White House commits $2B to energy upgrades

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The White House announced Friday a major initiative to improve energy efficiency in government and private buildings.

As part of President Obama's effort to create jobs, he announced Friday a commitment by the federal government to enter into Energy Savings Performance Contracts over the next 24 months.

The White House is placing a $2 billion mark down to improve energy efficiency of federal buildings. The ESPCs will cost the government nothing and will save millions in return, says Jeff Zients, the Office of Management and Budget's deputy director for management the chief performance officer.

In addition, 60 CEOs, mayors, university presidents, and labor leaders committed to invest nearly another $2 billion in private capital into energy efficiency projects. All told, the commitments add up to a 20 percent energy performance improvement for some 1.6 billion square feet of office, industrial, municipal, hospital, university, community college and school buildings.

This announcement builds on a commitment made by 14 partners at the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in June to make energy upgrades across 300 million square feet, and to invest $500 million in private sector financing in energy efficiency projects.

The investments announced Friday are part of President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative, which set a goal of improving energy efficiency in commercial buildings by 20 percent by 2020.

This summer, the Portland-based Green Sports Alliance was tapped as a partner in the Better Buildings program, leveraging the nonprofit's close relationship with large sports venues.