Energy
Government Agencies Work Together to Promote Energy
Star® Products
Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
and the Department of Energy have announced a formal partnership to promote Energy
Star through HUD's affordable housing programs. These efforts to promote Energy
Star will not only improve the energy efficiency of the affordable
housing stock, but will help protect the environment, according to an EPA press
release.
"President
Bush directed the federal government to find ways to promote energy efficiency
and conservation," Mel Martinez, HUD's secretary, said. The "agreement
is a major step toward ensuring that our agencies work together to improve the
energy efficiency of new and existing homes by promoting the use of Energy
Star."
"EPA's
Energy Star program provides
government agencies, businesses and consumers with the opportunity to buy
energy-efficient products that conserve energy, save money and protect the
environment," Whitman said. "We have seen the success that can be had
when agencies come together with shared resources and knowledge to achieve our
goals."
Through
this agreement, the three agencies will work together to promote the purchase of
Energy Star-labeled appliances as
well as windows and doors by the nation's housing authorities and in HUD's
inventory of privately owned assisted housing. The agreement will also promote
the construction of new Energy Star-labeled
homes through HUD programs. These efforts will include developing Energy
Star informational and promotional materials, which can be distributed to
field staff, public housing authorities, formula and competitive grant
recipients and assisted housing property managers to help educate home buyers
and homeowners on the benefits of purchasing Energy
Star products or of building energy-efficient new homes.
New
Program Hopes to Increase Market Share of Energy-Efficient Products
The
Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (the Alliance), a non-profit organization,
has announced the initiation of a new program to work in partnership with window
manufacturers, architects and developers to increase the market share of
efficient manufactured windows in small- to medium-sized commercial and
multi-family building projects across the Pacific Northwest. The program seeks
to increase market share for energy-efficient products from an estimated
baseline of 12 percent to 50 percent by 2005 and 70 percent by 2010.
The
Alliance is currently meeting with manufacturers on how manufacturers can
improve products to make them more energy efficient and then distribute them in
the marketplace.
Funded
by the Bonneville Power Administration, a Northwestern electric utility, the
Alliance's goal is to promote energy-efficient products to manufacturers and
distributors of different products, such as windows, in an effort to reduce the
amount of electricity used in homes, according to Stacey Hobart, corporate
communications director.
The
Alliance has awarded a contract for the new commercial windows program to The
West Wall Group LLC, a Salem, Ore.-based energy-efficiency consulting firm.
New
York Community to Display Energy Star®
Project
In
an effort to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy usage, the National
Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center has partnered with the New
York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to show New York
consumers and builders the possibilities available in solar energy as part of
New York’s Energy Star Labeled
Homes Program.
Essex Homes of Western New York, based in Clarence, N.Y., will construct one of the 12 demonstration projects in the state in its Meadowbrook community in Pendleton.
DWM
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