The energy consumption of our nation's large buildings is inextricably linked to the talent, training, and hard work of building operators. Teaching our building operators to maintain our large structures is the highest-impact way to address the climate crisis, at the lowest cost.

The Urban Green Council (United States Green Building Council of New York) and SEIU Local 32BJ have released a report detailing the essential role that building workers play in improving energy efficiency and discuss how 32BJ's training initiative will help New York City's building superintendents go green (previously profiled on SEIU's Blog here).

"A Blueprint for Greening New York City's Buildings" addresses how buildings fit into our national effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the importance of operations and maintenance (O&M) in building energy efficiency and the role that building operators have on ensuring that building's receive energy energy efficient O&M. SEIU 32BJ is leading the initiative to train New York City's building superintendents. "By working together, 32BJ and New York's building owners have put into place a smart, practical and effective way to help make the Big Apple green. One Year, One Thousand Green Supers provides a low-cost way to make our buildings more energy and cost efficient, and our environment cleaner, all while saving our city millions of dollars," said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

It's long been known that O&M plays an important role in building energy use. Studies have shown that simply operating and maintaining an existing building properly can reduce a building's energy use by 10 percent, without any major retrofits such as installing new windows, a new boiler, or any new insulation. Ten percent may not sound like much--so let's put that number into perspective: if all of New York City's buildings received energy efficiency O&M, the savings in energy costs to the city would be $230 million dollars. The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would equal the equivalent of taking 150,000 cars off the road.

Equally important is the role that a building operator plays in maximizing the benefits of building retrofits. When a building owner makes the decision to retrofit their building, they are looking to save money by investing in technology that reduces energy use. However, without energy-efficient O&M, the expected savings of building retrofits often fail to materialize.

In one example of this, a 34 unit residential building in Brooklyn, NY performed a series of retrofit--including the installation of a new burner for the boiler, insulation, EnergyStar refrigerators, and several other improvements.The entire project was projected to reduce fuel use by 58 percent, but in reality, total fuel use increased by 47 percent! Upon inspection, it was discovered that improper O&M was the culprit responsible for the increase in fuel use. No one working in the building had been trained to use the new technology and consequently, CFL light bulbs had been incorrectly replaced with incandescent bulbs, EnergyStar appliances mistakenly were removed and low-flow water fixtures were missing.

See the full report "1 Year: 1,000 Green Superintendents" here.

Buildings in the United States consume more energy than any other sector of the economy, including transportation or industry. In New York City this problem is especially pronounced, where buildings are responsible for 66 percent of total energy use and 77 percent of city greenhouse gas emissions^[1]. New York City residents also spend $13.4 billion on energy for their buildings, energy that is often wasted on inefficient or improperly maintained equipment.

The benefits of green buildings cannot be overstated--and one of the most cost-effective ways to "green" a building is to ensure that it has a knowledgeable and well-trained workforce. SEIU 32BJ's Training Fund has developed the first-ever Green Buildings Initiative to train building superintendents in the latest, state-of-the-art, best practices in energy efficiency.

To help foster a greener New York City, 32BJ's initiative aims to train 1,000 Green Superintendents in the 2009-2010 school year.

There is no other individual who can contribute more to the long-term greenness of a large multi-family building than the superintendent. Green supers manage the day-to-day operations and maintenance (O&M) of their building, an absolutely critical--though often overlooked--component of an efficient building. Take replacing light bulbs, for example. Did you know swapping out a single old fashioned fluorescent lighting fixture with a similar high-efficiency fixtures can save upwards of $130 per year?^[2] Studies have shown that simply performing optimal O&M can reduce a buildings' energy usage by 10 percent.

Unfortunately, over the last couple of decades the job duties of the superintendent have not changed all that much, despite the rising cost of energy and the solidified scientific consensus surrounding climate change. The 32BJ Training Fund's 1,000 Green Supers program is looking to change that and push an entire industry into the 21st century. The 40-hour training program incorporates standards from the Building Performance Institute and the Urban Green Council (USGBC). Students will cover the full range of topics required to operate their buildings in the most efficient way possible, include air sealing, insulation, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, water conservation, lighting, appliances, and quantifying energy usage. At the end of the course, superintendents will take written and field tests that will certify them as Multifamily Building Operators by the Building Performance Institute.

