DOE Grants Target Cities' Green Efforts

Institutional and commercial facilities in communities across the country are investing in projects and programs designed to save energy, reduce climate pollution and advance energy goals. As a result of recent federal grants, several U.S. cities will be able put their plans into action. 

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced award recipients through its Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program. The program will distribute $16.9 million to 22 local governments and the state of New York to improve energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and lower overall energy use. The program is designed to fund a range of energy efficiency and decarbonization projects. Among the grant recipients are these: 

• Columbus, Ohio. The city will provide free energy audits to nonprofits that provide health and human services to disadvantaged communities. Upon completing the audits, the non-profits will receive technical assistance to interpret the findings and form implementation strategies to cut energy-related costs. 
• Miami. The city will purchase seven electric vehicles (EV) and install six Level 2 EV chargers for its municipal fleet. The program will prepare technicians to service high-voltage EVs and install and maintain residential and commercial EV charging stations. 
• New York City. Among other efforts, the city will: identify and reduce carbon emissions in new construction and evaluate the emissions of materials involved in this construction and associated infrastructure and recommend strategies to reduce these emissions by 50 percent; and develop a performance-based building code for new construction and hire a third-party contractor to evaluate and verify the city’s greenhouse gas accounting methods and data. 

Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management. 

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