Energy Programs – Past and Present
Overview of Multi-Family Efficiency Programs in Massachusetts
A number of energy efficiency programs pertain to multifamily buildings in Cambridge. These
programs are described below, and summarized in Appendix 1.
MassSave Home Energy Services – Market-Rate Properties with 1-4 Units
At present the primary mechanism for enabling multi-family energy efficiency in Massachusetts
is the utility-funded MassSave Home Energy Services program, which provides no-cost home
energy assessments and incentives for efficiency upgrades in market-rate properties with 1-4
units. The program is available for individual units within these properties, and potential
upgrades include insulation, air sealing, and improved heating, cooling and hot water systems.
Financial incentives include rebates and an interest-free Residential HEAT loan (up to $25,000
with terms up to seven years) for qualified energy efficiency improvements, as well as 75% off
insulation upgrades up to $2,000.
MassSave Multifamily Program – Market-Rate Properties with 5+ Units
Similar to the Home Energy Services program, the MassSave Multifamily program uses utility
funds to provide no-cost home energy assessments, energy efficiency upgrades and related
incentives in market-rate properties with 5 or more units. Through the MassSave Financing
Program property owners can access interest-free loans up to $100,000 with terms up to seven
years to install qualified energy efficiency improvements. In contrast to the Home Energy
Services program, however, the Multifamily program cannot be targeted towards individual
units. The property owner or condo association (or an authorized representative) is the only
one who can schedule the energy assessment.
Massachusetts Low Income Multi-Family (LEAN) Program – Affordable and Low-Income
Properties with 5+ Units
The Low Income Multi-Family program (also known as the LEAN program) is another utilityfunded program available for housing developments of five or more units that are owned by a
Public Housing Authority, a non-profit or a for-profit entity. An additional qualification for LEAN
is that 50 percent of development households must be at or below 60 percent of area median
income. LEAN provides building energy assessments and grants to cover energy efficiency
upgrades including hot water and heating systems, air sealing and insulation, lighting,
appliances and ventilation.
Massachusetts Green Retrofit Initiative – Affordable and Low-Income Properties with 5+
Units
The Massachusetts Green Retrofit Initiative (GRI), a non-profit partnership between New
Ecology and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), like LEAN also targets owners of
multi-family affordable housing for efficiency upgrades. (Both New Ecology and LISC have
been involved in programmatic efforts around LEAN as well.) Unlike LEAN, however, the GRI is
not a utility-sponsored program (although some of its resources come from LEAN funds), and it
has slightly different income eligibility criteria. (50 percent of development households must be
at or below 80 percent of area median income for the GRI, versus 60 percent of area median
income for LEAN.) The GRI leverages grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development and private foundations to provide a subsidized and integrated “cradle to
grave” service delivery approach, providing building owners with project management expertise
in benchmarking, design and installation of efficiency measures, financing and performance
monitoring to enable and support deep building retrofits. GRI administrators intend to expand
the program to market-rate housing over time.
Energy Performance Improvement Program
State programs are available to support financing for energy efficiency upgrades in affordable
multi-family properties. The Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) has an Energy
Performance Improvement Program (EPIP) that provides loans of up to $15,000 per unit for a
wide range of efficiency improvements in multi-family buildings, including water conservation, air
sealing and insulation and more efficient heating, cooling, ventilation and hot water systems.
The EPIP is intended to complement energy assessment grant programs like LEAN and the
Green Retrofit Initiative.
Low-Income Weatherization Assistance Program
The federal Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) is funded by the U.S. Department of
Energy to provide energy assessments, air sealing and insulation upgrades in low-income
single-family and multifamily properties. Households making less than 60 percent of state
median income, receiving supplemental Social Security income (SSI), or receiving Transitional
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) are eligible for WAP, and the average WAP
grant allocation per household is around $5,500. In Massachusetts WAP is administered by the
state’s Department of Housing and Community Development and implemented by
weatherization service agencies across the state. Households that qualify for WAP may also
qualify for the other low-income programs described above.
Outreach & Marketing Channels
Community engagement around the energy efficiency programs described above takes place
through a variety of outreach channels. The MassSave Home Energy Services program for 1-4
unit market-rate properties is largely promoted via a broad range of partnerships and networks
between diverse stakeholders including utilities, contractors, non-profit and community
organizations, local businesses and municipal governments. As described below, the City of
Cambridge has focused on broadly promoting MassSave as part of its energy efficiency
outreach strategy.
