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 HOW­TO GUIDE FOR EMERALD CITIES December 17, 2010 Version 3 -1-
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................3
ECC NATIONAL ........................................................................................................................................................4
GOALS .......................................................................................................................................................................5
NATIONAL – LOCAL RELATIONSHIP ..........................................................................................................................6
LOCAL EMERALD CITIES COLLABORATIVES...............................................................................................7
BUILDING A LOCAL COUNCIL ....................................................................................................................................7
Assembling the Stakeholders................................................................................................................................8
Sign-On Threshold .............................................................................................................................................10
Governance Structure ........................................................................................................................................13
Organizational Structure ...................................................................................................................................15
Selecting a Fiscal Agent.....................................................................................................................................16
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT..........................................................................................................................................17
Planning.............................................................................................................................................................17
Project Selection ................................................................................................................................................19
Project Elements ................................................................................................................................................20
Building Technology ..........................................................................................................................................20
Financing ...........................................................................................................................................................22
Workforce Development.....................................................................................................................................26
Community Organizing ......................................................................................................................................27
Public Policy ......................................................................................................................................................29
MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT ..............................................................................................................................32
Blank Assessment Tool.......................................................................................................................................34
GLOSSARY ...............................................................................................................................................................36
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INTRODUCTION Welcome to the Emerald Cities Collaborative.
The Emerald Cities Collaborative (ECC) is excited about teaming up with many impressive
energy efficiency, workforce development, and community organizing efforts on-the-ground in
cities around the country in order to improve our metropolitan communities. By connecting
national and local resources and expertise, as well as coordinating work among local
stakeholders, we can, together, greatly scale up our environmental, economic, and democratic
impact. The hubs of these local activities will be local ECC councils.
This guide provides a quick snapshot of the many considerations in launching a local ECC
council, creating a governance and organizational structure, selecting preliminary local projects,
developing each of the many elements needed to implement the work, and evaluating success.
While every local member is familiar with particular aspects of what is required to make a
successful Emerald City, all join with unique experiences and questions. With this guide, we
hope to help coordinate the conversation about our collective efforts through a broad overview
that provides common understanding across both partners within a city and local ECCs
throughout the country.
This guide is not intended to be prescriptive – we seek to raise ideas for consideration and not to
tell you how to do this work. We hope to enrich this guide with your own strategies and pointers
as all of you successfully develop ECC on the ground. We will also supplement this document
with more in-depth guides to topics referenced in many of these sections. We hope this can be a
resource as you get started, and we look forward to your feedback so we can continue to improve
our advice for each new Emerald City.
Even if you are not a member of ECC, thank you for your interest and please read on!
This guide can serve as a resource for community organizations, labor unions, city governments,
businesses, and foundations around the country interested in working together to green our cities,
build our communities, and strengthen our democracy. While these groups may not have a
formal relationship with the national ECC, many of the considerations and ideas presented here
can be applied to any green, collaborative effort. We hope that this guide can help all interested
stakeholders build successful local partnerships to further their goals.
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ECC NATIONAL ECC is a working partnership of diverse organizations – businesses, unions, community
organizations, social justice advocates, development intermediaries, research and technical
assistance providers — united around the goal of greening our metropolitan areas in “high-road”
ways that advance fair opportunity, shared wealth, and democracy within them. Our initial focus
is to collectively craft models and systems that ensure that the public investments in energy
efficiency retrofits of America’s building stock are scalable; intentionally include low-income,
communities of color, and create viable jobs and careers.
ECC’s assembled assets are substantial and significantly contribute to building scalable models
of energy conservation, workforce and community development. The Local Initiatives Support
Corporation, Enterprise Community Partners, NeighborWorks America, and the Council of
Large Public Housing Authorities finance and manage over a million units of affordable and
public housing and have replicable green building programs and services. The Corps Network,
YouthBuild USA, the Community Action Partnership and the Building and Construction Trades
(AFL-CIO), operate a combined 1,500 labor and community based training centers, which offer
both pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship training curricula. PolicyLink, Green for All, and the
Partnership for Working Families are effective national and local policy advocates. Center on
Wisconsin Strategy, based at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the Community
Innovators Lab at MIT contribute policy, planning and research. We also bring investment and
financial assets through our banking, pension and investment partners such as Bronze
Investments.
Our goal is to work jointly, stitching together our disparate programs, resources and expertise to
ensure sustainable and scalable impact on our mutual efforts to rebuild America. ECC is the
only “table” in the country that brings together these national organizations and local operations
that are engaged in designing and implementing an integrated strategy of comprehensive retrofits
that incorporate all of their assets.
We offer our local partners that embrace ECC’s principles of community change a variety of
support, including: a ‘starter kit’ of building stock/inventory; increased access to training and
high quality jobs and careers; access to private capital; prototype project designs by building
type; technical assistance in program design, management, and evaluation; promotion and
facilitation of labor-community organizing; assistance in policy and regulatory reform; and
shared learning and knowledge dissemination.
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Goals ECC’s diverse member organizations are united around the goal of rapidly greening our nation's
central cities and their surrounding metropolitan regions in equitable and democratically
accountable ways. We envision a future in which American cities are the greenest and most
equitable in the world, leading the way to head off global climate change while creating a vital
new economic sector. Through a series of projects implemented in collaboration with an
expanding network of cities, ECC seeks to:
•
Green our cities by conducting comprehensive and deep building retrofits to
significantly reduce the city’s carbon footprint and increase energy efficiency.
•
Build our communities by generating good jobs and lifetime careers, creating
new enterprises, promoting social and economic equity, and raising living
standards.
•
Strengthen our democracy by giving greater voice to community and labor
united and increasing access to consequential decision-making about the urban
future.
We believe that we can achieve these goals through efforts to:
•
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Substantially increase the energy efficiency of citywide building stock over ten
years while prioritizing low-income communities;
Implement deep, not simple, retrofits wherever possible;
Support high-road job creation through the requirement for labor standards;
Expand access to high-quality jobs and contracts to minorities, women, and lowincome residents;
Build lasting democratic capacity to shape the urban economy; and
Support regulations and legislation furthering these goals.
In order to become an Emerald City, we require that cities and their communities affirm the
goals and principles of ECC. The local section of this guide details our threshold of support for
local stakeholders.
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National – Local Relationship The national ECC will provide financial, political, and technical support for the development of
local ECC tables, project planning, and project implementation. The following are proposed
areas of aid to local ECC councils, with specific assistance depending on the particular needs of
each community.
Finance
Though ECC is not a funder, helping local affiliates develop new financial mechanisms and find
resources for project development is a top priority. Through its national partnership, ECC brings
together financial experts who have years of experience in the field of energy and energy
efficiency, and development financing. In such challenging financial times, it is also incumbent
on ECC to help local members figure out creative ways to use public financing and attract
private financing to undertake retrofit projects in the aggregate.