The investment required to green our buildings is minuscule compared to payoff. Green buildings provide us that always-elusive win-win situation where we can address the climate crisis and our devastated economy. By greening our city's buildings, we can save money, create jobs, and help clean our environment.

To find out more about 32BJ's Green Buildings Initiative, visit www.1000supers.com or email the 32BJ Training Fund at 1000supers@32bjfunds.com.

---

[1] The City of New York, "PlaNYC: Inventory of New York City Greenhouse Gas Emissions", 2008

[2] Calculation based on replacing a 192 Watt F40-T12 (4 lamps, 2 ballasts) fixture with a 112 Watt F32-T8 (4 lamps, 1 ballast) fixture that is on 24 hours per day and costs $0.19/kWh.

SEIU's Anna Burger joined women from labor, business, academic and advocacy organizations to shine a light on the important role that women will play in our green economy at an Earth Day roundtable today at the Department of Labor headquarters.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who testified in the Senate yesterday on green jobs training for workers, co-hosted the event with White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley. During this first-of-its-kind roundtable, experts on women and green jobs from every sector of the economy shared strategies for ensuring women have access to all the green economy has to offer.

There is a growing recognition that green jobs will play a key role in boosting renewable clean energy, fighting global warming, helping our country recover from the current financial crisis and moving workers into well-paying, middle-class jobs. Research by the Center of American Progress (CAP) has demonstrated that nearly four times more jobs are created through green strategies, including more jobs at every step in the pay scale and across every skill level.

President Obama has made green-collar jobs a large part of his approach to the economic crisis. The $787 billion economic stimulus bill enacted in February includes $500 million for green jobs training to prepare workers for the energy sector. However, right now a majority of green jobs exist in fields that are largely male-dominated, such as engineering, agriculture and manufacturing. This Earth Day roundtable will facilitate discussions on how we can work together in the future to ensure that women have access to the new green economy and develop ways to bring women more into the field.

SEIU, along with Change to Win unions, has long championed efforts to create jobs through building a clean-energy economy and expanding green jobs training. This Earth Day roundtable recognizing women's centrality on this issue and pledging to involve them in its solution is an encouraging step towards green development initiatives to create job opportunities for all Americans. "The clean economy will inevitably create huge changes in employment, and green jobs training will improve workers' employment opportunities in occupations that pay good wages," said SEIU's Anna Burger.

Learn more about SEIU's union-wide green negotiating initiative.

Change to Win Chair and SEIU International Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger, issued a statement today about the first meeting of the Middle Class Task Force today, chaired by Vice President Joe Biden, at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

The world is facing a historic opportunity to rebuild our global economy through investments in sustainable projects that will create new jobs, reduce our dependence on oil and protect our planet after decades of mismanagement.

Today's meeting underscores this Administrations' commitment to making sure American businesses and American workers are leaders in the industry of the future as our parents and grandparents led in the industries of the past. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed earlier this month includes a significant investment for projects both big and small that will rebuild our country and create the high-paying jobs of tomorrow.

These jobs represent a clear path to a stronger middle class and a stronger American economy that will benefit everyone. Change to Win unions across the country welcome this opportunity to continue working with communities and employers to find green ways to do millions of jobs that strengthen the foundation of this country. Today is an important step forward for businesses, communities and workers to come together to create a greener and stronger America.

The emerging green economy has the potential to make the American Dream a reality for America's workers. Change to Win unions have been at the forefront in helping create a green pathway to prosperity for working families.

