Pratt Center
September 23, 2014
New York City Council Looks to Pratt Center's Retrofit Standardization Iniative for Residential Energy Effiency Solutions
The New York City Council unveiled a far-sighted policy platform to strengthen New York City’s commitment to a greener, more sustainable and more environmentally-friendly future. This legislative package addresses key areas in the fight against global climate change, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing energy efficiency, and encouraging low-carbon transportation.
The council identified Pratt Center’s Retrofit Standardization Initiative as a model approach to greening smaller residential buildings in NYC.
The Retrofit Standardization Initiative launched in 2012 as an innovative project to ramp-up residential retrofits through a simple standard package of five energy efficiency measures that can be implemented in hundreds of thousands of similar small homes. A standard package can minimize the costs, time, and complications of retrofits by streamlining the energy audit process homeowners are currently required to go through in order to access retrofit financing. With the study phase complete, a pilot to implement the standard package in hundreds of homes is in development for 2015.