Political Support
With its extensive network, ECC can help local affiliates gather the political will that is needed
to accomplish agreed upon goals. We recognize the challenges to leaders who are asking their
constituents to work with groups that are either unfamiliar or have histories of conflict. Through
strategic injections of support, ECC can help affiliates create new partnerships and leverage old
ones. ECC, directly and through our member organizations, expects to actively work with you to
create a policy environment that supports our environmental, economic and social equity goals at
both the national and local levels.
Technical Assistance
With the complexity of large-scale retrofit projects, it is inevitable that local Emerald Cities’
affiliates will need some kind of technical assistance, whether on building technology,
community organizing, or workforce development. ECC will provide technical assistance
services through various means. The following are proposed methods of technical assistance
delivery:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Direct tailored assistance
ECC Website
Rapid response team
National conferences
TA stable
Training opportunities (as we scale up)
ECC national will also facilitate communication across our cities by developing a peer-to-peer
learning network. By developing a system for local ECC councils to share information and best
practices, ECC hopes to encourage their dissemination not through a top down, prescriptive
approach, but rather by those who are implementing projects on the ground.
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LOCAL EMERALD CITIES COLLABORATIVES Building a Local Council A distinguishing quality of ECC is an unwavering commitment to not only rebuild America’s
regional economies to be greener and more sustainable, but to also bridge America’s economic
and social chasms. ECC’s success requires building more robust and effective economic
systems. A sustainable and productive energy efficiency system must seamlessly connect all the
segments of our economy: business, labor, government and community. We need a predictable
and more coherent workforce system, linking community-based, academic and labor training
programs. We need to align the market forces – real estate, finance, business – with public
sector finances.
Similarly, ECC looks to forge a new social compact. Ensuring that the new green economy is
broadly accessible to all Americans is as important as building a new economy. This means
intentionally involving all segments of the community in the planning and implementation
process. This also means being open (and prepared) for new and, often, difficult conversations
across class, racial and ethnic lines.
The Local Council is organized to build a better “economic mouse trap”. But beyond ECC’s
system building approach, stakeholders can achieve much more by working together. The
environmental, economic, and democratic challenges that confront our cities require
collaboration that can harness the strengths of all stakeholders for local success. Collectively, we
can design and implement an ambitious program grounded in scaled projects that reduces the
carbon emissions of our building stock; generates high quality jobs for residents throughout the
community; and links a variety of constituents to guide local decision-making in a unified
direction.
The first step to achieving our shared goals is to build the table needed to facilitate coordination
among community, labor, city government, and civic organizations. This process has several
elements, each described in detail in this section:
•
•
•
•
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Assembling the stakeholders
Achieving the threshold of local commitment
Designing a governance structure
Creating an organizational structure
Selecting a fiscal agent
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Assembling the Stakeholders ECC national includes a diverse group of national organizations with both resources and
capacities to generate demand and labor supply in the emerging green economy and “on-theground” operations in cities across the country. This is a natural starting point for an ECC
conversation. Our labor, community, environmental, business and financial partners are
committed to marshalling their national and local assets to drive results in your region. Refer to
our list of board members to develop your inventory of potential members. Then a call to the
national office gets the ball rolling. We will work with you to enlist our local partners into your
local ECC Council.
This, however, is only a starter kit to building a local ECC Council. Each city/region hosts a
varied and unique array of assets that need to be harnessed into a rich and broadly representative
stakeholder Council. Be certain to critically assess who should be at the table, what they bring to
the ECC mission, what capacities they bring to the table. Perhaps most importantly, be sure that
you are able to assess the collaborative nature and culture of your organizational partners. After
this initial inventory, assess your gaps. Who needs to be there, what types of capacities do you
need that does not yet exist? There is no minimum or maximum number of organizations that
make up a local ECC Council. Yet, it is important to have each major segment of the community
represented: government, labor, community and business. You can and will continue to expand
the table over time.
The hardest part of the job is not identifying the right organizations or people, but convincing
them to “drink the Kool-Aid” and getting them to join yet another collaboration. The more you
are able to appeal to their self-interest and align with their organizational mission, the more
successful you will be.
National Board Members
Bronze Investments
International Union of Painters and Allied Trades
Building and Construction Trades, AFL-CIO
Laborer International Union of North America
Center on Wisconsin Strategy
The Local Initiatives Support Coalition
Community Action Partnership
MIT Community Innovators Lab
The Corps Network
NeighborWorks America
Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
Partnership for Working Families
Enterprise Community Partners
PolicyLink
Green For All
United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers YouthBuild USA
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Community Engagement
Creating a more democratic and fair society is a core principle of ECC. We strongly reject the
disenfranchisement of communities of color and impoverished communities in economic and
political development efforts. In thinking about creating a more democratic and fair society,
ECC partners must share the vision and expectations for a broad and inclusive table—a table that
can only be set through intentional, thoughtful community engagement strategies.
It is important to ECC national that our partner cities work intentionally to include these
historically disenfranchised communities in their effort to comprehensively retrofit their build
stock. By developing an ECC campaign on the ground, local members also acknowledge that a
place-based approach to energy retrofit work will help create political support. These
considerations are relevant at multiple stages of ECC work:
1. Before creating a Community Engagement and Organizing Strategy:
•
•
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Make an effort to understand the landscape of the current retrofit market,
organizational landscape, and individual knowledge
Determine whether there are organizations that already have a community base
Be prepared to develop or learn about effective communications strategies that
embrace language that everyone can understand
2. During outreach, there are several basic things to keep in mind, which might be useful when
conducting outreach and community engagement activities:
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•
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Use the information that you gathered to create a framework for common
language around energy issues
Listen to the concerns of those whom you are engaging
Create opportunities for meaningful work in your campaign to aggregate energy
retrofits
Be prepared to help mend frayed relationships
3. At this stage, consider who is invited to the table. Once the partnership-building process has
started, it will be up to the anchor organization to convene a broad set of stakeholders. The
coalition should engage both groups who represent key constituents and groups who have so far
been disengaged from the green jobs movement. Local ECC councils should reach out to the
following community groups:
•
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•
•
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Organizations that have base, credibility, and the ability to mobilize
Organizations with a direct mission-fit
Organizations with a transparent culture and deliberative capacity
Organizations that represent key constituents (geographically, economically,
professionally, and demographically)
Affordable-housing developers, public housing authorities, and tenant rights
organizers
Neighborhood associations and other Community Based Organizations
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•
•
•
•
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Youth empowerment organizations
Religious groups
Public health advocates
Immigrant rights advocates
Universities, Community Colleges, and Public Schools
Collaborative Building Process
As you determine the type of work that you must undertake, think about the following strategies:
•
•
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•
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Start with a shared vision and mission and operating principles
Clearly define Roles and expectations and codify in an MOU
Seek to understand your partners’ perspectives and goals
Have a plan with defined interim and final goals
Be totally honest about measures, standards, and implementation policies
Sign­On Threshold The composition of the local ECC councils will vary based on local circumstances. We would
like local membership to reflect the unique strengths and relationships within each community.
