I’m seeing stars – ENERGY STAR, Home Star, Building Star…
Posted: April 9, 2010 by Kaye, Category:Building Regulations
We’ve all heard about ENERGY STAR.
And you probably heard President Obama talk about the Home Star (aka “Cash for Caulkers”) program recently. Designed to provide financial incentives for homeowners who perform a variety of energy-efficiency upgrades, the Home Star program is urging Americans to green up their homes while getting a little green in return.
Well, add another “star” to the list. Melissa Hincha-Ownby reported earlier this week about USGBC’s support of the proposed Building Star legislation, which, if passed, will provide incentives for energy-efficient retrofits for existing buildings. Similar to Home Star, Building Star will provide financial incentives for energy-efficiency retrofits in multi-family residential units as well as commercial buildings.
According to the MNN article, “Every year, the American economy loses more than $130 billion from leaky, inefficient buildings,” Fedrizzi added. “We can change that through the advancement of programs like Building Star - which would create approximately 150,000 jobs. Senators Merkley and Pryor get the ‘gold star’ for introducing it; now all the Senate has to do is include it in the next jobs package.” {Source: USGBC} Therefore, if passed, according to an article on Earth2Tech, “the program is expected to save building owners more than $3 billion on their energy bills annually by reducing enough peak electricity demand to avoid the need for nearly three dozen 300 MW power plants.”
This looks like a good deal all the way around. Building will be upgraded, saving the building owners money for heating, cooling and other inefficiencies. Plus that’s less strain on the environment. And more retrofits means more jobs, which will continue to boost the economy and create more spending in other areas.
