New Energy Efficiency Centers Chosen in California, Pennsylvania and New York

According to SustainableBusiness.com, The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Department of Commerce are jointly funding three Centers for Building Operations Excellence for $1.3 million to create and deploy programs that train current and incoming building operators.

The Centers are part of the Obama Administration’s Better Buildings Initiative, which has a goal to increase energy efficiency in commercial buildings 20% by 2020, while lowering energy bills by $40 billion per year. The initiative will support over 100,000 construction jobs over the next two years as it upgrades over 1.6 billion square feet of public and private buildings.

The three Centers will work with universities, local community and technical colleges, trade associations, and DOE’s national labs to create the training programs.

The Centers, chosen through a competitive grants process, are:

• The Corporation for Manufacturing Excellence in California, partnering with Laney College and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 39.

• Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center in Pennsylvania, partnering with Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania College of Technology, and Drexel University.

• NY State Department of Economic Development, partnering with City University of New York and Rochester Institute of Technology.

The funding will help the three Centers develop curricula and pilot training programs for building operators, managers and energy service providers, focusing on building re-tuning, energy management, and building operations in commercial, industrial, and educational buildings.

The training will outline steps building operators can take to reduce energy consumption, save money and drive continuous improvement in a broad range of commercial buildings.

Click here to learn more about these centers.