Short Term Action items (six months to one year)

Management

• Organize an Energy/Green Design Task group (multi-disciplinary with a point-person) to develop and monitor implementation of a full-scale energy policy for Downtown and the City of Buffalo. Rely on work done in other cities (Portland, Berkeley, etc.)
• Create an Energy Office within the City of Buffalo Planning to help coordinate the City’s internal efforts and efforts with other public and private sector agencies and to facilitate implementation of these objectives. Consider asking one of the energy companies to loan an executive on a short-term basis. A full time energy officer can more than recoup their salary in savings in a short period of time.
• Develop a baseline data set to measure progress.
• Determine impact of Governor Pataki’s Executive Order #111 on State occupied and owned buildings and begin developing an implementation plan.
• Enroll building owners in the Rebuild Energy Target Zone project to obtain better access to energy-efficiency resources.

Marketing and Education

• Hold a series of Energy/Green Design education workshop over the next year for property owners, property managers, developers and tenants.
• Develop an energy efficiency improvement guide for Downtown similar to the UB Green Computing Guide

Energy Efficiencies

• Set goals for improving efficiencies by adopting a percent reduction goal, e.g. reduce energy usage in Downtown buildings (aggregate) by 20% over the next five years measured by BTU’s/ kWh per SF.
• Encourage all commercial and residential property owners to conduct NYSERDA Flex-Tech or similar and approved building energy audits. Set an initial goal @ 10 buildings per year.

Alternative Sources of Power

• Support efforts to determine the feasibility of developing alternative sources of power, such as an urban wind farm, through marketing, education and appropriate land use planning.
• Support efforts to develop a distributive generation/district-heating program through marketing and education.
• Educate and encourage the use of Bio-diesel or alternative sustainable fuels for heating and transportation

Green Practices

• Support efforts to convert parkers to mass transit users
• Develop a “Green Practice Audit” for Downtown to examine recycling, Energy Star usage, written policies, waste reduction, energy conservation, buying recycled products, etc. Identify one or two smaller entities that can serve as a pilot program
• Tap into Green Gold Initiative to identify companies or agencies that can provide environmental services to Downtown property owners.
• Begin researching NYSERDA/DOE “Smart Office Product” bulk buying program.
• Explore developing a district-wide material-recycling program organized by a neutral agency. Seek in-kind donations from energy providers and corporations (e.g. truck, manpower, etc.)

Green Design

• Encourage all new construction or major building renovations to adopt the LEED green building standard.
• Encourage local government to adopt the LEED green building standard for owned and leased spaces

Medium Term Action items (one to three years)

Management

• Continued implementation Energy/Green Design Task group recommendations

Marketing and Education

• Hold annual education seminars for property owners and developers. Use local results to highlight benefits.

Energy Efficiencies

• Continue to encourage commissioning, re-commissioning, and improvements to buildings. Market this as preparation for conversion to district heating system.
• Encourage greater usage of ESCO-driven projects utilizing newer technologies (No up-front costs and debt service is retired through cost savings.)
• Promote the use of biodiesel/CNG /hybrid commercial vehicles
• Consider allowing greater code variances when more efficient systems are installed.

Green Practices

• Explore the idea of a free Downtown Circulator bus using CNG, Bio-diesel or other alternative fuel
• Explore Shared Bike/Car programs
• Conduct Downtown-wide Energy/Green Practice Audit – establish schedule for follow up.

Green Design

• Encourage one major new and one major redevelopment of a model Green Building in the Downtown area. Allow local architects, property owners and developers to review the process to increase awareness.

Long Term Action items (three to five years)

Alternative Sources of Power

• Construction and implementation of alternative source of power such as a District Heating System and/or Urban Wind Farm.

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