Philadelphia Housing Authority – Alice Kodama – 2013

Goals

Alice Kodama worked with the Philadelphia Housing Authority to reduce unnecessary energy expenditures.

Solutions

Kodama benchmarked PHA’s electricity, natural gas and water usage at six of PHA’s sites for senior citizens. Kodama used WegoWise, a powerful online benchmarking tool specifically designed for multifamily and single family homes. Through benchmarking these sites, Kodama selected one site that could benefit most from an energy efficiency project. In addition, Kodama compiled evidence for PHA’s application to the Sustainable Performance Institute (SPI) and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Green Organizational Accreditation pilot program. Kodama collaborated with members of every PHA department in order to comprehensively develop goals relevant to PHA’s needs and long-term plans.

Potential Impact

Kodama’s application work included evidence for 27 different requirements and a Green Action Plan that consisted of over 50 goals made to reduce PHA’s overall environmental impact. Kodama found approximately 32 percent financial savings (more than $75,000) in gas and electric costs for this site through lighting retrofits, hot water boiler upgrades and insulation and white roof upgrades. These suggestions could amount to savings of over 250,000 kilowatt hours per year and 30,000 therms per year – enough to electrically power over 22 houses per year and provide natural gas to over 133 houses per year.