Louisville, Kentucky, United States - Energy Use Partnership - Partnership for a Green City

Type of initiative: Green Buildings

Population: 700,000 city / 1.2 M metropolitan area

Louisville is a major shipping hub and a health care and medical sciences center.

The Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, the University of Louisville, and the Jefferson County Public Schools District have formed an Energy Use Partnership. The partners agreed to undertake energy-efficiency audits in their buildings, develop low-cost, energy-efficiency technology for implementation by the organizations, implement energy-efficiency awareness training programs for their employees, and incorporate energy-efficiency provisions into the specifications for new buildings.

Louisville, Kentucky, United States - Energy Use Partnership - Partnership for a Green City

Summary

The Partnership for a Green City – of which the Energy Use Partnership is a component – is the result of the collaboration of three agencies, namely the Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, the University of Louisville and the Jefferson County Public Schools District. Although the initiative was launched by Mayor Abramson in 2004, all three partners have since been equally involved. Others partners, not directly involved in the founding of the partnership but called in as experts, include the Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center and the Kentucky Office of Energy Policy.

The Partnership for a Green City, which is entering its fourth year, consists of eight different committees working in tandem on different aspects of environmental sustainability. The Energy Use Partnership, one of the eight committees, aims specifically to reduce energy use within the partnering organizations in order to achieve budget savings; to attract funding for energy efficiency projects and training; and to create a forum to share ideas, experiences and expertise on the development and implementation of energy saving technology. Essentially, the partnership functions as a vehicle for knowledge exchange and project development. Since December 2007, it has been managed and coordinated by a full-time employee.

The Energy Use Partnership received a large grant from the US Department of Energy for an Active Solar Demonstration Project. With the help of the Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center, the Partnership was also able to train university and high school students to perform energy audits. Subsequently, these students conducted eleven energy audits in classrooms and buildings, which in turn allowed each agency to begin implementing low-cost, low-tech energy-saving solutions. Concomitantly, the agencies involved were able to purchase energy data management software with a grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which will be used to track energy consumption and monitor the success of different energy saving solutions. Finally, the group has worked to expand energy efficiency awareness through the organization of various guest lectures and workshops on different energy-related topics.

The Energy Use Partnership – and the Partnership for a Green City, more generally – is innovative because it is an unprecedented partnership between three major public institutions that have decided to pool their resources and share their expertise and experience. It is also innovative because it did not require any funds at the start; the initiative came about because staff members in each agency agreed to participate and take on the extra work without compensation. Finally, the Energy Use Partnership is innovative because, unlike many 'upgrade' programs, it does not aim to showcase expensive green technology; rather, it tries to help each partner find low-cost solutions that they can implement themselves.

The main lessons learned were that public institutions can gain a lot from sharing their knowledge and experience, that political leadership is important for promoting such a partnership, and that a collaborative effort of this kind must be sustained and renewed - hence the need for a full-time employee who can coordinate and motivate the various committees.

Louisville, Kentucky, United States - Energy Use Partnership - Partnership for a Green City

Municipal Context and Background

Louisville, the capital of Kentucky, is a medium-sized city that was merged in 2003 with the surrounding county to create the Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, thereby propelling the new entity of 700,000 residents to the 16th rank among US municipalities in terms of population. Its location on the Ohio River in the centre of the continental US has made it an important hub for water, land and air shipping. Recently, Louisville has emerged as a major center for the health care and medical sciences industries.

The Partnership for a Green City was founded in 2004, a few months after the municipal merger. The merger was seen by community leaders and politicians as a fresh opportunity to transform Louisville into a green city. This enthusiasm for environmental sustainability came at a time when the municipal administration was trying to reposition Louisville economically. Indeed, this green agenda has been described as a strategy to help revive the City's economy and attract people to live and work in Louisville (Partnership for a Green City, 2004).

The three partners, namely the Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, the Jefferson County Public Schools District and the University of Louisville, employ five percent of the metropolitan area workforce, or approximately 26,000 people. Also, the University and the School Board together have approximately 120,000 students, which represents more than 75 percent of the student population of the county. In addition, the three partners own approximately 10 percent of the land in the county and take a significant share of the energy consumed (Partnership for a Green City, 2004). Each of the three partners had been active in the area of environmental sustainability before the Partnership was launched but their actions were undertaken independently and were often ineffective for lack of visibility and expertise.

