Archive for October, 2009

Downtown development authority gets into the mix

October 15th, 2009 by Kevin Skurski

Here’s an example of yet another type of organization that is working to improve the energy efficiency of an existing building stock.  The Downtown Development Authority of Ann Arbor, MI, is in the 2nd year of its Downtown Energy Saving Grant Program. In this program, participating companies receive a free energy audit from a city-approved contractor, worth anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000.  The auditor will identify list of improvements that would boost energy efficiency, and after consultation with the DDA, landlords then pick which energy efficiency improvements to make.  After the improvements are made, the DDA rebates half of the landlord’s cost, up to $20,000.

Do you know about other programs like this?  We’d like to hear about them.  And whoever you are in the food chain, whether a contractor who does energy audits or a building owner or manager, you can push for programs like this in your area.

Maintenance is now cool

October 15th, 2009 by Kevin Skurski

Good discussion on a blog post at My FacilitiesNet about the maintenance profession being cool now.  The premise is that with the bigger-than-ever emphasis on energy efficiency in the buildings industry, partly due to the provisions in the economic stimulus, job opportunities are being created which will pull people to the maintenance, engineering and operations professions.    And also, knowing that you’ll be directly contributing to energy efficiency makes the job cooler.

What do you think?