Nation
Plugs Into Webinar To Find Out How
Babylon’s Green Homes Retrofit Program Works Cities Sign On to Joint Webinar
Between The Babylon Project and ICLEI
The
Babylon Project partnered with the International Council
for Local Environmental Initiatives-ICLEI to host their
first 90-minute webinar-“Launching A Municipal Residential
Energy Efficiency Retrofit Program” in July. The
webinar provided information to municipalities, labor organizations,
consultants, and environmentalists on how to create a municipally
driven energy retrofit program. More than 150 participants
from across the country - and Mexico City - signed up to
learn about the groundbreaking Green Homes Program which
has drawn significant national attention. New York municipalities
participating included; Binghamton, Huntington, Elmira,
Yonkers, New Castle, Albany, Woodstock, Brookhaven, and
Southampton.
The Long Island
Green Homes program, featured last fall in Networking® magazine,
has received national and international exposure. Town
of Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone has served as a presenter
and keynote speaker on the Long Island Green Homes program
at many conferences and symposiums spanning the United
States. Recently, he served as a presenter at the World
Economic Forum, Harvard’s JFK School of Government
and was a featured presenter in Ontario, Canada highlighting
the operational aspects of the Long Island Green Homes
Program. In February, The Babylon Project consulted with
senior staffers from the House and Senate Energy Committees
on the Climate Energy Bill currently making its way through
the Senate. In addition, the Long Island Green Homes Program
has received local and regional coverage and garnered the
attention of the national media through CNN’s Energy
Fix Program-(June 15, 2009) “City Funds Energy Upgrades.”
The Long Island
Green Homes Program was the first municipally operated
retrofit program in the country. In June 2008, The Town
of Babylon introduced the Long Island Green Homes Program — an
unprecedented program that provides Babylon residents the
opportunity to make energy efficient improvements to their
homes with no up-front costs resulting in lower utility
bills, new green jobs and a reduction in Babylon’s
carbon footprint.
The program has
been operational since October 2008 and has completed 158
audits, 85 energy retrofits and currently has 48 jobs in
progress. Due to the overwhelming interest in the mechanics
of the Green Homes Program, Supervisor Bellone created
a not-for-profit organization, The Babylon Project, to
promote municipally based energy efficiency programs across
New York State and the nation.
Recently, federal
energy policy has been drafted and significant additional
funds are available for energy efficiency programs. “If
these programs are to be effective, it is critical that
they be implemented at the municipal level,” said
Supervisor Bellone. “The Babylon Project is dedicated
to mobilizing municipal action and sharing best practices.
This not-for-profit will also focus on the creation of
green jobs and how these jobs can be used to help uplift
economically distressed communities.”
The Babylon Project
invites you to sign on to the webinar at www.thebabylonproject.org.
Click box: Sign Up for A Babylon Project Webinar.