At the same time, all cities are required to meet a national baseline in order to establish a formal
relationship with the national ECC.
We expect that local ECC councils will meet an initial threshold of interest across stakeholders
to launch their efforts. This core group of members should continue to grow as ECC establishes
itself and implements projects on the ground. Local ECC councils can establish their threshold
for local membership in several broad steps:
1. The local ECC council obtains the support of key stakeholders in city government, labor,
community, and the civic infrastructure:
•
Local Government: The mayor of each Emerald City must agree to
comprehensively retrofit the city’s building stock within ten years in an equitable
way. Moreover, he or she must agree to work with Emerald Cities partners
representing the three groups outlined below, to develop a serious plan for how
this work will be done. While it is desirable for a mayor to sign a formal
agreement, he or she is not required to do so at the outset; nevertheless, a
commitment to ECC and its goals and principles must be signaled in a serious and
public manner. The mayor must also pledge to seek additional public partners for
local ECC efforts. The support of additional city administrators is also
recommended, and these individuals or organizations should be identified locally.
•
Labor: The necessary commitment of the labor unions is that the Building and
Construction Trades Council and its affiliated local unions formally endorse ECC
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efforts and its goals with a standard resolution and agree to collaborate with
community partners, civic leadership, and city government on the terms of a
social compact promoting both job quality and job access. This resolution should
occur after a structured meeting with the national Building and Construction
Trades Department, AFL-CIO.
•
Community: Community encompasses a broad set of groups including social
justice advocates, development intermediaries, neighborhood associations, church
and other religious organizations, and social service providers. ECC requires the
commitment of a set of such groups that are sufficiently representative of the local
community, particularly low-income and minority populations. Community
organizations should indicate intent to work in solidarity with ECC and
collaboratively with labor, business and government on the terms of a collective
document declaring ECC’s mission and principles.
•
Civic: The achievement of ECC goals will rely upon significant private
investment. Thus, a threshold commitment from cities includes the core support
of philanthropic or business partners such as private developers and Workforce
Investment Boards. While this sector is not coherent, the engagement of several
respected leaders within the civic sector is required. These civic leaders are
expected to push for retrofits at scale consistent with the goals of a local ECC
plan and to embrace the underlying principles of ECC.
We recommend outreach to private sector partners including:
o Material Suppliers and Manufacturers
o Minority and Women-Owned Contractors
o Signatory Contractors
o Energy Service Companies
o Credit Unions and Banks
o Community Development Finance Institutions
o Equity Fund and Green Investors
o Small Business Associations
The local ECC council documents formal support of local members for Emerald Cities:
•
A baseline signatory agreement that includes the principles of national ECC. All
local members throughout the country will be required to sign this document. The
mayor must also agree to these principles and is strongly encouraged to sign on,
but this remains optional in case the city government is concerned about the legal
implications that it would entail.
•
We strongly encourage each local ECC council to amend the national agreement
with a statement of local principles. This amendment would ensure that any
organization joining a local ECC council meets not only the national baseline, but
also the expectations of other local members. If a local ECC council does choose
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to create a local attachment, local members will sign one master document that
includes both the national agreement and local amendment.
2. Local members should continue their outreach to additional partners. As new members join
the local ECC council, they should sign the same master signatory document as existing
partners. As this membership list grows, the local ECC council should keep national ECC
updated on the current members. This list will serve as the formal record of local members
for the national ECC.
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Governance Structure Once local members have joined ECC, you will need to create a strong governance structure that
both drives local work and ensures diverse input in all key decision-making. We highlight
several considerations here as a first step in articulating a standard process and criteria for
building effective and democratic governance structures for local ECC councils. While we
recognize that each city has unique political and demographic circumstances, we seek to achieve
some level of consistency among our local ECC councils.
Local ECC members can create a robust governance structure by considering both what the
structure is and how it works:
1. Local members should determine what committees are needed to drive critical ECC work.
Some of these committees may be permanent, while others function more like working
groups that shift with project demands. Ideas for committees to help organize the basic
components of local ECC coordination and project implementation include:
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Steering or Executive
Workforce development
Demand generation (real estate/financing/energy technology/building science)
Business development or contracting
Public policy
Community organizing, outreach, or marketing
Project implementation – task forces might be needed by building sector
Monitoring and assessment
2. The local ECC council should then determine how these committees will function, including
the roles of each member within each part of the governance structure. This aspect of the
leadership design includes several components:
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Who leads the local ECC? (Anchor/ Convener) The local leaders and
organizations that convene and anchor the early phases of partnership-building are
key actors in the local ECC council. An ideal anchor organization has the
following characteristics:
o Well-established and well-trusted in the community
o Flexible and adaptable
o Adept at mediating conflicts between disparate interests
o Able to clearly articulate the significant value-add that ECC offers
o Able to lead groups through a process of creating a shared vision and
agenda
o Well-connected to a wide spectrum of groups that reflect the racial and
ethnic composition of the city
•
How do members construct a shared mission or vision? (Set Priorities) After a
broad coalition is convened, the first challenge will be to agree upon common
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priorities. These priorities will vary somewhat across local ECCs depending on
who is at the table. The key to success will lie in the convener’s ability to uphold
the deliberative space necessary for coming to consensus on a long-term vision
that inspires commitment and collaboration among members.
During this phase, the local ECC council will be tested in its ability to uphold the
commitment to fostering mutually-affirming, equitable, non-dominating
relationships. Interests will be divergent and all parties will have to commit to the
ethics of creating a common good. For this task, it is helpful if some part of the
council is well-trained in consensus-building.
•
How are roles defined? (Leadership, Accountability, Structure) One of the
challenges with convening a broad set of members is working efficiently. Once a
large group of stakeholders is engaged, core leadership committees are likely to
emerge. ECC requires meaningful and equal representation on local steering
groups, sub-committees, and other core leadership entities. When selecting core
leadership members, careful attention must be paid to replicate the diversity of the
larger coalition so that all interests are represented. At a minimum, one
representative each sector of Labor, Community, Government, and Civic must be
part of the core leadership group.
•
How is internal conflict mediated? (Avoiding impasse) Support structures will be
required to help local members mediate conflict and build community support.
The national ECC will be available to mediate conflicts as well as train local
partners to mediate internal conflicts.
3. Local ECC councils can also consider multiple categories of membership. A steering or
executive committee will require a larger commitment by organizations than general
membership. In addition, the Oakland Emerald Cities Collaborative is considering
establishing a third tier of membership. This tier will be a passive membership that allows
member organizations to signal support for the local ECC without committing organizational
time or resources. While other local ECC’s may not choose this particular structure, we
encourage you to design a membership structure that best captures the support and
commitment present in your community.
