Renew America Success Stories

Community Energy Program

Description

The Community Energy Program mobilizes community and other groups to advocate for, and help invest in, energy efficient projects that benefit and employ low-income individuals in Chicago.  The program is a component of the Campaign for Sustainable Chicago, a multi-year effort of the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), that works to promote a healthy environment, empowered communities and productive work as core values of Chicago's development strategy.

Because the housing stock is poor, low-income communities are usually particularly energy inefficient, and they pay a high price for it: service cutoffs, housing abandonment and even arson.  In poor households, money for energy often must be taken from the food budget.  For these reasons, energy inefficiency is a tremendous threat to the health of low-income communities.

Current patterns of energy use in Chicago are destructive for other reasons, as well.  A 1982 CNT report documented that 90% of Chicago's $4 billion annual energy bill leaves the local economy bound for Texas, Saudi Arabia and other energy-producing areas. This outflow of money helps keep Chicago's low-income neighborhoods, which have disproportionately high energy bills, depressed.  Energy conservation and efficiency programs can help capture these dollars and keep them in the local economy.  For every energy dollar saved, $.90 can be spent on local goods and services, which helps generate local jobs.

The Community Energy Program is a follow up to the CNT-created Chicago Energy Savers Fund, which in the past lent more than $20 million at reduced interest rates to owners of low-income single and multi-family buildings through a network of eight Community Energy Centers.  These Centers then helped owners develop a retrofit program, employ contractors and monitor the work.  The program, which generated average energy savings of 28%, was terminated by the Illinois Commerce Commission as not cost effective.  The Community Energy Program will draw upon this experience to build an effective replacement program to help provide energy efficiency programs to low-income communities.

Program Highlights

• Government and Energy Project.  This project works to promote energy efficiency within local government so that more of every tax dollar can be spent on programs rather than energy bills.  The project has two components:
• 50/50 Schools Conservation Program.  CNT is pressing for passage of a bill that would require that 50% of all money realized through energy conservation savings in local schools be spent on school programs.   The program is designed to encourage schools to participate in conservation and efficiency programs, and to ensure that those programs provide a direct benefit to the students.
• Government and Energy Report Card.  In cooperation with government watchdog agencies, CNT will produce an annual energy report card publicly evaluating the energy efficiency of existing public institutions.
• City Colleges Demonstration Project.  This project, designed to reduce the energy consumption of the Chicago City Colleges, has saved more than $800,000 over three years at a cost of only $180,000.  The City Colleges are avoiding energy costs of nearly $300,000 annually.
• Energy Justice Coalition.  CNT is developing a statewide coalition of Chicago community and environmental groups to help provide access to energy subsidies and energy efficiency programs for low-income Chicago families.
• National Energy and Equity Coalition.  This coalition of groups concerned with national energy policy works to link grass roots energy activists with Washington-based policy groups to ensure that low-income communities and communities of color have access to energy subsidies, capital for efficiency improvements and employment within the energy services sector.
• Energy and Low-Income Housing Working Group.  This working group brings together low-income housing activists and developers to ensure that new housing is built to high energy efficiency standards.

Vital Statistics

• Program Management/Partnerships: The Community Energy Program is a project of the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT).  CNT works in partnership with local utilities, community and environmental groups, developers and the Chicago City Colleges.
  
  
• Budget: $770,000 total project cost.
  
  
• Community Served: The residents of low-income Chicago neighborhoods.
• Measures of Success:
  

• To date, the program has reduced energy consumption in participating low-income Chicago communities by 54,000 million British Thermal Units (MMBTUs).
• To date, the program is saving $300,000 annually with a payback period of 2.5 years.

Published: May 1997

Success stories designed by Mark W. Nowak