Con Edison, New York City’s main source of energy, provides electric services, provides natural gas service, and operates the world’s largest district steam system. It brings in some $12 billion in revenue each year and has $40 billion in assets. On Wednesday, March 13, 2013, the power provider named the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) as its “Public Partner of the Year.”
Con Edison has been a leader in promoting intelligent energy usage and even provides tips to help residents go green in their own homes. In the past year, NYCHA completed a “massive energy-efficiency project in 5,300 public housing units in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn,” making it a massive advocate for change on the environmental front. The Multi-Family Energy Efficiency Program provided energy-efficiency surveys and incentives for green upgrades to housing units.
“The New York City Housing Authority is grateful to Con Edison for joining us in our efforts to make our buildings greener and more energy efficient,” said NYCHA Chairman John Rhea in a statement. “NYCHA is fully committed to providing safe, affordable housing for its 400,000 residents in a cost-efficient and environmentally conscious manner. Through key partnerships such as these, we are able to invest in energy efficiency upgrades that will benefit our residents, NYCHA, the city and the environment for years to come.”
Besides working to go green, NYCHA has also been making headlines by being ahead-of-schedule fixing the backlog of some 400,000 repairs for NYCHA residents, which chairman John Rhea had promised would be completed by the end of the year. About 73,000 jobs have been completed in just the two months, meaning the repairs should be complete by this coming winter.
More than $500 million has been dedicated to the completion of the repairs, which also helped hire 416 new workers. To get the number of repairs back to a manageable amount, each worker is doing one extra job per day, a policy implemented by NYCHA general manager Cecil House, who was brought on last August to get the repair ball rolling.
These repairs, in conjunction with NYCHA’s completion of the Multi-Family Energy Efficiency Program, have made NYCHA a leader alongside Con Edison when it comes to promoting environmental awareness and energy efficiency. So far, an estimated $1 million per year has already been saved by current projects—and with future upgrades and repairs, that number could grow to be much larger.
To learn more about the New York City Housing Authority, check out our full profile on NYCHA chairman John Rhea.