Advancing Greenhouse Gas Reductions through Affordable Housing
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James City County, Virginia
Project Timeline: February 2010 – June 2014
Like many communities across the country, James City County’s residential housing market is experiencing many foreclosures. To address this issue, the County launched a program to link urban revitalization efforts with improvements in residential building energy performance. The goal of this program was to target older, low-to-moderate-income households in an area with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the county to achieve three goals:
- retrofit, rehabilitate, and resell foreclosed homes,
- promote energy audits and retrofits in owner-occupied homes, and
- engage in public outreach and education.
First, the County built on existing efforts to revitalize neighborhoods by financing energy improvements in foreclosed homes that were undergoing rehabilitation. Some of these homes were part of the EarthCraft Single Family Renovations Program, which aims to reduce energy use in rehabilitated homes by a minimum of 30%. The County collected annual energy usage data from homebuyers who participated in the program.
Second, the County promoted energy efficiency retrofits in owner-occupied homes. Homeowners could apply to obtain energy audits and energy efficiency improvement cost estimates. A select number of low- and moderate-income households received financing for the recommended retrofits.
Finally, the County promoted the program's benefits through outreach and education initiatives. Elected officials, County staff, and County public access television station broadcasts promoted the rehabilitation and financing initiatives. The County also held open houses at rehabilitated homes to share the energy efficiency benefits of retrofits and opportunities to access resources. A webpage was designed to highlight the program and other conservation efforts, and to provide resources such as a simplified explanation of assessing home energy performance and ways to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
James City County has completed a total of 36 energy efficiency retrofits of residential buildings. Of the 36 retrofits, seven are EarthCraft retrofit projects and 29 are BPI retrofit projects. Forty-two energy audits were completed. James City County held meetings and workshops to reach out to residents about the home energy audits available through the program. The County also conducted outreach through their updated website and county television channel programming. The County received a draft program evaluation from interns from the College of William and Mary and continued working with the interns to finalize a program evaluation.
The program achieved direct GHG reductions through energy efficiency improvements, provided support to an economically stressed area of the county, and improved the housing stock. This affordable housing program is a key component of James City County's ongoing efforts to build a coalition of citizens, businesses, and local government that work together to promote energy efficiency and improve quality of life.
Population 50,000
Area 144 square miles
Government Type: County
Community Type: Suburban
Median household income: $46,000 in targeted area
|
Final Results |
Projected Cumulative Results |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Annual GHG Reductions |
83.0 mt CO2e |
91.0 mt CO2e |
|
Annual Electricity Savings |
41 MWh |
126 MWh |
|
Annual Economic Savings |
$4,253 |
$25,000 |
|
Buildings Retrofitted |
36 |
44 |
Some results were estimated based on the average of improvements from previous projects. This approach has unfortunately resulted in an important lesson learned. The County has found that two similar homes with similar equipment and household composition may have very different post-retrofit outcomes. One household may be very conservative in their pre-retrofit utility usage while the other may not. In the end it is the more conservative household that appears to be the least successful project.
Contact James City County to discuss program implementation and results tracking.