The Partnership was not launched in response to a particular environmental problem, even though the City's overall environmental performance has not been outstanding in the past, and in many respects is still below that of other US cities. According to an environmental report card compiled by Louisville Magazine in 2007, the city was rated poorly for its energy performance because of its continued dependency on electricity from coal-fired power plants and its excessive reliance on the automobile for passenger transportation (Louisville Magazine, 2007).

Mayor Jerry Abramson, President James Ramsey of the University of Louisville and Superintendent Stephen Daeschner of Jefferson County Public Schools co-championed the Partnership for a Green City initiative. Very quickly, other stakeholders decided to support the initiative, while the public and the media both welcomed the creation of the Partnership.

Louisville, Kentucky, United States - Energy Use Partnership - Partnership for a Green City

Description of the initiative

This successful partnership of a local government, university, and public school system focused solely on environmental issues is believed to be the first of its kind in the US. The Partnership Project is based on the premise that better collaboration between important public institutions in Louisville could help address the city's environmental and economic challenges. It was made possible through the coordination of approximately 100 employees from the Louisville Metro Government, the school district and the University of Louisville.

The Partnership Project participants defined a number of objectives pertaining to environmental education, environmental assessment and the creation of green public infrastructures. More specifically, the Partners aimed to collaborate on the provision of services, achieve cost savings, share information on environmental challenges and implement low-cost sustainable solutions to these problems.

To help with the realization of these goals, eight committees were formed, each one working on a different aspect of environmental sustainability: Waste Management, Green Purchasing, the Energy Use Partnership, Environmental Education, Outdoor Classroom, Environmental Health, Interagency Coordinating, and the Principles and Standards Committee. Other organizations, such as the Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center (which is a research center affiliated to the University) and the Kentucky Office of Energy Policy (which is affiliated to the Kentucky state government), were called upon on certain occasions to provide training and or technical support; however, these organizations were not formally included in any one committee.

Until recently, the Partnership for a Green City was coordinated by a Steering Committee made up of one representative from each partner. However, it was the responsibility of each institution to follow-up on the various initiatives launched through the Partnership. At the Metro Government, for instance, the Mayor's Office for Environment Policy was created for the very purpose of monitoring the progress of the institution in terms of sustainability. Since December 2007, a full-time Director has managed the Green City Partnership, whose role is to coordinate the various committees and follow-up on their work. However, each committee maintains the responsibility for managing and implementing its own initiatives. As a consequence of this decentralized structure, the success of committee initiatives depends largely on the degree of involvement of each committee's Chairperson and individual members.

In the case of the Energy Use Partnership, the Chair is also a member of the Steering Committee and has been very dynamic and proactive in his approach. The Energy Use committee is composed of approximately 15 active members. The committee members from within the municipal corporation come from a variety of agencies, including the Facilities Management Department, the Mayor's Office, the Louisville Water Company, the Physical Assets Department, the Financial Department, and the Metro Air Pollution Control District. The Partnership also includes representatives of Jefferson County Public Schools and the University of Louisville. The expectation is that members will bring their expertise and experience to the Partnership meetings, share their knowledge of the subject and help implement the Committee's recommendations in their respective workplaces.

Early in the process, members of the Energy Use Partnership defined seven main objectives:

• develop funding proposals for energy efficiency projects and energy education programs
• perform energy efficiency audits in buildings at all three organizations
• develop low-cost energy efficiency technology that facilities personnel can easily implement
• promote alternative financing mechanisms, such as energy savings performance contracting
• develop energy efficiency awareness training programs for all three partners by 2006
• work with engineering firms to incorporate energy efficiency provisions into new building specifications.
• identify a standardized electronic format for utility data to better track energy use in buildings.

Of these seven objectives, the Energy Use Partnership has made at least some progress on the first five. The committee obtained a grant to implement a solar technology pilot projects in facilities owned and operated by the School Board and the Metro Government. However, these projects have largely focused on incorporating solar technologies in a particular school, which includes heating a swimming pool and conducting a solar photo-voltaic street-lighting project in front of the school. The Kentucky Institute for the Environment and Sustainable Development and the Kentucky Solar Research Center, both of which are part of the University of Louisville, have provided oversight and professional expertise for this project.

