via Omaha World Herald, By Jeffrey Robb WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERThe drive for energy efficiency is hitting home in Omaha, Lincoln and around the Midlands.
Spurred by a desire to go green and save money on their utility bills, owners of existing homes and people building new houses are upgrading their homes' energy efficiency. Insulation is in, along with Energy Star appliances and higher-rated furnaces.
Now two major federally funded initiatives are giving local efforts a boost.
Wednesday, a partnership led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers announced that it would team with Hearthstone Homes and other Omaha and Lincoln home builders to engineer practical but high-impact energy upgrades. The research initiative could be worth $2.5 million per year over the next 4½ years.
By early 2011, the Cities of Omaha and Lincoln plan to start rolling out a $10 million program to retrofit 3,200 homes in the two cities with new insulation, furnaces, appliances or even shade trees. In Omaha, the program will start by targeting a zone between 16th and 36th Streets, from Leavenworth to Lake Streets.Also in Omaha, a Green Neighborhood Council is operating. The Environment Omaha initiative, led by the City of Omaha and Omaha By Design, is looking at proposing building regulations to drop the energy use on new and existing homes. Read more at omaha.com.
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