The Milwaukee city and Johnson Controls, a provider of energy efficiency solutions for buildings, have taken key initiatives to transfer Milwaukee into an energy efficient city.
The Office of Environmental Sustainability in the city began the Milwaukee Energy Efficiency (Me2) initiative last spring. The objectives of this Me2 are to cut down energy bills and pollution, to enhance the housing and commercial buildings, and to create green jobs in the private sector.
Local government subsidies or funds are not used for this program; instead, the fund obtained from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been used. The program connects private lenders and energy contractors to building owners and removes the expenditures related with energy efficiency projects. These expenditures are later paid through the money saved from less energy usage.
The program has been started at a co-op project, The Newport, situated at 1620 N. Prospect Avenue. Johnson Controls is eliminating the present heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment and placing more energy-efficient instruments. A HVAC equipment used in the building and its common areas including hallways, parking garage, basement and entrance foyer will be controlled by a novel automation system. After the conclusion of this project, The Newport is anticipated to save over $48,000 in annual energy expenditures.
Johnson Controls has wide experience in upgrading energy efficiency in buildings. The company has headed and taken part in several retrofit projects internationally, including the Empire State Building at New York. The building is anticipated to save $4.4 million annually and reduce energy usage by 38%.