City Energy Project: Efficiency Built to Last

The City Energy Project (CEP)— a joint project of NRDC and the Institute for Market Transformation— has been working with cities to make buildings more sustainable, partly inspired by work that started in New York City. Since buildings are responsible for as much as 70 percent of emissions in cities, improving efficiency is critical.

Beginning in 2014 with ten select markets, and later expanding to ten additional cities in 2016, CEP facilitates the design of strategic energy efficiency plans. An assigned CEP advisor assists local stakeholders with improving efficiency in large buildings through policy changes, energy benchmarking, performance assessments, and training for building operators, which is where GPRO comes in.

This technical assistance targets citywide benefits such as economic growth, improved environmental conditions, innovative leadership, and information sharing. 

As part of the project expansion in 2016, CEP funded GPRO Operations & Maintenance Essentials, along with Building Operator Certification (BOC), and city-specific benchmarking training.  Thanks to CEP, GPRO has expanded into eight new cities and added four new delivery partners.

As these twenty cities tackle solutions for cleaner environments and economies, they are becoming leaders in energy performance as well as global models for policy and program implementation. Although the program officially winds down in 2018, the effects of CEP will have a lasting impact, such as ongoing GPRO training. We’ll be spotlighting a new GPRO training partner next month!