• SEIU has committed to "bargaining green" across health care, public sector, and property service divisions, and the union's largest property service local has established an energy efficiency training program for building superintendents. The Nation recently highlighted the work SEIU 32BJ's Hector Norat, Superintendent of New York City's 1400 on Fifth for his work on the building's residential geothermal heating and cooling system, the largest in the country.
• Change to Win unions, including the Carpenters, LIUNA, and Teamsters, are partnering with cutting edge developer Gerding Edlen to build sustainable communities and create sustainable jobs.
• The Teamsters partnered with environmentalists to enact a landmark policy developed under Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's leadership to clean up toxic diesel emissions, improve working conditions for thousands of truck drivers, and pave the way for green growth in the nation's largest port complex.
• The Laborers have launched an initiative with the City of Newark and community-based organization GANE to train local residents in energy-efficiency retrofitting, building the workforce that will be needed to implement home weatherization on a large scale as promised by President Obama and funded in the Recovery Act.
• John Sarich, Resident Manager of New York City's William Beaver House and member of SEIU 32BJ, helped the management company and residents save money through significantly reducing their energy bills.

The U.S. can create 2 million jobs and reduce the unemployment rate to 4.4 percent over 2 years by investing in the green economy, according to a report last month by the Center for American Progress.

Green job creation and training is happening right now, all over the country, fueled by the belief that it is possible to ease the intensity of our climate crisis and employ more people to work in better jobs (all at the same time!). And SEIU is committed to green building maintenance and creating quality green jobs. Nowhere is this commitment more evident within this union than in SEIU's largest property service workers union, Local 32BJ, who offers its building supers an energy-efficiency training program. (Read more about Local 32BJ's program in The Nation).

Foreword: For the second consecutive year, SEIU is participating in the Labor Delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, taking place this week in Posnan, Poland. Union representatives from Mexico, India, the U.K., the U.S., Korea, Sierra Leone and elsewhere are making sure that the concerns of and effects on working people the world over are an essential part of every discussion at the conference. Marrianne McMullen, SEIU's representative to U.S. Labor Delegation, blogs about their work and experiences (below).

---

Sunday, December 7, 2008

It's 3:30 p.m. in Poznan and we can see the sun already setting through the sheer drapes of the hotel meeting room. More than 90 labor delegates are gathered at this hotel about 12 miles outside of the city. Many more countries are represented now: Nepal, South Africa, Pakistan, Norway, Latvia, Brazil, Holland, Ethiopia.

No formal talks are scheduled for the United Nations Climate Change Conference today, so the labor delegates of the International Trade Union Council are using the day for presentations and discussions.

Foreword: For the second consecutive year, SEIU is participating in the Labor Delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, taking place this week in Posnan, Poland. Union representatives from Mexico, India, the U.K., the U.S., Korea, Sierra Leone and elsewhere are making sure that the concerns of and effects on working people the world over are an essential part of every discussion at the conference. Marrianne McMullen, SEIU's representative to U.S. Labor Delegation, blogs about their work and experiences (below).

---

Poznan, Poland
Friday, December 5, 2008

More than 20 of us were crowded into the trade union delegation office at the Poznan Convention Center. It was 9 a.m., and time for the daily organizational meeting for the labor delegation at the U.N. Climate Talks in Poland. I'm sure I wasn't the only one in the room dazed by long flights and lack of sleep, and a bit queasy from the Polish staple of boiled sausage.

We were in our small Trade Union Non-Governmental Organization (TUNGO) office because we lost our regular meeting space due to meeting shuffling, a fairly routine event in a conference as sprawling as this one.

Labor union representatives introduced themselves from Peru, Australia, Mexico, India, the U.K., Spain, Belgium, Algeria, Korea, Japan, Sierra Leone --a sort of United Nations of Labor. Together this group painted a too-rarely-seen portrait of a truly global labor movement.

Together we went through that day's 26-page daily program for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Phillip Pearson of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) reviewed the delegation's daily goal: to attend all of the meetings and "side events" possible and deliver a strong labor message. From climate change impacts, to green job opportunities, our goal was to always introduce the concerns of and effects on working people in every environmental discussion.

Another task set before the delegates: Each national delegation was to set up meetings with our government delegation leaders. The government delegates are the ones who actually do the negotiating on the climate change agreements. Labor representatives, being from non-governmental organizations, can observe and provide input in open meetings.