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Organizational Structure National ECC does not require local ECC councils to adopt any specific organizational structure,
because we recognize that you must respond to local needs. This checklist of considerations can
help systemize your process of designing the organization that supports the local ECC council:
Staff
What are the primary staff responsibilities?
Facilitation
Strategic development
Project development
Policy research and/or advocacy
Fundraising
Communications
Other: __________________________________________________
How many staff members does this require?
Do stakeholders prefer distributive leadership and staffing or centralized operations?
Roles of Member Organizations
What are the functional expectations of member organizations?
Will local member organizations be required to donate staff time?
What responsibilities will be provided pro bono by member organizations?
How will resources be distributed among local organizations for the work they provide for the
local ECC?
Will member organizations be required to sign detailed MOUs, or will these agreements remain
informal?
Operating and Project Financing
What is the projected size of the annual operating budget?
Does the local ECC Council expect to receive local, state or federal funding?
What percentage of funding is protected to be from private grants?
Are there strong, trusted organizational partners capable of and committed to meeting the
programmatic and financing needs of the Council?
Is the city participating in any state or federal programs for which ECC can consult or partner?
Are there any revenue generating opportunities for ECC locally?
Operations and Legal Status
Where will the offices be located?
Is there an anchor organization to house the Council?
What is the rent, and is it available pro bono from a member organization?
Is there a local nonprofit incubator to provide legal, financial and fundraising support for the
Council?
Is there a local foundation that can serve as a fiscal agent?
Are stakeholders willing to assume legal and fiduciary responsibility for managing a new, separate
nonprofit organization?
If so: who is on the Board of Directors?
What type of non-profit best meet the needs of the Council (c3, c4 or c7)?
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Selecting a Fiscal Agent For a number of good reasons, few ECC Local Councils establish themselves as separate
nonprofit organizations at their inception. Yet, they need to immediately fund raise for operating
and project financing to staff the collaborative and to deliver on the promise of economic
progress. It is important, therefore, for Local ECC Councils to identify an organizational partner
willing to serve as a fiscal agent for the Collaborative.
A fiscal agent assumes a special role and responsibility. They assume accounting, legal and
reporting responsibility for the ECC Collaborative. And yet, they are not, in the strictest sense or
in the ideal situation, responsible for the programmatic direction or outcome of the Local
Council. Local Councils operate with a democratically designed organizational structure.
Decisions are derived through a consensus, voting or other democratic process. It is important to
establish a Memorandum of Understanding among the key organizational stakeholders that
codifies the terms and conditions of the fiscal agent. This might include: how long they will
assume the responsibility and the desired reporting and scope of service. The Local Council
should also consider, under the best of circumstances, the level of compensation for taking on the
job.
In selecting a fiscal agent look for the following qualities: 1) a well established and respected
organization, 2) an organization tat is fully invested in the success of the Council, 3) an
organization with strong financials and that can demonstrate 2 years of positive cash flow, 4) an
organization that has no audit exceptions in the prior 2 years of audited financials, and 5)
adequate staff capacity to meet the contracted obligations.
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Project Development While ECC strongly believes in the value of facilitation, building the table is not enough to
improve our cities. The projects themselves are needed to mitigate the environmental impact of
our building stock, generate high quality jobs, create economic opportunities for disadvantaged
communities, and sustain a focused opportunity for residents to transform their neighborhoods.
To achieve all of these goals, energy efficiency retrofit projects must be implemented on a broad
scale. They should both deeply reduce the carbon emissions of each building selected and target
a comprehensive range of building stock.
Successful project development begins with a planning process that assesses the needs and
opportunities within each city. Next, particular projects can be prioritized and the roles of
individual member organizations can be defined. Finally, project implementation must address
the myriad elements critical to project success, including building technology; financing;
workforce development; community organizing; and public policy.
Planning Weatherization projects have been increasing over the last year, spurred in part by funding
available through the federal stimulus package. However, most of the efforts to date have
focused on a single building sector without stakeholders working together to leverage their assets
and expertise. Tax credits and many audit programs target single-family homeowners; nonprofit
developers focus on strategies to assist a single target building sector such as multifamily
housing; city governments are beginning to retrofit municipal buildings; and school systems,
commercial, and industrial sectors individually evaluate the energy savings of retrofitting their
own building stock. This piecemeal strategy misses many of the opportunities for deep retrofits
that are possible through neighborhood level projects and other programs that jointly retrofit
buildings across building sectors.
We recommend that local ECC councils begin their project development with a planning process
that transcends the individual orientation of local members and instead capitalizes on the greatest
needs and opportunities across the city. Energy use in these areas should demonstrate high
inefficiency. In addition, this planning should incorporate equity and the ability to coordinate
among multiple building owners, residents, and workers. A citywide planning process entails
several steps:
1. Local members work with the city government, utilities, and other organizations with
relevant data to map the city’s building stock according to a variety of measures including:
•
•
•
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Energy usage, benchmarked against similar buildings
Structural deficiencies or health hazards
Ownership or management by local ECC members
Ongoing municipal development projects
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•
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Location of large public institutions such as hospitals, schools, churches, and
community centers and their potential to erect solar, cogeneration, wind, or other
renewable sources that could generate power for neighborhood residents
Available financing, including private investment; city incentives; and state and
federal grants
2. The local ECC councils can similarly identify and map local geographies of need. While it is
ultimately most useful if captured in a map that can be overlaid onto the data collected above,
this information should not simply be collected from existing datasets. Community input
from town halls or focus groups can enrich census data such as residential income levels or
unemployment rates in determining priority neighborhoods and projects. Other
considerations may include neighborhood vulnerability to foreclosure or the need for
broadband.
3. Many local ECC members are already retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency, training
workers onsite, promoting economic development in targeted neighborhoods, or otherwise
providing relevant services at a building or community level. The ECC council should map
existing membership efforts so that future projects can coordinate and scale up this work.
•
•
•
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Affordable housing developers can see where they have units to contribute.
Community-based organizations can map their membership and locate supportive
local businesses and institutions.
Unions and community-based trainers can identify the neighborhoods where their
workers live and projects that are ongoing.
Contractors can map the buildings currently under construction or in the pipeline.
4. Finally, members combine these maps to develop a cohesive citywide strategy that identifies
gaps in ongoing work to determine where new efforts are needed.
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Project Selection Once an overall strategy has been set through a collaborative planning process, we recommend
that the local ECC council set priority projects consistent with that strategy. Selecting initial
projects will require a commitment from building owners, organized commitments from
members in specific implementation roles, and filling in any gaps needed to complete a retrofit.
This requires several steps:
1. Members each decide what aspect of the program they can implement, what budget is
required, and what dollars they can leverage for this effort. Local members can consult
with their national affiliates or ECC for advice.
•
Community-based members might take on roles for advertising, outreach, and
marketing the retrofit programs to building owners and occupants. These
members would need to develop a clear written strategy for how they will
convince local people to participate.
