Clean Technica: PACE Program in Babylon Rockin’ It (VIDEO)
By Stephen Lacey
Sammy Chu knows that energy efficiency creates local jobs. He’s seen it for himself. As director of Long Island Green Homes, a local financing program based around Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), Chu has seen the creation of dozens of new contractor positions that have helped his home town of Babylon, New York, invest millions of dollars in efficiency retrofits.
Since the program started in 2008, Chu says it has brought $1.89 in value for every $1.00 invested through savings on energy bills — helping support hundreds of efficiency retrofits and support 50 full-time jobs.
“These are local jobs that can’t be outsourced,” Chu explains in an interview at the Greenbuild Conference in Toronto. “And the value is felt right here, for both the customers and the contractors.”