly changing landscape of sustainable neighborhood building.

• Green Rehabilitation of Multifamily Rental Properties: A Resource Guide by Bay Area Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and Build It Green. This guide provides affordable housing owners and administrators with information on incorporating green building and energy efficiency into their multi-unit buildings.  The 58-page guide contains four sections -- site condition and systems, building construction, mechanical systems and interior spaces –- with advice on incorporating the green building principles of energy efficiency, water conservation, resource conservation, and healthy indoor environments.  It also looks at the cost and cost-effectiveness of green strategies to assist affordable housing developers in making decisions about which measures to include in their rehab projects.