The energy audits conducted in various buildings owned by the School Board, the City and the University are a good example of the initiative in action. These energy audits were carried out by high school and university students, who were trained by professional engineers at the University. The audits were performed in 11 buildings; in each, a number of low-cost energy saving devices, such as energy-efficient light bulbs, light-reflecting shelves and low-energy devices on vending machines, were implemented. The training and technical support for these audits came primarily from the Kentucky Pollution Prevention Centre, which is a research unit of the University of Louisville. Each institution also worked with its respective IT department to ensure that the power management features of the agency's computers were activated with the right settings.

The main low-cost energy saving technology that was developed in the context of the Partnership was for light harvesting. It involves installing light-coloured shelves in the middle of classroom windows to reflect light onto the ceiling of a classroom, which is then reflected back into the room. This has allowed substantial energy savings at the University of Louisville and Jefferson County Public Schools by reducing the number of electric lights that need to be turned on during the day. Different low-tech insulation techniques, designed to be performed by facilities personnel, were also tested and implemented.

In addition, the administration of Jefferson County Public Schools implemented energy performance contracting, which consists in using cost savings from reduced energy consumption to repay the cost of installing energy conservation measures. Finally, although the Partners did not put in place an energy efficiency training program per se, there were several workshops – organized for facilities managers and the personnel of the three institutions – on the theme of energy efficiency and energy saving technology. In addition, facilities managers received training on Green Building standards to help demystify the apparent technical complexity of “green retrofitting”.

Not much progress has been made on the last two objectives in the list above as they were not considered immediate priorities. However, the Chairman of the committee seems confident that these objectives will be achieved in the near future.

Louisville, Kentucky, United States - Energy Use Partnership - Partnership for a Green City

Policy Context

Each of the three Partners was already active in the area of environmental sustainability –  in the words of one official, the major institutions in Louisville were in many respects already “green”. However, many of the policies that had been implemented prior to the creation of the Partnership were limited in scope by the simple fact that each partner was acting alone and could not benefit from the expertise – and the resources – available in the other institutions. For example, the School Board's previous energy saving policy was mainly limited to systematically turning off appliances and lights when not needed. The Partnership for a Green City made possible the collaboration between public entities in Louisville, the pooling of their resources and expertise, and the expansion of the scope of existing policies.

The main grant obtained by the Energy Use Partnership came from the US Department of Energy through a program called the Solar America Initiative, which aims to accelerate the development of advanced photovoltaic technologies with the goal of making solar electricity generation cost-competitive with other forms of renewable electricity by 2015.

Several of the committees formed through the Partnership have received funding from the Federal government and other institutions, but the Partnership itself has not been supported or framed by policies or programs of the upper tiers of government.

Louisville, Kentucky, United States - Energy Use Partnership - Partnership for a Green City

Financial Aspects

Because the human resources contributed by each partner were already in place and involved in each institution's respective environmental program, the partners did not incur any extra costs in their first three years of collaboration. Developing the initiative was mainly a matter of redirecting existing resources. For instance, by reassigning existing staff members to specific areas of research, the University and the School Board created two joint positions with a mandate to focus on environmental health and education.

In 2007, after its first three years, the Partnership for a Green City hired a full-time Director, with each partner contributing one third of the necessary funds. This is the Partnership's only staff member and represents an expense of approximately $30,000 for each partner. 

As mentioned above, the Energy Use Partnership received a $396,000 grant from the US Department of Energy for the solar technology pilot projects. The committee has also received $66,000 in funding for the low-cost energy conservation measures from the Kentucky Division of Energy and $5,000 for energy-tracking software from the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Finally, as mentioned earlier, the training and technical support for the energy audits came primarily from the Kentucky Pollution Prevention Centre, a research unit of the University of Louisville. As for the implementation of energy savings performance contracting and the organization of conferences and training sessions on the theme energy efficiency, they did not require external funding.