Outreach for affordable and low-income multifamily programs like LEAN and GRI, on the other
hand, tends to be channeled via more specialized networks of affordable housing property
owners, community development corporations, and non-profit and community organizations
serving low-income populations. Many of these actors were involved in the actual design of
these programs and have demonstrated a strong commitment to outreach and implementation
around them as well. The MassSave Multifamily program has received little promotion aside
from isolated utility efforts, and the WAP is largely promoted by local service agencies that are
responsible for implementing the program.
Future Utility Program Directions – The Recent MassSave Plan
State planning provides important signals for the future direction of energy efficiency in
Massachusetts. The state’s energy efficiency plan for 2013-2015 proposes several adjustments
to current multi-family programs. These include: treating condo owners as single family
homeowners for the purposes of energy audits and upgrades, given that many condo owners
see themselves as such; better coordinating multi-family and commercial programs to enhance
service delivery, as many multi-family buildings are currently metered as commercial; and better
coordinating low-income programs for both single-family and multi-family properties as well as
for both non-profit and for-profit multi-family housing developments.
Cambridge’s Experience to Date and Potential Next Steps
New potential multi-family efficiency programs in Cambridge must recognize and build off the
city’s experiences and challenges with the existing programs described above, as well as shifts
in programs based upon the state’s 2013-2015 efficiency plan. Through the city-sponsored
Cambridge Energy Alliance (CEA) the city is already connecting residents and businesses with
energy efficiency retrofit programs, with a primary focus on MassSave’s Home Energy Services
program. Working in coordination with home performance contractors like Next Step Living and
community-based nonprofit organizations like the Home Energy Efficiency Team, CEA has
primarily pursued an event-based outreach strategy to sign people up for home energy
assessments through MassSave. Cambridge has also partnered with NStar (the utility serving
the city) to do walk-in audits of small businesses in neighborhoods like Inman and Kendall
Squares. Finally, the city has done some targeted mailings to landlords, finding that the
landlords who are most engaged about energy efficiency tend to live in the relevant properties.
CEA has found that having a motivated tenant who enjoys a good relationship with the landlord
is important to the success of multi-family efficiency efforts. The city has been able to track
requests for multi-family efficiency via their website, but has experienced challenges in the
follow-up stages. Once its contacts are turned over to NStar, the city is unable to access data
on multi-family energy audits unless it maintains contact with the landlord and tenants
throughout the entire process. NStar’s contractors do not report to the City the status of
different projects. The reports that NStar does submit to the city on multi-family assessments
are also of limited utility, as they are not disaggregated by property. Thus, the City and other
outreach partners have limited understanding of what marketing initiatives are effective, and
whether they should follow up with buildings that have dropped out of the process, face preweatherization barriers, or are not pursuing deep energy retrofits. These reports also appear to
indicate that uptake of deep energy retrofits is limited, as many of the audits focus on light bulbs
or other surface-level measures while doing little to track actual implementation.
To address many of these issues, the Massachusetts Green Retrofit Initiative could provide a
model for new utility-funded energy efficiency programs in Cambridge and beyond. As
described earlier, the Green Retrofit Initiative seeks to provide deeper engagement around a
broad portfolio of energy efficiency measures and their long-term performance. This one-stop
shop framework could be integrated with Cambridge’s current efforts to assess citywide solar
potential and develop a guide for doing solar upgrades at multi-family properties, creating a
process that engages both landlords and tenants in deep energy retrofits and their long-term
impact. This would be consistent with a “strategic focus on multi-family and performance-based
community engagement initiatives, combined with an overall goal of delivering robust, costeffective programs,” which are outlined as key objectives in Massachusetts’ energy efficiency
plan for 2013-2015.
Finally, delivery of multi-family energy efficiency services and funding could potentially be
integrated with existing programs in Cambridge. In partnership with Cambridge Neighborhood
Apartment Housing Services, the city has a Multi-Family Rehab Loan Program that provides up
to $20,000 per unit for upgrades and addressing code violations and exterior improvements;
however, this program currently does not mention energy efficiency. Integrating energy
efficiency options and the MHP’s Energy Performance Improvement Program into the MultiFamily Loan Rehab Program could be another means to increase the uptake of multi-family
energy efficiency in Cambridge.