{"id":2853,"date":"2008-03-30T19:29:57","date_gmt":"2008-03-31T01:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/2008\/03\/30\/retrofitting-buildings-shows-promise-for-the-environment-and-the-economy\/"},"modified":"2008-03-30T19:29:57","modified_gmt":"2008-03-31T01:29:57","slug":"retrofitting-buildings-shows-promise-for-the-environment-and-the-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/retrofitting-buildings-shows-promise-for-the-environment-and-the-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Retrofitting Buildings Shows Promise for the Environment and the Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/files\/2008\/03\/handsformhouseoutdoor_blog2.jpg\" alt=\"house made of hands\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cows.org\/\"><strong>COWS \u2013 Center on Wisconsin Strategy<\/strong><\/a><strong> \u2013 Based at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, this national policy center and laboratory works with business, government, labor and communities to develop and test new ideas.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nMotivated by the statistic that 43% of all carbon dioxide is emitted from buildings <\/strong>(21% residential, 17% commercial, 5% industrial), COWS is working on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mwalliance.org\/image\/docs\/conference\/2008_MEEA_conf_doc-151.pdf\">Milwaukee Energy Efficiency Initiative<\/a> (pdf presentation) that builds a unique alliance to reduce this source of greenhouse gases.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nTheir mission looks promising. In terms of investments, retrofitting buildings is a low risk investment that has a high annual return of 22%.<\/strong> The other benefits include improving the environment, better worker\/residents\/student health and productivity, financial savings for property owners and tenants, and higher property values. An additional benefit is that these jobs cannot be outsourced.<!--more--><br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nThe working model of the COWS system is as follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First COWS negotiates with a bank for a revolving loan.<\/li>\n<li>Then they work with the local utility company to create a way for customers to repay their retrofit project by paying COWS a portion of the savings on their energy bill to COWS.<\/li>\n<li>An auditor comes in to assess the building.<\/li>\n<li>A contractor and crew do the necessary retrofit work.<\/li>\n<li>COWS receives payment from the utility company from each customer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>As soon as this model is tested, COWS will share this model with local organizations throughout the country. It looks very promising!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>There are several other retrofitting initiatives in the works that are worth watching: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/html\/planyc2030\/html\/home\/home.shtml\">plaNYC<\/a> (large residential buildings)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cambridgeenergyalliance.org\/\">Cambridge Energy Alliance<\/a> (city wide)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.c40cities.org\/\">C40 Cities<\/a> with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.clintonfoundation.org\/cf-pgm-cci-home.htm\">Clinton Climate Initiative<\/a> (forty of the largest cities worldwide)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) is working on the Milwaukee Energy Efficiency Initiative to make building retrofitting a profitable initiative for all players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":17468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[532,156,533,534],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Retrofitting Buildings Shows Promise for the Environment and the Economy &#8226; Sustainablog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/retrofitting-buildings-shows-promise-for-the-environment-and-the-economy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Retrofitting Buildings Shows Promise for the Environment and the Economy &#8226; Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) is working on the Milwaukee Energy Efficiency Initiative to make building retrofitting a profitable initiative for all players.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/retrofitting-buildings-shows-promise-for-the-environment-and-the-economy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-31T01:29:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/handsformhouseoutdoor_blog2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"145\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"139\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"carolmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"carolmc\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/retrofitting-buildings-shows-promise-for-the-environment-and-the-economy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/retrofitting-buildings-shows-promise-for-the-environment-and-the-economy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"carolmc\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/dc853cc72b76dcd9d1162fe90c5e52be\"},\"headline\":\"Retrofitting Buildings Shows Promise for the Environment and the Economy\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-03-31T01:29:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-03-31T01:29:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/retrofitting-buildings-shows-promise-for-the-environment-and-the-economy\/\"},\"wordCount\":274,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Center on Wisconsin Strategy\",\"energy efficiency\",\"Milwaukee Energy Efficiency Initiative\",\"retrofitting\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/retrofitting-buildings-shows-promise-for-the-environment-and-the-economy\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/retrofitting-buildings-shows-promise-for-the-environment-and-the-economy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/retrofitting-buildings-shows-promise-for-the-environment-and-the-economy\/\",\"name\":\"Retrofitting Buildings Shows Promise for the Environment and the Economy &#8226; 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