Louisville, Kentucky, United States - Energy Use Partnership - Partnership for a Green City

Outcomes

This section presents a summary of the outcomes of those aspects of the Partnership for which relevant information was available. Given that the Partnership was until recently managed at the committee level, it is not surprising that there has not yet been a systematic accounting of outcomes across the various committees and projects undertaken. The Partnership for a Green City's annual reports issued in 2005 and 2006 provides few quantitative measures of the Partnership's energy accomplishments. The extent of outcome monitoring done in each member institution varies. The Metro Government does not have precise figures as to how much energy has been saved in its operations.¹ In contrast, Jefferson County Public Schools and the University of Louisville have been able to estimate how much money and energy has been saved – or will be saved – through some of their energy saving projects, as explained below. Given that similar energy saving solutions have been implemented in Metro Government buildings, it is reasonable to assume that energy savings are – or will be – of a similar magnitude.

In terms of developing funding proposals for energy efficiency projects and implementing low-cost energy-efficiency technology, the Energy Use Partnership did quite well. As mentioned earlier, the committee received approximately $467,000 in external grants, $66,000 of which was used for implementing energy saving technology. The University, for example, installed energy misers on vending machines, which resulted in cost savings of approximately $3,000 to $4,000 (University of Louisville, 2006). In addition, the partners received $5,000 from the US EPA for buying energy-tracking software, which should help them monitor progress. However, it is as of yet unclear how these grants will translate into cost savings.

In terms of promoting alternative financing mechanisms, such as energy savings performance contracting, the Energy Use Partnership also did quite well. It is estimated that the School Board saved approximately $90,000 last year through the use of energy improvement contracting. The organization took out a $5.2 million loan for energy conservation measures, which it is paying back with the money saved from the resulting reduction in energy expenditures. Since the interest on the loan costs approximately $410,000, and since they have saved more than $500,000 in energy costs, the conservation measures have actually yielded a profit. These conservation measures also had an environmental impact: indeed, according to an official from the Energy Use Partnership, the School Board has recorded electricity savings up to 50% in certain cases, and cut natural gas consumption by 49% in 2006 through better energy management (Mulheirn, 2008).

In terms of developing energy efficiency awareness training programs in all three institutions, the Energy Use Partnership has been less successful. As mentioned above, the Partners held several workshops for facilities managers and personnel and facilities managers received training on Green Building standards. There was, however, no systematic energy efficiency awareness training programs put in place.

However, on the political level, the Partnership has allowed for the formation of a strong coalition in favour of positive environmental change. The value of this coalition was recognized when the Partnership for a Green City won the 2007 National Award for Community Partnerships (Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, 2007a). Judging from the coverage in the local media, it appears that the Partnership for a Green City has already had a major impact on the City in terms of raising awareness about environmental issues and pushing a “green agenda”. And according to the director of the Partnership for a Green City, this might serve as a basis for further reforms. Indeed, the Metro Government is currently drafting a “green agenda” which aims, among other things, to foster the development and implementation of a Green Building Standard for the construction and operation of all new, renovated and existing buildings and facilities owned by the Metro Government.

¹ The Mayor's Office for Environment Policy, the agency responsible for the follow-up on improvements within the municipal corporation, is still developing appropriate measures.

Louisville, Kentucky, United States - Energy Use Partnership - Partnership for a Green City

Lessons Learned

There are several success factors in the case of the Partnership for a Green City. Most notably, the decentralized committee framework seems to have worked quite well, at least initially, in terms of facilitating the development and implementation of small-scale projects. Moreover, the fact that committee members were professionals who had volunteered to become members and therefore already had an interest in the matters discussed, also helped. This structure allows peer pressure, rather than top-down decision-making, to bring about changes in operating procedures within each partner agency (Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, 2007b).  This is especially true in the case of the Energy Use Partnership, which was able to obtain external funding, develop projects and implement them all in the first year of its existence.

Another success factor is the political leadership that was behind the initiative. The Partnership was initially proposed by Mayor Abramson, and was – and still is – very much supported by the City Council. It is worth noting that Stephen Daeschner and James Ramsey, respectively Superintendent of the Jefferson County Public Schools District and President of the University of Louisville, have also been very active in setting up and promoting the Partnership. This political will to “work together” has greatly facilitated the sharing of expertise and resources, which many of the interviewed officials agree has been instrumental to the initiative's success.

