Pratt Center
November 24, 2010
Energy Efficiency Comes to New York Neighborhoods
Photo by Diana Pau. From left: Luis Garden-Acosta (El Puente), Colvin Grannum (Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation), City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Seema Agnani (Chhaya CDC), Alfred Gill (NHS of Staten Island), Adam Friedman, Annette Williams (Sustainable South Bronx).
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined the Pratt Center, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and other partners on November 16 in the front yard of Theresa Braithwaite's Hancock Street house to inaugurate Retrofit NYC Block by Block, a new initiative to get New Yorkers to reduce their energy use through smart investments in their homes. Energy retrofits — home improvements that reduce the use of heating fuel, electricity, and water — can significantly reduce energy bills, make homes healthier and more comfortable, and reduce greenhouse gas and other emissions.
The New York City Council is sponsoring a one-year program that calls on community development groups in Staten Island, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens to enlist property owners in their neighborhoods to undertake retrofits, with the help of incentive programs from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), utility company programs, and federal grants and tax credits.
"When we saw the opportunity to fund $400,000 to help hundreds of homes throughout the City, particularly for underserved neighborhoods in the outer boroughs, we jumped at it," Speaker Quinn said. "This is a great initiative that I’m proud to support and I want to thank Pratt Center for Community Development and all the neighborhood partners for making our City green — one home at a time.”
Retrofit NYC targets smaller residential buildings, which make up nearly 66 percent of the city's buildings and generate nearly one-third of all building-source greenhouse gas emissions. It is a partnership between the Pratt Center and Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, Chhaya CDC, Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, El Puente, Neighborhood Housing Services of Staten Island, and Sustainable South Bronx. Under the block by block model developed by the Pratt Center, each organization will target zones within its local service area to maximize economies of scale for energy efficiency audits and improvements, and to enlist a critical mass of property owners to create "green blocks" by upgrading their homes.
In Brooklyn, Retrofit NYC Block by Block will work hand in hand with Brooklyn Greens, a new Brooklyn Community Foundation initiative led by the Pratt Center that promotes comprehensive neighborhood environmental sustainability.
Retrofit NYC Block by Block was piloted in 2009-'10 as Retrofit Bedford Stuyvesant, in partnership with Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. The Pratt Center has published a report summarizing the impact of the pilot phase and drawing lessons for future outreach efforts. A second survey assesses community-based energy efficiency outreach programs nationally and identifies best practices in the field.
Coinciding with the launch of Retrofit NYC Block by Block, the Pratt Center has also launched Retrofit NYC, an online resource helping homeowners, multifamily building managers and owners, businesses and nonprofits, and contractors access building energy efficiency resources.
"The Pratt Center developed Retrofit NYC Block by Block to support community action to make housing more affordable, create jobs, and improve the environment starting right here in New York City's neighborhoods,” said Adam Friedman, director of Pratt Center for Community Development. “We're so grateful to Speaker Quinn for her commitment to green our communities and build a sustainable future for the whole city."