Obama Announces $4 Billion Retrofit Investment

By Paula Melton

President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative is getting a $4 billion boost, thanks to a public-private partnership designed to help increase energy efficiency in existing commercial buildings 20% by 2020.

The effort will see $2 billion invested in federal buildings with no first cost for the federal government due to a financing structure whereby energy service companies perform the retrofits and building owners gradually pay for the upgrades through savings on utility bills (see “Existing Buildings a Promising Investment, Say Global Firms,” EBN Dec. 2011).

The other $2 billion was committed by private-sector building owners and will be invested in 1.6 billion ft² of commercial building space, according to the White House.

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