•
Trades members might assume the role of defining which contractors are doing
which part of the work. All contractors should abide by labor standards, wage
requirements, and local hiring agreements wherever possible. Ideally, these
contractors could commit to and budget for training new workers through this
retrofit program.
•
Workforce training members might define which curriculum each partner is
offering and how curriculums all feed into one another. Ideally all new green
sector trainees should be enrolled in standardized pre-apprenticeship training that
can lead to an apprenticeship with a union trade.
•
Other partners might take on the responsibility of providing support services to
ensure that new trainees can access these work opportunities. Such services
might include: daycare, transportation, language interpretation services, job
counseling, GED courses, and job placement.
2. The local ECC council might need to recruit an energy services contractor (ESCO) to
immediately audit a sample of buildings in the target area and recommend a specific retrofit
program. This ESCO might also help with the design and/or implementation of the impact
monitoring and verification system. An ESCO that joins the local ECC council should
commit to hiring and training local people as the project grows and moves forward.
3. Where there are other capacity gaps in program delivery or implementation, members can
recruit other new members to their local ECC council.
•
New members who might help with the financial sustainability and leveraging
include: credit unions, banks, community development finance investors, and
social equity fund investors.
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•
New members who might help scaling up of efforts include: small business
associations, main streets organizations, construction retailers, appliance retailers,
materials manufacturers, churches, universities, and public housing authorities.
Project Elements Conducting large-scale energy efficiency retrofits will require pulling together many elements
that enable each stage of work. This section provides considerations and recommendations for
each of these projects elements.
Building Technology Having selected particular buildings and communities, local ECC members should next define
the particular interventions that are most needed. This will be critical to defining the scope of
work of a project, the financial and environmental costs and benefits, and the job skills required.
Many existing citywide plans and other large-scale energy efficiency efforts focus on simple
solutions such as changing lighting or caulking windows. While these efforts pay off quickly,
they do not maximize the potential energy savings of a building. We recommend that local ECC
councils pursue deeper retrofits at both the building and neighborhood level. Here are some
considerations for each of these strategies:
Building level retrofits
We encourage local ECC members to quickly involve engineers and contractors to evaluate the
energy savings of each retrofit option in a given project with a focus on aggregating
interventions or jointly working across buildings. Beyond caulking windows and adding
insulation, more comprehensive building improvements can provide much greater levels of
energy savings. Several types of considerations are important at this stage:
1. Local members and building experts should evaluate the causes of energy inefficiency in an
existing building. Common systems that need to be replaced or repaired include:
•
•
•
HVAC systems such as boilers
Windows
Plumbing and other piping
2. The teams evaluating retrofit options should consider how to combine energy efficiency
improvements with other needed building repairs. Local ECC members that frequently
provide weatherization services may be helpful in identifying the types of structural problems
and health hazards that prevent energy efficiency improvements. Particular types of building
improvements that could be coordinated with these retrofits include:
•
Broadband installation
- 20 -
•
•
•
•
Lead and asbestos abatement
Mold and mildew removal
Roof repair or replacement
Seismic retrofits
3. Building technology experts should work with ECC members to provide an environmental
and economic cost benefit analysis of these changes. The local ECC council can use these
estimates as the basis for financing discussions with potential investors.
Neighborhood level retrofits
We recommend that local ECC councils explore building systems changes at a neighborhood
level. Despite their potential for broad level energy savings, these types of systems have not been
widely adopted. Local ECC councils can take several steps to move these projects forward:
1. Local ECC members can engage building technology experts, including engineers and
contractors, to determine what building systems changes are possible at a neighborhood
scale. Because these projects are not yet common, local ECCs may want to look to national
ECC experts for guidance. In addition, for each of these options, the local ECC council
should evaluate what large institutions could anchor these projects. The types of
interventions to consider at a neighborhood level include:
•
Cogeneration plants: These building systems can capture and direct the heat
created in generating electricity to buildings throughout a neighborhood.
Hospitals are a prime candidate for anchoring this system, because of their
interest in generators that can provide back-up electricity when problems occur in
the grid. Schools also have an interest in stabilizing their utility bills and
cogeneration plants are a promising strategy for doing so.
•
Chillers: Just as cogeneration plants provide heating for a neighborhood, largescale chillers can provide similar opportunities for cooling. Many colleges and
universities already have multi-building systems in place that could serve as
models.
2. As an inclusive table, the local ECC council can help illustrate the benefits of this type of
neighborhood level project. This work has been stalled, in part, by the lack of a clear lead
actor interested in benefits to all stakeholders
Resources who is willing to design and implement the
retrofit.
LEED Public Policies
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?
3. The local ECC council can coordinate the
CMSPageID=1852
decision making and management required to
move forward. Long-term choices about
Green Building Basics
management and ownership that arise because
http://www.youthbuild.org/site/c.htIRI3P
the systems cross properties must be resolved
IKoG/b.5158829/apps/nl/newsletter3.asp
up front.
- 21 -
4. Local members can also mobilize constituents to support policy and regulatory changes to
encourage neighborhood level projects. In most cities, the permitting and inspections process
for these building interventions are slower than for other types of retrofits. This barrier could
be addressed by policy modeled on Chicago’s “Green Permit Program” that expedites
buildings with green elements.
Financing None of the environmental and economic promise of ECC will be realized without financing for
the retrofit work itself. We recommend that local ECC councils consider different financing
models for this work, and weigh in on the city’s decision-making process. Keeping in mind the
importance of leveraging and long-term sustainability, we encourage local members to advocate
for finance mechanisms that will allow low- and middle- income owners and renters to invest
and benefit from increased building energy efficiency.
ECC has provided “Assessing Your Local Energy Efficiency Financing Environment” on our
website (http://www.emeraldcities.org/images/resources/Local%20Finance%20Assessment.pdf)
to help local partnerships define your finance needs, identify existing public and private
resources, and measure your existing financing gap.
Public
Local ECCs can help secure project financing by supporting the creation of public streams of
funding for energy efficiency retrofit work. These resources can take many forms, including:
•
On-bill financing: Utility companies can serve as key lenders or intermediaries by
managing a loan fund to provide building owners the capital costs of retrofit
work. Utilities then collect repayments through a fee on utility bills, while the
guarantee that a tenant’s total monthly bill remains lower than prior to these
energy improvements. This strategy offers the advantages of a straightforward
payment system for building owners and a low default rate for investors.
•
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE): Municipalities have used PACE to
provide loans to residential or commercial property owners to finance the cost of
energy efficiency improvements. The owners than pay the city back through their
property tax bill over a term of up to twenty years. This payment transfers with
ownership, so the cost of the capital work remains tied to the benefits. The
primary obstacle to implementing PACE in the residential market right now is
that the program gives cities the first lien on the property, conflicting with the
needs of mortgage lenders.