The initiative's main weakness has been the uneven follow-up across committees on their own recommendations for action. As alluded to earlier, it has been difficult for the Steering Committee, composed of volunteers who already had full-time jobs within the partner agencies, to effectively coordinate the various committees and monitor their progress (Fryrear, 2008; Harris, 2008). To a large extent, a committee's progress has depended heavily on the enthusiasm and commitment of the committee's Chairperson and membership; this has proven to be highly variable across committees. Not surprisingly, certain committees did not get past the 'project development' stage. However, this challenge has been addressed by the recent hiring of a full-time Director, whose job it will be to follow the activities of each committee more closely.

It is possible that this situation could have been avoided if the Director's position had been created at the launch of the initiative. However, it might have been difficult to convince the partners to contribute to a full-time salary before anything substantial had been accomplished. According to one official, the hiring of the director reflected the growing realization that the partnership could generate substantial savings – both in time and money. One of the interviewed officials argued that if a partnership of this kind is to be replicated, the benefits from collaboration should be measured and publicized within the partner organization as soon as possible. This points to another weakness of the current initiative, i.e., the lack of systematic monitoring of the Partnership's progress. 

The Partnership model pioneered by Louisville could be reproduced in any other city in North America. In fact, cities of different sizes and in different regions of the US are already replicating the Louisville model. For example, Lexington, Kentucky; Bowling Green, Ohio; Frankfort, Kentucky; and Richmond, Virginia have all created institutional partnerships to promote energy conservation and efficiency (Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, 2007a).

Louisville, Kentucky, United States - Energy Use Partnership - Partnership for a Green City

Next Steps

In order to facilitate the management and promotion of the Partnership, each partner plans to contribute additional support to the initiative. The University will make office space available and provide some clerical support, while the School Board will maintain a web site to help coordinate and publicize the Partnership's activities and the Metro Government will create videos and brief spots that can be used for training staff members, in public presentations or for publicizing the initiative (Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, 2007b).

The Partnership has undertaken a planning process in 2006 that aims to establish clear objectives for each committee and develop specific measures to monitor the progress of each institution. It is also worth noting that the Metro Government plans to eventually widen the scope of its campaign and involve the community as whole, in which case it could use these same metrics to measure community environmental progress and provide regular updates to the community (Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, 2007b).

Louisville, Kentucky, United States - Energy Use Partnership - Partnership for a Green City

Sources, Documents and Web Resources
Interviews
Dittmer, Alan
Professor, Steering Committee Member – Partnership for a Green City
University of Louisville, Center for Environmental Education
(502) 852-5198
allan@louisville.edu
Fryrear, Brent
Director – Partnership for a Green City
Partnership for a Green City
(502) 852-8854
bfryrear@louisville.edu
Harris, Cass
Coordinator – Mayor's office for Environmental Policy,
Steering Committee Member – Partnership for a Green City
Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government
(502) 574-8439
Cass.Harris@louisvilleky.gov
Mulheirn, Mike
Executive director – Facilities and Transportation,
Chairman – Energy Use Partnership
Jefferson County Public Schools
(502) 485 3178
mike.mulheirn@jefferson.kyschools.us

Documents

• Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government. 2007a. Louisville Wins National Award for Community Partnerships, Green Initiatives. Web document
• Louisville Magazine. 2007. A Green Report Card for the City. News report, published May 2007
• Partnership for a Green City. 2004. The Partnership Project: The Partnership for a Green City. Report sponsored by the Louisville-Jefferson Country Metro Government, the University of Louisville and the Jefferson County Public Schools District.
• Partnership for a Green City, 2005. The Partnership for a Green City: One-Year Report. Report sponsored by the Louisville-Jefferson Country Metro Government, the University of Louisville and the Jefferson County Public Schools District
• Partnership for a Green City, 2006. The Partnership for a Green City: Two-Year Report. Report sponsored by the Louisville-Jefferson Country Metro Government, the University of Louisville and the Jefferson County Public Schools District.
• University of Louisville. 2006. 'Green City' effort starts to cut costs. Web page

Web Resources

• Partnership for a Green City
• Jefferson County Public Schools Center for Environmental Education

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