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Boston Partnership and BHA Win Two Top Awards from US Dept. of Energy |
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| Contact: John Manning, Northeast Energy Efficiency Council, 617-834-9131
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At an awards luncheon in Atlanta this afternoon, the U. S. Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) Rebuild America program awarded its top Energy Champion awards to the Rebuild Boston Energy Initiative (“Rebuild Boston”) and the Boston Housing Authority (“BHA”). Rebuild Boston won the prestigious Partnership of the Year award, selected over 325 other partnerships across the country. The BHA won the Public and Affordable Housing Energy Champion of the Year award.
DOE’s Rebuild America program is a network of community partnerships – made up of municipalities, state agencies, schools and universities, nonprofit organizations, and businesses – that save money by reducing building energy consumption. The United States wastes $12 billion every year due to inefficient and outdated building energy technologies. Through Rebuild America, hundreds of communities and businesses are saving energy dollars and reinvesting in the community by creating jobs and performing building energy retrofits.
Rebuild Boston was organized in 1996 by the Northeast Energy Efficiency Council (“Efficiency Council”), a non-profit business association of energy efficiency companies. The initiative seeks to jump start energy efficiency investments in subsidized housing and small commercial buildings in economically distressed neighborhoods. It focuses on using energy efficiency as a tool for economic development.
Rebuild Boston has:
Completed energy and water efficiency investments of approximately $33 million in buildings with 19.5 million square feet of floor space. This includes 4,800 units of housing and over 200 commercial and institutional facilities .
Generated customer utility savings from these investments over ten years estimated at $44 million . In addition, most customers place equal value on the leveraging of capital for badly needed infrastructure improvements, and in enhanced health, comfort, and facility operations.
Identified an additional $40 million in cost-effective upgrades being considered for near-term investment.
The Boston Housing Authority is the centerpiece of the Rebuild Boston effort, and received its own award as Public and Affordable Housing Energy Champion of the Year. BHA was recognized for completing over $18 million in energy and water efficiency upgrades in over 3,000 apartments. These upgrades will produce $22 million in energy cost savings. The BHA also completed an energy and water efficiency master plan for the authority’s 64 developments and 14,000 apartments. “Energy efficiency investments are a triple win for the BHA,” said Sandra Henriquez, BHA Administrator. “They enable us to reduce our operating costs, upgrade our infrastructure, and improve comfort for our tenants.”
Rebuild Boston is a coalition of many partners, including the Efficiency Council, BHA, the City of Boston, NSTAR, Keyspan Energy Delivery New England, the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, the Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources, NORESCO, Harris Energy, Conservation Services Group, and Honeywell DMC. “These awards are a tribute to many years of hard work by all of the Rebuild Boston partners,” said Stephen Cowell, president of the Efficiency Council.
“Congratulations to Rebuild Boston and the BHA,” said Hugh Saussy, Director of DOE’s Boston Regional Office. “It is a pleasure to see these organizations receive the national recognition that they deserve.”
The city’s electric and gas utilities, NSTAR Electric and Keyspan Energy Delivery, played a major role in Rebuild Boston’s success through their highly successful energy conservation programs. NSTAR and Keyspan provided substantial technical and financial support to the BHA and other housing initiatives and lead the efforts to improve energy efficiency in over 100 small urban businesses.
“NSTAR’s energy efficiency programs are designed to help our customers save energy and money,” said Lisa Carloni, NSTAR’s Director of Energy Efficiency. “NSTAR has been delighted to work with Rebuild Boston in its efforts to use energy efficiency for economic development.”
Bruce Johnson, who heads Keyspan’s demand side management programs said, “Keyspan Energy is proud to have been one of the original Rebuild Boston partners, and to have worked with Rebuild and the BHA in their efforts to make Boston more energy efficient.”
Funding for electric utility energy efficiency programs was mandated by the state’s 1997 electric industry restructuring law. In recent months, both New York and California have substantially increased the size of their energy efficiency programs in order to address escalating wholesale electric prices. Energy efficiency helps individual customers reduce their electric bills and reduces electricity prices for all customers by reducing overall system demand.
“Energy efficiency programs are an important part of state energy policy,” said Representative John Binienda, House Chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Energy. “The programs help customers save on their energy bills and are good for both the economy and the environment.”
Senator Susan Fargo, Senate Chairperson of the Joint Legislative Committee on Energy, said “Energy efficiency programs help the state to meet its energy needs in an environmentally responsible manner. They are also one of our best protections against the skyrocketing electric prices that have been experienced in other states. What we have deemed a crisis is, in my view, an economic and environmental opportunity.”
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