In This Issue:

Key Announcements
Webinar and Workshops: Roadmap to 20% Energy Savings - A Quantitative Tool to Plan Your Strategy
BBC Multifamily Partners in the News

Key Announcements

• Save the date! The Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the 2018 Better Buildings Summit will be August 21-23, 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Summit offers the best and brightest thinking in promoting building performance across the multifamily sector, including strategies for capacity-building, organizational change, emerging technologies, and financing trends. For 2018, the Summit will be held in connection with DOE's annual Energy Exchange, focused on federal facility energy management, to provide greater access to technical training while also providing the great panel sessions, keynote speakers, and networking opportunities attendees expect at the Summit. Registration will open soon.
• Boston-based BBC Multifamily partners gathered last month to discuss common barriers and solutions related to benchmarking their portfolios. The group plans to meet regularly to discuss how they can work more effectively with local utilities and third-party benchmarking providers to reach their goals.
• The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved the Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) program, which allows the state to spend up to $100 million annually for 10 years to incentivize rooftop solar installations on affordable multifamily housing properties.
• The DC Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) has launched development of the nation's first multifamily housing resilience tool to preserve affordable housing and advance the goals of Climate Ready DC. The vulnerability and resilience opportunity assessment tool will be offered to affordable housing owners in DC to promote resilience and resource conservation in their building portfolios.
• The Water Research Foundation will present its webinar, Water Use in the Multi-Family Housing Sector, on February 1st, 2018 at 3:00 pm EST. Using information from multiple case study utilities, the presentation will address trends and knowledge gaps, and evaluate variability in water use within the multi-family sector, examining whether there are significant differences in consumption patterns within identifiable segments of the sector.

Webinar and Workshops

Roadmap to 20% Energy Savings: A Quantitative Tool to Plan Your Strategy

February 21, 2018 - 2:00 - 3:00 PM EST Register here! Speakers: Rebecca Schaaf, Senior Vice President of Energy, Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future Jared Lang, Assistant Vice President of Sustainability, National Housing Trust Caitlin Rood, National Environmental Sustainability Director, Mercy Housing

Every BBC partner knows that your core commitment as a BBC leader is to reduce your portfolio-wide energy consumption by 20 percent. We spend a lot of time on the details - the ins and outs of Portfolio Manager, emerging technologies, resident behavior strategies. But it’s also important to step back and take the long view. As the BBC Multifamily Sector approaches its five-year anniversary, it's a good time to assess your progress toward your 20 percent target and plan out concrete steps to meet or surpass it.

About the webinar

A planning tool developed by Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF) helps you create a strategy for reaching energy or water reduction targets for your portfolio, sort through different conservations options, and make informed choices that demonstrate to decision makers a concrete path to success. During this webinar you will:

• Learn how the tool can be used to develop a customized strategy to reach your own energy reduction goals
• Compare and contrast different measures, such as energy retrofits, improved O&M, appliance upgrades, resident engagement strategies, solar domestic hot water and solar photovoltaic
• Understand how the tool is used to suit the characteristics of your portfolio, such as property age, financing cycles, and prior efficiency work completed
• Hear from a BBC partner who has used the tool to plan improvements over time and how they've benefited from developing a customized plan

About the Virtual Workshops

Date: Custom scheduling

Take advantage of FREE hands-on virtual workshops with BBC staff to develop your own 20 percent roadmap. In the weeks after the webinar, two BBC partners at a time will work with BBC staff to enter your energy and water baseline information, current energy consumption, and develop plans for your energy and water efficiency improvements. Our goal is for each partner to leave the workshop with a detailed plan to hit your 20 percent target. Prerequisites for workshop attendance include:

1. Attend the webinar in person or view the recording;
2. Have an established baseline year of energy data; and
3. Be actively benchmarking your portfolio's utility consumption.

Register for the Roadmap to 20% Energy Savings Webinar. Reach out to your BBC Account Manager with questions and to register for a workshop.

BBC Multifamily Partners in the News

Wishrock Investment Group has successfully rehabilitated Timbercroft Apartments, its affordable housing property in Owings Mills, Maryland by implementing several energy- and water-efficient measures. Using a combination of financing sources and state-level incentives, Wishrock obtained Enterprise Green Communities certification at Timbercroft. Upgrades included everything from building envelope spray foam sealing to new roofing to new lighting and appliances. In addition to utility savings, the retrofits have resulted in less mold and pests, improving resident health.

The Village of Hempstead Housing Authority completed a Healthy Homes Pilot Project at Gladys Gardens, a 30-unit townhouse development from the 70s that had inadequate heat and leaky windows, among other deferred maintenance needs. Village of Hempstead's successful pilot is yet another example of multifamily property owners achieving both energy efficiency savings (40 percent!) and resident health benefits through thoughtfully designed building upgrades. Post-retrofit surveys indicated that residents felt more comfortable in their homes, experienced easier breathing, and slept better with more soundproof windows and warmer interior temperatures.

One of the BBC Multifamily Sector's newest partners, Foundation Communities, has achieved 15 percent energy savings and 16 percent water savings at its Trails at the Park community in Austin, Texas. This property is home to 400 low-income residents and is connected to the city's hiking trails. Using a 2013 grant from the St. David's Foundation, the staff combined physical building upgrades with programming to develop a culture of sustainability. The physical upgrades included programmable NEST thermostats, solar screens, lighting retrofits, and hot water heater replacements. The programming included environmental education for students, recycling education, and updated green operations and maintenance policies. Following the success of its Trails at the Park retrofit, Foundation Communities has replicated its model at several other properties.