The Green Building: Retrofit Working Group (“Group”) held their monthly meeting on May 13. The Group is in the process of developing a plan (“Plan”) to provide energy efficiency retrofits for the entire building stock of the City of Cleveland. The goal is to have the Plan finished and ready to present to Mayor Frank Jackson and other interested parties by the 2010 Sustainability Summit.

The meeting started with updates from Nicole Stika from the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE) concerning Ohio Senate Bill 221. The bill, which was passed last summer, mandates that Ohio electric utilities themselves mandate energy consumption and use renewable sources. While most utility companies in Ohio are meeting this requirement through a rider on customer’s bills, COSE has been working with the FirstEnergy Corporation to assist the company in meeting these requirements through the development of rebate and incentive programs.

Next, Mark McDermott, co-chair of the Group and Vice President of Enterprise Community Partners, presented updates from the Working’s Groups Goals Committee. In particular, McDermott posed questions to the group concerning the desirability of a variety of goals – such as climate change-related (i.e. CO2 emissions), wealth creation, and job creation.