Downtown Ithaca, New York. The city has a plan to lower the climate footprint of thousands of buildings across the city.
My family is trying to disentangle itself from fossil fuels. Too slowly, I fear. I have a hybrid car, and my husband has been working with an electrician to change out the gas stove for an electric one. Suzanne and Erik are looking into electric for cooking, too. John has an all-electric car and solar panels on the roof.
The thing is, I’m sure I would have started this process much sooner if I had realized earlier that gas was bad. I’ve been in my current home nearly 40 years, and I assure you that 40 years ago, I hadn’t a clue.
In Ithaca, New York, there are people who had a clue long before I did, as Mike De Socio reported at the Guardian in August.
“When Fred Schoeps bought a 150-year-old building in downtown Ithaca, New York, a decade ago, he was one of only a handful of building owners dedicated to ending their reliance on fossil fuels and reducing their carbon footprint.
“His three-year renovation of the building, comprising three apartments above a skate store, included installing energy-efficient windows and insulation, plus fully electric appliances, heating and cooling systems.
“But while that was an achievement on its own, said Schoeps, Ithaca cannot address climate change one building at a time. ‘In order to move the needle, you’ve got to think in terms of a thousand [buildings],’ he said.
“Luis Aguirre-Torres, Ithaca’s new director of sustainability, is trying to do exactly that. The upstate New York city of 30,000, home to Cornell University and Ithaca College, adopted a Green New Deal in 2019, a big part of which involves decarbonizing thousands of privately owned commercial and residential buildings across the city.
“Ithaca’s main climate objective is to eliminate or offset all of its carbon emissions by 2030. The focus on retrofitting buildings – installing electric heating systems, solar panels and battery storage as well as reducing energy use and greening the electric grid – promises to tackle an often-overlooked but significant contributor to climate change:
buildings make up nearly 40% of US carbon emissions. …
“Ithaca is exploring a new solution to fund and motivate building owners to decarbonize: private equity.
“Aguirre-Torres has helped Ithaca – which has a total budget of less than $80m – raise $100m by offering investors entry to a large-scale program he pitched as low risk with the potential for lots of cashflow. The goal is to create a lending program providing low- or no-interest loans and quick implementation of sustainable technology. …
“For most homeowners, the program would help them swap out a gas furnace for an electric heat pump, or a gas stove for an electric one – changes that would otherwise involve high upfront costs. Aguirre-Torres says the program will also train a new green workforce in Ithaca. …
“The plan aims to create 1,000 new jobs by 2030, and the city has promised to redirect 50% of the financial benefits of its Green New Deal plan to low-income residents, although there are few specifics on how this will work.
“Conversations with investors started earlier this year. Covid-19 had already battered Ithaca’s finances, said Aguirre-Torres, and it was clear the city would never be able to fund this energy transformation alone.
“These discussions quickly revealed a problem: how do you keep a lending program affordable? ‘What we needed to do was bring down the cost of capital even further,’ Aguirre-Torres said.
“The city is addressing this by trying to reduce risk. It aims to create an economy of scale by sizing the program for 1,000 commercial and residential buildings in the first 1,000 days, which will mean more consistent work for contractors and lower material costs. Ithaca plans to use a $10m loan loss reserve, backed by New York state, that would act as a guarantee for lenders in case any borrower defaults. It will also secure insurance to protect against catastrophic losses,’ such as a massive default due to another pandemic, Aguirre-Torres said. …
“Ithaca’s reliance on private equity may be new, but the cash incentives and on-bill repayment programs have precedent in states around the country, such as New York and California.
” ‘We’ve seen this work,’ said Ethan Elkind, the director of the climate program at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. Utilities and municipalities have long been offering upfront dollars to ratepayers to encourage them to upgrade lightbulbs or home insulation.
“However, these types of improvements may be an easier sell than swapping out a gas range or fireplace. Consumer preference for natural gas appliances is one of the biggest barriers to home electrification. Cost is another. ‘If you have the money to do something to your house, putting in a new bathroom or kitchen is much more appealing to people than an invisible efficiency upgrade that pays for itself over eight years,’ Elkind said.
“Anne Rhodes has a different view, however. The 76-year-old Ithaca homeowner, who earns about $20,000 a year, is using an existing state incentive program to insulate her home and replace her oil heating system with electric heat pumps. In addition to the climate impact, she said the upgrades will make her home more comfortable to live in.”
More at the Guardian, here.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
The problem is, electric doesn’t cook nearly as well as gas. My apartment, to which I downsized four years ago, is all electric. The newer electric stoves are certainly better than the (original) 1980 model in my apartment, and electric is better for baking, but electric just doesn’t have the nuance of gas. And what happens when the grid fails? It was awfully nice having that pilot light when we had no power for three days….
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I hear you about grid failures. We are not ready for everyone to go electric. I still want to try, but NPR had a story about Puerto Rico tonight on the high rate of vaccination and how people got on board with vaccinations partly because electricity failures threaten the health system enough already. So I hear you.
Such an important subject! Like you, we are always assessing how we can cut back on fossil fuels. Not easy, especially when your budget is as big as a minute. But onward, ho!
Upfront cost can be daunting even when you believe there will be savings down the road.
Yes. Alas. Always a problem for us.
Decarbonization of buildings in Ithaca is better now that COP26 is round the corner. Thank you 😊🌍
You know, I finally looked up the meaning of that acronym. The COP means “conference of the parties,” meaning the signers of an international climate document, and the “26” means this is the 26th time the parties are meeting. I don’t think international things need to be in English, but isn’t there a more user-friendly term?
No. I’m afraid it is not. COP is the term that is accepted by many. Thank you.
Glad to hear there is a director of sustainability. I wonder if Madison, where we live, has one.
Looks like you have “Jeanne Hoffman, Facilities and Sustainability Manager at jhoffman@cityofmadison.com.” 🙂
Well, aren’t you resourceful! Impressive. Thanks.