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November 9, 2009 Section 3: Building Energy Use to pay for the cost of energy efficiency improvements and solar system installations over 20 years through a property based assessment on their property tax bills.12 ^ Marketing campaign for solar financing, tax and rebate opportunities to San Leandro residents. Develop a website for San Leandro residents and/or educational pamphlets. For example, the California Solar Initiative provides rebates to residential and commercial facilities interested in solar PV installations. The California Energy Commission's New Solar Homes Partnership also provides financial support to home builders. 3.4 Goal: Promote green building practices in both the new construction and remodel market Since half of the buildings that will exist in 2050 have already been built today, a significant emphasis must be placed on promoting retrofits of existing buildings. The new buildings that are being constructed are also likely to remain in the built environment for another 100 years or so with significant long term impacts. Reducing consumption of electricity, natural gas and water as well as promotion of environmentally sustainable material use will require aggressive implementation of green building practices in the City. In May 2008, the City Council adopted an ordinance requiring a minimum certification rating by the USGBC in their Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. The ordinance sets a level of LEED Silver for all municipal buildings and renovation projects that equal or exceed $3 million in construction costs. Any project under the $3 million threshold is still encouraged by the City to be built embodying green building principles. Savings increase with LEED achievement levels; LEED Certified is generally 25% more efficient than non-LEED buildings, Silver 35%, and Gold/Platinum 45%. Energy efficiency is the fastest, cheapest, and easiest way to cut greenhouse emissions. Energy efficiency has a much greater impact, or multiplier effect on the local economy than money spent on energy bill payments. Since 2006, the City has been formally promoting national and regional green building guidelines for development. City staff have been active participants of the California Building Officials Green Building Committee, which seeks to provide useful information to building 12 On October 19, 2009, Vice President Biden and the Middle Class Task Force released the Recovery Through Retrofit Report, which included provisions for a federal program to support municipal energy financing programs. Federal departments and agencies will assist with establishing underwriting criteria and model financing programs to provide upfront capital utilizing Recovery Act funding. The federal government will also facilitate the collection of data to evaluate the performance of municipal financing programs and speed the adoption of detailed, uniform "best practices" that include robust and effective homeowner and lender protections. ~ snN ~~~ Page 22 ~~~:®~ a~p,~~