Philadelphia Joins “City Energy Project”

It’s Earth Day, so some related news: Philadelphia is joining a consortium of 10 cities that will bypass the federal government on climate change in institute their own standards to make new buildings more energy efficient. The City Energy Project also includes Boston, Atlanta, Orlando, Chicago, Kansas City, Houston, Denver, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.

Sustainable Business News reports:

Funded by a partnership between Bloomberg Philanthropies, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Kresge Foundation, it is being managed by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Institute for Market Transformation.

“With U.S. buildings consuming more primary energy than countries like Russia and India, the scale of the opportunity to optimize building energy performance is significant,” said John Mandyck, chief sustainability officer of UTC Building & Industrial Systems. “Cities collaborating and implementing creative, practical energy efficiency policies can go a long way to reducing America’s $450 billion annual energy bill and carbon emissions.”