ASHRAE to Provide Energy Guidance in Clinton Retrofit Program

ATLANTA – ASHRAE will play a primary role in former President Bill Clinton’s initiative to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings by providing design guidance and tools to reach energy efficiency targets.

On May 16, Clinton announced the creation of a global Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program, a project of the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI). This program brings together four of the world’s largest energy service companies, five of the world’s largest banks, and 16 of the world’s largest cities in a landmark program designed to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings.

CCI and its partners, including the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and U.S. Green Building Council, will assist participating cities with their initiation and development of programs to train local workers on the installation and maintenance of energy saving and clean energy products.

“Climate change is a global problem that requires local action,” said President Clinton. “The businesses, banks and cities partnering with my foundation are addressing the issue of global warming because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s good for their bottom line. They’re going to save money, make money, create jobs and have a tremendous collective impact on climate change all at once. I’m proud of them for showing leadership on the critical issue of climate change and I thank them for their commitment to this new initiative.”

“ASHRAE is in the best position to provide immediate support to the cities seeking guidance through the Clinton Climate Initiative due to our 30-year involvement in design guidance for energy conservation for both new and existing buildings,” ASHRAE President Terry Townsend said.

Townsend notes that most guidance developed for the HVAC&R industry focuses on new construction, which represents only 2 percent of the building stock in the United States.

“We must broaden our focus to include existing buildings, which accounts for the other 98 percent,” he said.

As such, ASHRAE currently is working to provide energy guidance in existing buildings through its Advanced Energy Design Guide series. This existing buildings guide, developed in collaboration with the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America and the U.S. Green Building Council with participation by BOMA and the U.S. General Service Administration, will show building owners how they can initially reduce their energy consumption by 30 percent. It is tentatively scheduled to be available in fall 2008.

ASHRAE also provides guidance through its Standard 100, Energy Conservation in Buildings, which provides procedures and programs essential to energy-conserving operation, maintenance and monitoring, and Standard 90.1, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.

The Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program will provide both cities and their private building owners with access to the necessary funds to retrofit existing buildings with more energy efficient products, typically leading to energy savings between 20 to 50 percent. Those involved include:

• Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Inc, Siemens and Trane will conduct energy audits, perform building retrofits, and guarantee the energy savings of the retrofit projects.
• Citibank, UBS, Deutsche Bank, ABN AMRO, and JP Morgan have agreed in principle to commit to arrange $1 billion each to finance cities and private building owners to undertake these retrofits at no capital cost, doubling the global market for energy retrofit in buildings.
• These banks will work alongside energy efficiency finance specialist Hannon Armstrong and CCI to develop effective mechanisms to deploy this capital globally.
• An initial group of 16 of the world’s largest cities has agreed to participate in the retrofit program, and offer their municipal buildings for the first round of energy retrofits: New York, Chicago, Houston, Toronto, Mexico City, London, Berlin, Johannesburg, Delhi, Mumbai, Karachi, Tokyo, Seoul, Sao Paulo, Bangkok, and Melbourne.

ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization of some 50,000 persons. ASHRAE fulfills its mission of advancing heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education.

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