POAH has joined the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Climate Challenge, committing to reduce our portfolio's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% within 10 years. As a partner in the challenge, POAH plans to share our carbon reduction progress and strategies with the broader market to help other organizations build on our success. The Better Climate Challenge is the government platform that provides transparency, accountability, technical assistance, and collaboration to identify decarbonization pathways and provide recognition for leadership across the US economy.
The program builds on over a decade of DOE experience through the Better Buildings Initiative which POAH participated in by reducing portfolio wide energy and water consumption by 20% over ten years through a combination of retrofitting, utilizing renewable energy, and new construction. POAH became a Better Buildings Challenge Goal Achiever in 2020. The Better Buildings Challenge built upon POAH’s previous commitment under the Big Reach, an initiative by the 11 members of Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF) to reducing portfolio wide energy consumption.
Through Better Buildings, DOE partners with public and private sector organizations to make commercial, public, industrial, and residential buildings more efficient, thereby saving billions of dollars on energy bills, reducing emissions, and creating thousands of jobs. To date, more than 950 Better Buildings partners have shared their innovative approaches and strategies for adopting energy efficient technologies.
Through this and other initiatives, POAH continues to target energy and water conservation opportunities, both in property acquisitions and in its existing portfolio, and integrate conservation into its standard operating procedures at the property level by expanding green training for site staff. POAH also targets resident education as a means to reduce building energy consumption and resident utility bills.