•
Bonds: Public entities that are empowered to issue bonds could use this
mechanism to raise funds for the capital costs of retrofit work. The most likely
building sectors to work with local ECC councils to issue energy efficiency bonds
are municipal buildings and schools. For example, Washington State has recently
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issued $100 million of school bonds statewide for retrofits, and a referendum
slated for this fall would add $500 million to the effort.
Local ECC councils can take several steps to unlock these public resources:
1. Local members should begin by evaluating the state and local legislative context. The
potential for particular finance mechanisms will depend on state level legislation and local
relationships with the dominant utility companies. A few questions can help guide this
evaluation:
•
Is there state enabling legislation for on-bill financing or PACE?
•
•
Have any local officials already proposed new programs?
Have any proposals gained any traction? If so, who are the major supporters and
their constituents? If not, what were the primary barriers to support?
Have the utilities taken a leading role retrofit programs? Do they offer rebates or
other incentives for energy efficiency improvements?
•
2. Local ECC councils can help shape the terms of policy regulations. To do this, members can
draft new policy platforms or endorse strong existing proposals created by local officials and
nonprofits. Members should also consider how the specific design of these programs can
create resources for local ECC partners.
3. The local ECC councils can work together to organize a broad public campaign supporting
these policies. Our community organizing section has more tips on how to fully engage a
wide range of constituents, but here are several ideas for a targeted policy campaign:
•
•
•
•
Members can engage their constituents directly through in-person efforts such as
canvassing; and online, through partner websites and e-newsletters.
The local ECC council can jointly reach out to the media through press releases,
conferences, and letters to the editor.
Local members can coordinate a group meeting with public officials such as the
Mayor, City Council, School Board, or City Manager.
Local members can organize public events such as rallies or town hall meetings.
Attendance and impact would be bolstered if local officials attend.
Private Market
Retrofitting all of a city’s building stock is a major undertaking that cannot be financed by public
investment alone. Rather, we recommend that local ECC councils quickly engage the private
market to access necessary capital. Energy efficiency projects can pay for themselves through
utility savings. However, members must identify mechanisms to recapture savings, acceptable
payback periods, interest rates, and minimal risk to attract investors. A number of types of
organizations could be interested in this kind of investment including banks, union, city, and
state pension funds, and businesses
Local ECC councils can take several steps to activate these resources:
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1. Identify progressive investors and intermediaries, and find out whether they have already
invested in any retrofit projects. Local members should think creatively to expand the
potential pool of funders. Do you have connections to any potential investors? For example:
• Affordable housing managers that deposit security deposits in banks can pool
their resources and approach those banks about creating loan opportunities.
•
Unions can encourage their pension funds to invest in projects that create jobs for
their members who are currently on the bench.
•
Construction companies and contractors, engineering firms, or others with
services that they provide to ECC members could provide initial services as part
of their client generation. For example, in exchange free audits, ECC members
could promise the firm any market-rate retrofit work in that building.
2. The local ECC council should learn the basic terms that would be required for an agreement
with an investor or intermediary. Key considerations include:
•
A minimum dollar amount will generally be required by investors, often in the
range of $25 million. With a target in mind, ECC members can work together to
aggregate their properties into sufficient scale.
•
The interest rate on the capital and payback periods may vary by investor. Short
payback periods make it difficult to provide deep retrofits that will have the most
environmental impact as well as create demand for skilled labor.
•
Many investors seek credit enhancement or loan guarantees, and this may require
public or regulatory assistance at the state and federal levels.
•
Investors will seek reliable data that illustrates adequate energy savings to finance
the repayment. The more data you have available, the stronger the pitch you can
make to potential investors.
3. Once you know that you can meet the terms required by the investors, we urge local ECC
councils to also define your terms for the agreement. This is important for ensuring that the
project not only creates improvements in the buildings, but also furthers the economic and
equity goals of ECC.
•
ECC members can specify who does the work on these projects. Use this as an
opportunity to define the role of partner organizations and expand job access. For
public housing projects, be aware of the need to fulfill Section 3 requirements.
•
These agreements can also include job standards. Project labor agreements and
community workforce agreements are helpful for setting wages and benefits in
addition to expanding job access.
- 24 -
4. With the above elements in place, local ECC members can finalize the deal.
Local Foundations
Local ECC councils will need to secure funding for the ECC table itself, beyond project
financing. We encourage local members to pursue the support of local foundations for these
efforts. Securing the assistance of these foundations takes several steps:
1. Determine what relationships already exist between local foundations and ECC members.
You may choose to rely on these organizations guide targeted fundraising strategies based on
their individual knowledge. Another option is to gather all of the local foundations that have
worked with any local ECC members for a collective funders briefing.
2. We recommend building a local funders collaborative that can engage the local ECC council
both financially and intellectually. Many of these foundations have expertise about a number
of the challenges faced by ECC, and can contribute to program design and evaluation.
Foundations also have communications expertise that can help local ECC campaigns. Local
foundations can be collectively energized about the mission and work of your local ECC
through regular activities, such as a monthly breakfast or rotating site visits.
3. In addition to your broad funding strategy, you may also build focused relationships with
foundations that can contribute in targeted ways beyond grants. Local foundation
contributions might include:
•
•
•
Serving as a fiscal agent for the local ECC council
Providing office space for ECC staff
Hosting a conference or other ECC events
Resources The Paid from Savings Guide to Green Existing Buildings:
http://www.usgbc.org/Store/PublicationsList_New.aspx
http://pacenow.org/blog/
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/solutioncenter/financialproducts/default.html
Guide To Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Financing Districts:
http://www.greenforall.org/what-we-do/building-a-movement/community-ofpractice/citywide-retrofitting-resources
Financing Energy Retrofits:
http://ase.org/content/article/detail/1238
- 25 -
Workforce Development In order to complete energy retrofit work, using high labor standards, and creating jobs that are
accessible to historically excluded communities, local ECC members may want to create a
workforce development committee. This committee would be tasked with improving local
community/labor relationships, creating a workforce pipeline that adequately meets the amount
of work that will be done, and creating Project Labor Agreements or Community Workforce
Agreements that meet high ECC standards.
Job Quality and Job Access
A centerpiece of Emerald Cities is to ensure high labor standards for all workers. High standards
include wages that support families and access to healthcare and other benefits. In addition to
explicit support for high road labor standards, local partners should commit to opening access to
those jobs to communities that have historically been excluded from such opportunities. Those
communities include people living in poverty, people of color, women, and other disadvantaged
groups.
Community/Labor Relationship
Every city can expect a different relationship between community and labor. It is the goal of the
national Emerald Cities Collaborative that local members will come together to create or
strengthen bonds between the two parties. The development of these bonds can be mutually
beneficial as community members are allowed access to the opportunities that labor unions
provide, and labor unions build support for collective bargaining.
Workforce Pipeline
In order to develop a strong, prepared force that includes people living in the communities where
the work is being done, local community based training organizations, labor unions, and other
community groups must develop a systematic effort to deliver prepared workers. This system
will allow new entrants to know the course they must take in order to end up with a high road job
in energy efficiency, and will ensure that projects are fully staffed by prepared workers.
