Clinton Climate Initiative

Home Energy Affordability Loan Program

CCI has created a program that addresses financial barriers to residential retrofit projects. In the short-term, the program creates sustainable, local jobs; in the long-term, it reduces carbon emissions at the corporate and homeowner levels by improving energy performance in commercial and residential buildings through retrofits. Piloted in Arkansas, the program, Home Energy Affordability Loan (HEAL), helps facilitate a commercial retrofit to local employers and gives their employees an opportunity to receive home energy audits. Employees can choose to make their home more energy efficient through home improvements, which will lower their utility bills. HEAL uses payroll deductions to repay the loans that finance the retrofits. By April 2012, HEAL plans to have 650 residential audits and 175 retrofits complete.

Across Arkansas, five employers – L’Oreal, USA; Arlington Hotel; Friendship Community Care; Hendrix College; and, Century Industries, Inc. – will be implementing energy retrofits and the HEAL program. These industrial retrofits have a total projected annual savings of $410,000, a payback of four years, and a reduction of 1,782 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

CCI is in the process of replicating this program on a national scale.