Recently passed legislation in New York State establishes a new statewide program to perform mass-scale
building energy efficiency audits and retrofits and build up the supply of skilled workers to meet the
expected increase in green job opportunities. Critically, it also authorizes state agencies to create a new
framework for financing retrofits, and encourages new groupings of stakeholders—from community
groups to utilities—to work together towards successful implementation. The multi-dimensional Green
Job Green New York plan channels a relatively small amount of state resources, a much larger amount of
private lending capital, and potential federal stimulus dollars into a new statewide revolving loan fund for
retrofits and expanded opportunities for green workforce development and job placement.
Green Jobs Green New York is the first multidimensional,
mass-scale, statewide building
energy efficiency plan for financing and
recouping costs from energy efficiency audits
and installations in a range of structures. The
plan involves improving aspects of the existing
state-run home audit program, initiating a new
statewide revolving loan fund for retrofits, and
introducing new green-focused workforce
development across the state. Over the next five
years, Green Jobs Green New York aims to
retrofit at least 1 million buildings, reduce the
energy consumption of participating households
by 30−40 percent, save New Yorkers $1 billion
annually in energy costs, and create an expected
14,000 new clean energy jobs.
