Going green doesn't have to mean going broke

PREVENTING global warming and preserving the environment are unlikely priorities for cities and towns in a time of shrinking revenues. Going green seems too costly to consider when you're going broke.

Or so people think. What many mayors and town managers don't realize is that getting on the environmental bandwagon and going green can actually save their cities and towns money. And getting started can be cost-free or very inexpensive and surprisingly easy.

Municipal officials and community energy-activists ate up these revelations at the recent Smart Growth Smart Energy conference at the Boston Exhibition Center, where representatives from the state's Department of Energy Resources described what the Green Communities Act could do for strapped local budgets.

Saving energy dollars is no easy task for cities and towns with their multiple buildings, overlapping metering systems, scattered billing information, and diffuse accountability. But it is estimated that municipal buildings frequently waste up to 30 percent of the energy dollars poured into them. The Green Communities Act - together with the rebate programs now offered by the utilities - makes it possible to capture many of these lost dollars.

The law aims to help cities and towns save energy in schools, city halls, and firehouses, and generate their own energy from renewable sources. To become eligible for the state's assistance, municipalities have to get over one big hump: They have to establish how much energy they are using. This can be a Pandora's box of hitherto unidentified areas of waste, and municipal leaders with neither money nor staff to solve the problems may opt to keep the lid on.

But establishing energy use is a vital first step - and the state is now offering assistance to cities and towns to find and destroy their energy hogs. Coming online is an Energy Information Reporting System that consolidates a community's energy bills and provides energy use by individual building, by the square foot, by department, and in some cases at intervals as short as 15 minutes, making it easy for communities to monitor energy use in all their buildings.

What does it cost a city or town to access this new information system? Nothing.

With detailed information on energy use, you may find that your high school is using twice the energy comparable high schools in your region are using. You can now request a free audit from the state to find the problem, which may be anything from inadequate weather-stripping to energy-inefficient lighting or a low-performing furnace.

Here's where the utility companies come in. They will provide and install everything from compact fluorescent light bulbs and sensors that automatically turn off lights when a room is not occupied, to high-efficiency motors and whole new heating and air conditioning systems. For free? Not quite, but the companies offer rebates of up to 75 percent, resulting in a comparatively small expenditure with 0 percent financing that will usually pay for itself within two years.

And there's an alternative route that is even easier. Your town can sign a seven- to 10-year contract with an energy service company. You continue paying what you're now paying for energy while the service company provides and installs energy-efficient systems and pays for them with the difference between the cost of running the old systems and the savings from running the new. At the end of the contract period, the new systems - and all future savings - are yours. Your bills go down accordingly.

The state has also set up a $10 million fund for cities and towns that will jump through the necessary hoops - such as promising to purchase fuel-efficient vehicles - in order to become designated green communities. With this money, municipalities can buy solar panels for a high school, or put up a wind turbine to generate their own energy. They might even use the money to develop an alternative energy-related industry in town, producing jobs and profits.

Seems like a no-lose situation. Cities and towns across the Commonwealth would be smart to jump on these new opportunities as quickly as possible.

Paul Johnson is a green building consultant and community activist based in Gloucester.