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The City’s Path Toward Sustainable Growth

City of Houston

June 2009

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Green is here, today

•Green makes economic sense and is good for our environment

•Green products and services are available today

•Living and working a greener, more sustainable lifestyle good for us individually, our businesses, our community, our world

Houston’s electricity use has remained flat at ~28.5B kwh annual use from 2003 through 2008,

•Population growth at 1.9% per annum

•Regional GDP growth of 5.08% per annum (contrasted with a 1.1% annual kwh growth from 1998 – 2003)

The City of Houston has reduced its kwh use by 5.8% from 2004 through 2007 even as services have expanded

Outcome of Existing Initiatives

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Framework for Sustainability

Buildings: Reduce energy consumption per square foot through increased energy efficiency measures

Transportation: Migrate to more fuel efficient, cleaner vehicles, fleets across our region

Infrastructure: Increase energy productivity utilization and long-term reliability for major infrastructure•LED Traffic Lights•Combine Heat and Power

Energy Supplies: Embrace renewable energy sources to provide reliable, secure power for our region leveraging •Wind resources•Solar resources

Environmental Stewardship: •Divert waste flow away from landfills to recycling paths•Improve water and air quality across the region•Plant a million trees

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Residential Energy Efficiency Program

Implement a “neighborhood by neighborhood” energy efficiency program targeted at low income, hard to reach homeowners to reduce kwh consumption.

• Approximately 6,000 homes weatherized across 12 different neighborhoods

• Participation rates approach 50%; home owner satisfaction high

• 12 – 18% “weather adjusted” kwh reduction; high as 20% over summer months

• Efficient implementation model; contractors go house to house

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Green Building Program

Accelerate market transformation of Green Building through leadership, showcases, and private sector partnership.

• Mayor’s Resolution, passed in June 2004, requiring all new City buildings and major renovation to be LEED certified (21 buildings, representing 1M sq ft LEED projects underway)

• Mayor’s Green Building Advisory Committee to showcase LEED buildings in private sector

• Houston Hope homes built to Energy Star standard. 10 near zero energy homes.

• LEED Quick Start to expedite permitting; graduated fee rebates with LEED certification

• Over 70% of the new Class A commercial office buildings (over 50K sq ft in size) designing for LEED classification (6 M sq ft committed), nearly half of the residential new homes built are Energy Star.

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More Stringent Building Codes

Comprehensive upgrade of the city’s building codes to make Houston a leader in energy efficiency for new construction and major renovations.

•Local amendments for commercial construction•Increased energy efficiency amendments: cool roofs, efficient lighting• Approved by City Council; code in effect August 1, 2008

• Energy efficiency standards for residential construction• 15% increase in energy efficiency (Energy Star standard for homes) • Approved by City Council; code to go into effect 10/09

• Enhancing City’s Code enforcement to support code transformation• Summer workshops on new code; increased staff and training• Green building resource center to help educate builders and owners

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Fuel Efficient, Clean Vehicles

Lead the way for Houston to migrate to hybrid vehicles with dramatic increases in fuel efficiency and cleaner emissions.

• City’s goal to have 50% of non-emergency, administrative fleet (2800 vehicles) by 2010. Currently have over 500 hybrids in our fleet (mostly Prius, some Ford Escapes).

• Metro is purchasing 100 hybrid buses a year through 2011 for a total of 449 hybrid buses. Currently 142 in fleet by end of 2008.

• Working with HAS and partners to migrate to clean fuel fleets at airport.

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Embracing Renewable Energy Sources

Large scale purchases of Renewable Power delivered to City of Houston facilities via long term contracts.

• COH has purchased 2 billion kwh (50 MW of power) from Texas Wind Farms, at a fixed wholesale price of 7.5 cents / kwh to be delivered over the next 5 years.

• This will supply 32% of our annual requirements for electrical load.

• The EPA ranks the City of Houston as the number one municipality in terms of the amount of renewable energy purchased.

• Top 10 of all firms including public and private sector (including such firms as Intel, WholeFoods)

• Texas leading the nation in Wind power deployment. Nearly 8000 MW of installed capacity. Represents ~6-7% of state’s power generation. CREZ should enable 18,000 MW

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Solar Initiatives

Accelerate deployment of solar power in the Houston region

• DOE Solar America City, one of 25 cities across the US. Advisory committee including COH, HARC, BP, CenterPoint, NASA, Houston Endowment, GHBA, HISD, Habitat, CCI, HCC, UH, USGBC, SECO, Discovery Green. www.solarhoustontx.org for outreach.

• Small scale demonstration sites: City code enforcement, City Hall Annex, SPARC Park at Tinsley Elementary school; Discovery Green Park; 99k home

• 100 kw solar system for the George R Brown Convention Center funded by Houston Endowment ($850K), BP ($100K), and CenterPoint ($50K).

• K-12 Programs: Demonstration site at SPARC Park (Tinsley Elementary School), working with HISD to integrate solar

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Energy Savings with Clinton Climate Initiative

Significantly reduce energy consumption at City facilities by 20-30% with no upfront capital by financing through utility savings.

• City of Houston one of the first to contract large scale energy efficiency work:• 271 facilities, 11 million sq ft under consideration

• Office buildings, libraries, multi-service centers, police stations, fire stations, health centers

• Building audits, energy efficiency work, measurement/verification

• Audit work underway at 2 million sq ft

•Implementation of energy conservation measures in 1 million sq ft underway.

• Financing driven by lower utility bills available to remove up-front capital costs

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Energy Efficient LED Traffic Lights

Replace traffic light signals at all 2400 intersections within the city with energy efficient LEDs.

• 400 intersections completed in 2007 (mostly in downtown district)

• Remaining 2000 intersections to be completed by end of 2009

• 90% reduction in electricity use by new traffic light LEDs; last significantly longer (7 years versus 1 year)

• Saves the City $10K/day or $3.6M a year in electricity costs

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CFL Campaigns

Promote and accelerate the adoption of CFLs among Houston homeowners and businesses.

• Door to door hand-out of 250,000 CFLs to Houston home owners via Mayor’s Youth Summer Job Corp in partnership with Centerpoint

• 4 bulbs per house plus energy efficiency tips given to estimated 62,500 homes across Houston

• 100 youths hired by Houston Works

• CenterPoint funding $670K for the effort including bulbs and administration costs

• “Power to People” web site to promote and educate public on energy efficiency concepts

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Combined Heat and Power Solutions

Implement CHP solutions at City’s waste water treatment plants to increase energy utilization & reduce overall grid delivered kwh consumption.

•Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems (also known as cogeneration systems) generate electricity (and/or mechanical energy) and thermal energy in a single, integrated system.

•CHP captures the heat that would be rejected in traditional separate generation of electric or mechanical energy. Heat is used to dry sludge from wastewater system;

Benefits:• Annual savings of $1.5 MM with 7 year payback•NOx emissions reduction – 2.1 tons/year•CO2 emissions reduction – 5,000 tons/year

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Environmental Stewardship

•One million trees - Significantly increase the number of trees planted and sustained across the region through a public – private partnership.

•Waste Diversion - Implement a City wide recycling program to divert woody waste and yard waste from area landfills.

Improving Air Quality - A regional approach to reduce particularly harmful emissions such as Benzene and 1,3-Butadiene.