Home Depot grants

[From Philanthropy News Digest] The Home Depot Foundation supports nonprofit organizations dedicated to creating and preserving healthy, affordable homes as the cornerstone of sustainable communities. The foundation's goal is for all families to have the opportunity to live in healthy, efficient homes they can afford over the long-term; to have access to safe, vibrant parks and greenspaces; and to receive the economic, social, and environmental benefits of living in a sustainable community.

Through the Affordable Housing Built Responsibly grant program, the foundation administers millions of dollars in grants each year to nonprofit organizations whose missions align with the foundation's interests. To better support its mission, the foundation awards most of its grants by directly soliciting proposals from high-performing nonprofit organizations with the demonstrated ability to create strong partnerships, impact multiple communities, and leverage grant resources. In order to identify potential future nonprofit partners or respond to unique community revitalization opportunities, a limited amount of unsolicited grant funding is set aside to be awarded through a competitive process.

Preference is given to proposals that include community engagement that results in the production, preservation, or financing of housing units for low- to moderate-income families. The most promising proposals incorporate a number of "green" building design practices.

The foundation makes grants only to 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charities in the United States and to charitable organizations in Canada.

Energy Efficiency Summer Study

ACEEE is proud to announce that Scholarship applications for the Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings are now open and may be submitted online! The Student Scholarship award to the 2010 ACEEE Summer Study will pay for the conference registration fee, housing and meals, and a portion of transportation costs. To be eligible, the applicant must be an undergraduate or graduate student in an accredited college or university whose course work is related to energy/energy efficiency, climate change, environmental science, or a related field of study, and who is considering a career in energy/energy efficiency. The Student Scholarship to Summer Study is supported by ICF International and ACEEE staff.

The Scholarships will be chosen by the ACEEE Scholarship Committee. Please complete the application form below by June 2, 2010.

Students selected as finalists will be asked to send proof of Student Identification or university/college transcripts during the period of June 16-23, 2010. Notification letters about the status of your Scholarship Application will also be sent the week of June 16-23, 2010. The 2010 ACEEE Student Scholarship winners will be notified by July 1, 2010.

Energy Efficiency in Buildings awards

ACEEE is proud to announce that nominations for the Champions of Energy Efficiency in Buildings awards are now open and may be submitted online! The awards will be presented at the 2010 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings and will recognize leadership and accomplishment in the energy efficiency field. Winners will be selected based on demonstrated excellence in the following categories:

Research and Development (R&D): Excellence in research and development including baseline or background research, as well as R&D of products and practices.

Energy Policy: Excellence in energy policy including writing, educating, promoting, or supporting energy efficiency in energy policy, at the federal, state, or local level.

Implementation and Deployment: Effective design and implementation, including achievement of significant impacts on energy use.

Leadership: Exceptional personal leadership demonstrated in the development, implementation, or growth of important energy efficiency initiatives.

Nominations will be made by peers and the final awards will be chosen by the ACEEE Board of Directors Awards Committee.The 2010 Champions awards will be presented at the 2010 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings in Pacific Grove, California scheduled for August 15-20, 2010 at the Asilomar Conference Center. The "Buildings" Summer Study is the preeminent energy efficiency conference, and draws leading academics, energy efficiency professionals, government representatives, researchers, advocates for energy efficiency, and policymakers.

Please complete the nomination form below by June 1, 2010. We value your input and appreciate you taking the time to nominate the best leaders in our community. Notification letters about the status of your Award nomination will be sent the week of July 19-23, 2010.

Strengthening Building Retrofit Markets

The Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), on behalf of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's (EERE's) State Energy Program (SEP), is seeking applications to advance policies, programs, and market strategies that accelerate job creation and reduce energy bills, while achieving energy and climate security for the nation. This competitive announcement allows States to complete for funding designed to meet EERE nationally focused initiatives for the fundamental and permanent transformations of markets across all sectors of our economy. The two Areas of Interest are as follows: Area of Interest 1: Strengthening Building Retrofit Markets - this Area of Interest will assist states in developing approaches for retrofitting buildings in the nation's residential and commercial sectors. Area of Interest 2: Stimulating Energy Efficiency Action - this Area of Interest will assist states in generating the necessary policy and program frameworks to support investment in cost-effective energy efficiency for the long-term.

Expected Number of Awards:	18
Estimated Total Program Funding:	$28,000,000

Full announcement: https://www.fedconnect.net/

School construction bonds

Washington — The U.S. Department of Treasury and the Department of Education today announced $11 billion in allocation authority to issue qualified school construction bonds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). Qualified school construction bonds can be used to finance the construction, rehabilitation or repair of a public school facility or for the acquisition of land where a school will be built. The full list of allocations by state can be found here.

Opinion article: Green School Buildings

[From the Commonwealth Foundation] Yesterday the House passed Rep. Drucker's bill to exclude any costs associated with making a school building LEED certified from a possible taxpayer referendum.

Committee staff reported the department said there is a dollar amount threshold for referendums and green building costs can be excluded from that in order to avoid a referendum. Staff said, according to the department, if there is a referendum anyway, all projects will be included in the ballot question, including green construction. (PLS subscription)

With the cost of school construction and debt spending on the rise this bill could have wide implications. As noted in Nate Benefield's testimony on education spending:

Construction and debt spending grew 137% from 1996-97 to 2007-08, compared with 66% growth in instructional spending.

In committee, legislators debated whether green construction is more expensive and Rep. Drucker indicated responded the upfront costs are but the long-term costs are "significantly less". And Rep. Clymer hit the nail on the head when he asked why the exemption is needed if green technology is accepted by the taxpayers.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is a new agency of the Department of Energy. ARPA-E was authorized by the America COMPETES Act (PL 110-69) and charged with the mission to fund projects that will develop transformational technologies that reduce Americas dependence on foreign energy imports; reduce U.S. energy related emissions, including greenhouse gases; improve energy efficiency across all sectors of the U.S. economy; and ensure that the United States maintains its leadership in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies. Initially funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (PL 111-5), ARPA-E aims to support the development of high risk/high payoff applied science and technology innovations that will have a positive disruptive impact on the energy landscape.

Buildings consume 40 percent of the primary energy in the United States, and account for 72 percent of the nation's electricity use and 55 percent of the nation's natural gas use. The objective of this funding opportunity announcement is to develop energy efficient cooling technologies/air conditioners (AC) for buildings to reduce GHG emissions from: (a) primary energy consumption due to space cooling; and (b) refrigerants used vapor compression systems. ARPA-E seeks innovative research and development approaches to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions due to cooling of buildings by: (i) development of cooling systems that use refrigerants with low global warming potential of less than or equal to 1: (ii) development of energy efficient air conditioning (AC) systems for warm and humid climates to increase the coefficient of performance (COP) of ventilation load cooling by greater than or to 50 percent; and (iii) increased efficiency of hot climate vapor compress ion AC systems for re-circulating air loads by increasing the COP by greater than or equal to 50 percent. One or more combination of these technologies can be utilized in buildings, where many factors influence the cooling load, including but not limited to: (1) type of building, such as office space versus hospitals (which have very high ventilation loads - almost 100 fresh air); and (2) climate type - warm and humid versus hot and dry. More information on the grant is available here.