INHS and Taitem Engineering, a local engineering firm specializing in energy research and studies, is happy to announce its yearlong partnership to reduce INHS’s energy usage through NYSERDA’s On-Site Energy Manager (OsEM) program.
The program allows for this partnership opportunity by offering a 75 percent cost-share for staffing at industrial, commercial, and multifamily buildings, like those within the INHS housing portfolio. Through using a comprehensive analysis of INHS’s usage and demand, the goal is to see a 4% electricity savings and 4% natural gas savings.
Jim Holahan, a Senior Energy Analyst at Taitem, will act as the OsEM for INHS on a part-time basis throughout 2021. He will work closely with INHS Executive Director Johanna Anderson to develop an Energy Management Plan that will help lower INHS’s operational costs, exceed their energy savings goals, and reduce their carbon emissions.
“INHS is such a great organization and our mission’s to help our community are directly aligned. I’m looking forward to helping them exceed their short and long term energy goals,” said Holahan.
Throughout the year, Holahan will provide energy-saving recommendations that help guide the organization’s management to reduce energy usage within their current housing portfolio and future developments. This will be done by conducting walkthrough energy audits on INHS’s 479-unit rental portfolio, identifying initial points of cost savings, developing guidelines for future development, and providing staff training on energy efficiency best practices.
INHS Executive Director Johanna Anderson said of the partnership, “Sustainability has always been a core value of the organization, and Taitem Engineering can provide the support we need to even further our impact in a respectful way while utilizing resources we have at our fingertips. We are looking forward to seeing what sustainable practices we can add to our portfolio in 2021.”
Sustainability, a core value of INHS, supports its mission to provide safe and quality housing. Sustainable building practices extends the life cycle of homes, decreases energy consumption and costs, improves health outcomes, and reduces the community’s carbon footprint. INHS helped to create the LEED for Homes building standards, a nationally used U.S. certification standard for residential green building, and also recently received $1 million from New York State’s Building of Excellence Competition for its upcoming development, Village Grove in Trumansburg. Once completed, the development will be INHS’s greenest project to date.