Mercy Housing Exceeds Sustainability Goals by Reducing Water and Energy Use Across Affordable Housing Properties
As with other types of multifamily housing, sustainability at affordable housing properties is propped up by the three-legged stool of focusing on people, environment and utility savings. And for it to be a success, a substantial investment is usually required.
But finding funding often takes a lot of digging. At Mercy Housing, which desired to reach of goal of a 20% reduction in energy use per square foot and water use per person across its rental portfolio, some pretty big shovels were needed.
With no budget and using 2010 as a baseline, Caitlin Rood, who is Mercy Housing’s national environmental sustainability director, set out in 2013 with the ambitious plan. Considering that U.S. energy and water costs typically rise on average each year, the project faced immediate headwinds.
Wisely, the company set aside plenty of time to make a significant improvement on energy and water consumption. The approach wasn’t necessarily aimed at realizing an extra pile of cash from savings. Rather, Mercy Housing was focused on keeping the costs of heating, cooling, lighting and water consumption from gobbling up an ever-larger chunk of the overall budget. Offsetting rising energy costs through efficiencies would be justification enough.
By leveraging $6.4 million in rebates – money available through federal, state and local entities and utility programs to implement efficiency – Mercy Housing made a significant sustainability statement.
“We made a 24% savings in energy and a 27% reduction of our water use,” says Rood, who estimates the approach has saved the portfolio more than $3 million since she was hired to shepherd a new sustainability effort for the portfolio.
More impressively, Mercy Housing found ways to keep the inevitable rise of energy costs under control without shelling out a lot of its own money.
“It’s the combination of cost avoidance and cost savings,” says Rood, who will present insights on sustai...