Municipal-Building Conservation Project: Financing Conservation in Municipal Buildings. Final Report.

摘要

The purpose of this survey was to assess one dimension of the energy problem that confronts cities - energy costs for public buildings - and to see how a sample of local governments had confronted that problem. While cities of all sizes tend to have a considerable variety of buildings, most are related to the basic municipal service of administration, police and fire protection, public works, and recreation. Most of these buildings consume natural gas and electricity as their primary source of energy, sources whose price is likely to rise more rapidly than the rate of inflation in the next few years. While it is difficult to assess the reports of energy costs without comparing them to the total city budget, these costs were found to be sizable among small and medium cities, and quite large among larger cities. While several of the conservation programs in the sample dated back to 1976, almost half (14) were relatively new, having been undertaken only in the last three years. Administratively, most have been placed under the direction of budget or public works officials, and, substantively, have emphasized no-cost/low-cost measures, such as employee awareness programs and improvements in building maintenance. In keeping with this, most of the programs have been supported by reprogramming funds, supplemented with local capital improvement funds, and state and federal grants. Case studies for five localities are appended. (ERA citation 08:005468)