Project Labor Agreements and
Community Workforce Agreements
One of the primary ways to ensure that
labor standards are met and that
community has a voice in the process
of development is through the creation
of project labor agreements and
community workforce agreements.
These legally enforceable documents
can help to create wage standards,
provide job access to community
members, and ensure that there are
vehicles for dealing with
management/labor issues.
Resources Getting to the Table, A Project Labor Agreement Primer
Insight National Economic Development and Law Center,
by Liam Garland and Susie Suafai:
http://www.insightcced.org/publications/wdpubs.html
Partnership for Working Families
http://communitybenefits.org/section.php?id=265
Oakland Port and other information on PLAs and CWAs
http://www.plaswork.org/Resources.aspx
- 26 -
Community Organizing Emerald Cities' ambitious goals require, local partners to assemble a critical mass of people to
influence their cities’ economic, social, and environmental future. Experience tells us that local
partnerships that do not prioritize base-building are vulnerable to political and bureaucratic
roadblocks that prevent success at scale. Local ECC members need to engage in community
engagement and organizing efforts that build community support and harnesses community
energy. This effort will be key to the movement building activities, which are a major focus of
ECC.
A message of opportunity
If we want to be successful, ECC councils must reach communities with a message of
opportunity, one that resonates with everyday, practical considerations. While helping
communities attain energy savings and career opportunities, ECC members can also call upon
community members to show support for the movement by actively participating in legislative
advocacy and community organizing efforts. By helping community members understand how
they will benefit from energy retrofit efforts and how they can help facilitate it in the aggregate,
local ECC members will build a strong and supportive community platform.
Creating Demand
The market for energy retrofits is not yet robust, particularly around home energy retrofits, local
members must engage in a campaign and organizing process to help individuals understand the
power of the market. This process must create a message around
•
•
The benefits of energy efficiency retrofits
The need to create a movement around retrofits and environmental justice issues.
As more community members join the movement, they should be enlisted to help organize other
residents. Using creative messaging and the latest in social networking techniques to spread
information about energy efficiency retrofits will be important to reaching those who might not
otherwise know about this market.
Workforce Opportunities
Because Emerald Cities seeks to create high road employment opportunities for communities
that have been historically excluded from them, local members should convey to them the work
opportunities associated with retrofit work. Local training partners will likely share in the
responsibility to help prepare individuals for the workplace. Keep in mind that, the very first
step is to inform people that these opportunities are available.
Legislative Advocacy
You will also need to gain political support for local, state, and national ECC legislative
priorities, community members must be engaged, aware, and educated about those priorities, as
well as the work that will be required to attain those goals. To help prepare community leaders
and others for such advocacy, local ECC partners will need to create educational training
programs to help prepare for this process.
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Programs should incorporate a curriculum that offers participants training and opportunities to
develop skills, have mentors, be exposed to best practices in the policy development field, and
have increased visibility in the policy world. Helping participants understand and use data
effectively will enable them to bring credibility and strategic focus to advocacy efforts and
policy initiatives.
Resources Increasing Demand for Home Retrofits
http://www.greenforall.org/resources/driving-demand-for-home-retrofits
Leadership for Policy Change
http://www.policylink.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lkIXLbMNJrE&b=5136581&ct=6999753
Making Development Work for Local Residents: Local Hire Programs and Implementation
Strategies that Serve Low-Income Communities
http://www.communitybenefits.org/section.php?id=217
http://www.coastalalliance.com/reports/reports.html
Making the Transition:
Helping Workers and Communities Retool for the Clean Energy Economy
http://apolloalliance.org/reports/
Advocating for Equitable Development: A PolicyLink Manual
http://www.policylink.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lkIXLbMNJrE&b=5136581&ct=6999375
http://www.greenforall.org/what-we-do/building-a-movement/community-of-practice/ee-demandgeneration
Research driven organizing
http://massclu.org/our-research-model-supporting-organizing-campaigns
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Public Policy ECC supports the expansion of public policies that further the energy efficiency, workforce
development, and community opportunity goals of our partners. To create such public policy,
we acknowledge that local partners will have to work diligently to create influential communities
and partnerships. As the national organization implements its peer-to-peer learning network,
with an eye toward disseminating best practices, we acknowledge that effective public policy
will be one of the cornerstones of a successful Emerald City.
Local
The following are just a few areas around which your organization might want to pursue public
policy options:
1. Utilities: Ensuring that local utilities are working toward the energy efficiency goals of local
governments and communities will be a key piece of any local policy agenda. Perhaps the
first effort of any local ECC partnership will be to ensure that local Utilities disassociate their
profits from their sales of carbon-based energy commodities. Instead, decoupling encourages
utilities to be rewarded on how they meet customers’ energy service needs.
In addition to this decoupling effort, local and national ECC partners increasingly want
access to information regarding energy usage. In most places, no mechanism exists that
allows consumers to directly get information from utilities about real time energy usage,
potential savings from energy efficiency measures, and other important information.
Changing how aggregate information on energy usage is obtained will be key to helping
change the way that utilities do business.
2. Audit Requirements: The first step in the process of energy efficiency work begins at the
assessment level. This work is the only way to determine the type of retrofits required for a
particular building. Without incentives to do energy audits in the municipal, residential,
commercial, and industrial sectors, this work is unlikely to be done expediently.
Requirements alone, however, won’t take away from the cost. Public policy that ensures a
cost-effective way of conducting audits, particularly for individuals and organizations that
are facing financial challenges, is key to completing this work.
3. Climate Action Plans: Many cities throughout the country have created, or are in the process
of creating Climate Action Plans, which focus on reducing carbon emissions. Local ECC
councils should begin to engage with policy makers who are working on these issues, to
ensure that ECC priorities, including carbon targets, workforce issues, and community needs,
are being heard.
Federal
There are numerous federal incentives for energy efficiency work. Stimulus funding has
supplemented what had previously been under funded initiatives. It is important for
communities to be aware of the various funding mechanisms and opportunities to engage in
- 29 -
creative approaches to completing energy efficiency work. ECC will regularly update our local
partners about critical Federal legislation that may impact them.
The following are merely samples of federal programs that do, or could potentially involve
energy efficiency retrofit work. Additional opportunities can be found at www.grants.gov
Sustainable Communities (HUD)
EPA joined with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U. S.
Department of Transportation (DOT) to help improve access to affordable housing, more
transportation options, and lower transportation costs while protecting the environment in
communities nationwide. Through a set of guiding livability principles and a partnership
agreement that will guide the agencies' efforts, this partnership will coordinate federal housing,
transportation, and other infrastructure investments to protect the environment, promote
equitable development, and help to address the challenges of climate change.
HUD, DOT, and EPA will work to assure that their programs maximize the benefits of their
combined investments in our communities for livability, affordability, environmental excellence,
and the promotion of green jobs of the future. HUD and DOT will work together to identify
opportunities to better coordinate their programs and encourage location efficiency in housing
and transportation choices. HUD, DOT, and EPA will also share information and review
processes to facilitate better-informed decisions and coordinate investments.
Weatherization Assistance Program (DOE)
The purpose of the Weatherization Assistance Program is to increase the energy efficiency of
dwellings owned or occupied by low-income persons, reduce their total residential expenditures,
and improve their health and safety.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) increases the income levels eligible for
the program to 200% of the federal poverty level, raises the amount of assistance available for
each unit to $6,500, and increases the amount of funding that is available for training and
technical assistance up to 20%.
Green Jobs Innovation Fund (DOL)
The Green Jobs Innovation Fund is part of the Department’s vision for ensuring that workers
have the necessary skills, knowledge, and abilities to succeed in a knowledge-based economy
that includes high growth and emerging industry sectors, including green industries. Through
competitive grant opportunities, the Fund will help workers receive job training in green industry
sectors and occupations, and access green career pathways.
DOL has identified several strategies to help workers access green training and green career
pathways, including: (1) enhanced pre-apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship programs in
green industry sectors and occupations; (2) targeted sector strategy and partnership efforts; (3)
connecting existing education opportunities in green industry sectors and occupations to green
jobs; and, (4) support for existing partnerships that effectively connect community-based
organizations in underserved communities with the workforce investment system to better serve
targeted populations through a new focus on career advancement in green industry sectors.
- 30 -
DOL plans to use the requested funds to award approximately 40-50 grants and expects that
14,110 participants will receive training.
Resources State Leadership for a New Energy Future:
A four Point Initiative for Clean Energy and Good Jobs (Apollo Alliance)
http://apolloalliance.org/reports/
Federal policies to Increase Energy Efficiency in the Built Environment
(Enterprise Community Partners)
http://www.enterprisecommunity.org/public_policy/
www.grants.gov
- 31 -
Monitoring and Assessment Monitoring, program evaluation, and assessments of the ECC efforts can help local efforts in
several ways. Externally, measures of success can help local ECC councils fundraise and attract
additional organizations to join ECC. Internally, local ECC members can use evaluation efforts
as a way to ask each other: How is a successful coalition measured? With strong definitions and
metrics for measuring democratic capacity and implementation capacity, local members can
align ECC efforts to partnership goals. National ECC would like to work with local partners to
develop a core set of metrics that can be used to measure success across the country.
While this list is nowhere near exhaustive, this list provides ideas for potential metrics:
Green our cities
• Million metric tons CO2 reduced
• Dollars saved, and who captures those savings
• Internal Rate of Return for retrofit work
• Number of buildings audited or retrofitted
• Percentage of retrofits by building type
• Share of work done in oldest or least efficient building stock
• Number of retrofits conducted at neighborhood level
• Degree to which retrofit work does not skip buildings that need other work
Build our communities
• Number of people recruited to and/or completing training efforts
• Number of trained residents who qualify to work on crews for neighborhood
energy conservation projects
• Number of high quality jobs created
• Jobs opportunities created for women and minorities
• Elevation of small, women, and minority owned employers gaining access to
broader, more lucrative markets
• Number of units and/or dollars covered under community workforce agreements
• Number of slots placed within apprentices for individuals from targeted
employment categories
Strengthen our democracy
• Number of ideas implemented based on government hearings held on ECC goals
• Number of organizations supporting public awareness campaign
• Dollar value of donated space, airtime to public awareness campaign
• Frequency of joint labor/community attendance in public decision making forums
• Resources committed by organizations to collaborative community building
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Resources Enterprise Retrofit Audit Protocol
http://www.practitionerresources.org/
CAA Standards of Excellence
http://www.communityactionpartnership.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4
0&Itemid=125
Success Measures
http://www.nw.org/network/ps/successmeasures/default.asp
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Blank Assessment Tool National ECC would like to assess its local opportunities and impact around the country. A
broad assessment can also guide local efforts by highlighting the areas that need the most
attention. To this end, local collaboratives should complete this self-evaluation annually and
provide the responses to national ECC. This is a broad examination of the local context as well
as opportunities for projects and unique learning. It should not replace any program monitoring
or evaluation by the local ECC as it begins to implement specific projects.
Please fill out this table as a group, and your responses will be combined by parallel assessments
conducted by the national ECC. Please use a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (best), unless noted.
Governance
Current Status
Local enthusiasm of elected officials
ECC Density - # Engaged local affiliates
ECC Intensity - level of affiliate engagement
Community Engagement: Number
Community Engagement: Decision making power
Trades: Passed resolution
Trades: CWA/PLA presence
Section Average
0.00
Success Factors
Current Status
Local Capacity
Available financing
Utility/Conservation/Regulatory Environment
Workforce Infrastructure
Section Average
0.00
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Strategic Impact
Current Status
Scale - # of potential affiliate units/projects:
PHA
Affordable Housing Units
Other
Scale – EECBG project
Potential building / project types (initial):
Note: provide narrative description
Residential
PHA
Multifamily
Commercial / institutional
Neighborhood scale
Other
Importance of City:
Size; national image; importance of product type;
local innovation; funder interest
Geographic Diversity
ECC Opportunities: Branding Potential
ECC Opportunities: Unique learning
Potential projects or strategies that are different
than other locations and/or national leaders
Note: provide narrative description
Section Average
0.00
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GLOSSARY Cogeneration Plants use a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both
electricity and useful heat. It is one of the most common forms of energy recycling.
Community Workforce Agreement (CWA) is a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement with
one or more organizations that establishes the terms and conditions of employment for a specific
construction project.
ESCO is a commercial business providing a broad range of comprehensive energy solutions
including designs and implementation of energy savings projects, energy conservation, energy
infrastructure outsourcing, power generation and energy supply, and risk management.
Net Operating Income (NOI) is earnings before interest and taxes.
On-bill financing allows utility companies to serve as key lenders or intermediaries by
organizing a fund to loan building owners the capital costs of retrofit work. They then collect
repayments through a fee on utility bills.
(Property Assessed Clean Energy) PACE allows municipalities to provide loans to residential
or commercial property owners to finance the cost of energy efficiency improvements. The
owners than pay the city back through their property tax bill over a long period of time, often 20
years. That added property tax fee transfers with ownership, so owners are not burdened with
high capital costs if they do not remain in the house for payback.
Project Labor Agreement (PLA)
Recapitalization is restructuring a company's debt and equity mixture, most often with the aim
of making a company's capital structure more stable.
Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) enables low-income families to permanently
reduce their energy bills by making their homes more energy efficient. The U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) provides funding to states, U.S. overseas territories, and Indian tribal
governments, which manage the day-to-day details of the program. These governments, in turn,
fund a network of local community action agencies, nonprofit organizations, and local
governments that provide these weatherization services.
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