Hosts of the International Davos conference brought together metropolitan real estate and construction figures to consider “Facing the Slowdown, Growing for Tomorrow.”  The organizing principle was that a majority of real estate firms do not operate now and may never operate on a multinational basis, they still benefit from the importation of value-added know-how.  Richard Fedrizzi President and Chairman of US Green Building Council was one of the keynoters.  Darren Wachtler, Associate Director, Head of Engineering and Construction Industry for the World Economic Forum shared the principles of SlimCity for establishing a common set of metrics for buildings which would facilitate the deployment of sustainable buildings.  On a panel which included Josep A. Acebillo Marin, Director, Barcelona Regional, Metropolitan Agency for Urban Planning and Infrastructures, City of Barcelona, Spain and Hilary Beber, a policy analyst with the New York City Mayor’s office, The Babylon Project President Steve Bellone underscored the municipal primacy on property that enables Babylon to drive its residential energy efficiency retrofits.  The audience consensus supported the principle of going through channels with which builders are already familiar. 

President and founder of The Babylon Project, Steve Bellone, served as a panelist on the US Department of Energy’s Webcast on Innovative Energy Efficiency Financing Approaches on June 1, 2009.  The webcast, one of the first done by the DOE to assist municipalities in the preparation of their EECBG application, reached nearly 100 sustainability officials around the country.  The webcast featured an introduction by Mark Bailey, the U.S. Department of Energy Director of the Office of Weatherization & Intergovernmental Programs and a detailed presentation on municipal financing options for retrofitting buildings by Carol Broido Johnson, Efficiency Advisor for Secretary Chu’s Recovery Act Team.  Mr. Bellone provided details of the Babylon retrofit program urging listeners to create sustainable programs, like Green Homes, with their stimulus funding.  “By investing stimulus money in a sustainable program rather than a single project, you will be helping to build Green Careers rather than creating temporary green jobs” said Bellone.  The DOE is encouraging the development of sustainable programs and the leveraging of stimulus funding with additional public and private sector dollars. 

The Babylon Project President and Founder Steve Bellone, Executive Director Dorian Dale, Deputy Director Sam Chu and Board Member Rich Manning joined fifteen major cities such as New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, and San Francisco to share strategies on making their existing building stock more efficient.  The Boot Camp, sponsored by Living Cities and orchestrated by the Institute for Sustainable Communities, was an intense two day exchange on strategies for bringing the retrofitting of existing buildings to scale.  The opening dinner, on May 31^st, featured an inspiring talk by Ron Sims, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

During the opening day of the boot camp, Babylon’s Green Homes retrofit model was spotlighted by such speakers as Rob Bennett, Executive Director of Portland + Oregon Sustainability Institute and Cisco DeVries, President of Renewable Funding  which featured a very entertaining post-dinner address from Auden Schendler, author of “Getting Green Done”.   Steve Bellone, who also serves as Babylon Town Supervisor, presented on day 2 of the boot camp on the Emerging Strategies panel, which was moderated by two of the leading figures in this sector, Doug Foy of Serrafix and Joel Rogers, Director of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy.  Bellone laid out Babylon’s Green Homes model, the first municipally financed energy efficiency program in the nation.  He urged attendees to do what they needed to start a program saying, “before you can get to scale, you need to create a scale model.” 

Sammy Chu participated in “The Great Transition”, a workforce and economic development conference sponsored by the California Labor Federation.   He spoke on a panel focusing on weatherization, the recovery act and high road jobs.  He was joined on the panel by moderator Elena Foshay, Apollo Alliance, Jeff Rickert, AFL-CIO Center for Green Jobs, Cesar Diaz, California Building Trades Council and Stacy Ho, Green for All.  Chu, wielding his IBEW membership, stressed the need for a clearer definition of today’s weatherization worker and what steps trade unions need to take to enter the growing residential retro-fit sector.  

Steven Bellone, President and Founder of The Babylon Project and TBP Executive Director Dorian Dale attended the ICLEI Local Climate Leadership Summit. Steve Bellone, who also serves as Babylon Supervisor, presented to local climate leaders and sustainability experts on the use of green initiatives for economic development.  Supervisor Bellone’s presentation highlighted Babylon’s Green Homes initiative and other environmental programs and how they are being used to create new, clean energy careers that can help change lives and communities.  He discussed the workforce development efforts in the community of Wyandanch, a hamlet within Babylon Town that is the most economically distressed in the Long Island region.  Under the Wyandanch Rising Revitalization Plan, Babylon is preparing the community, through the implementation of new training programs, to fill the new clean energy jobs that are being created through the Green Homes program and those that will come as the redevelopment begins. Wyandanch, a community that has suffered from decades of environmental degredation will be rebuilt in a completely sustainable way. 

Supervisor Bellone was joined on the Panel by Mayor Bob Dixson of Greensburg, a community in Kansas that was devastated by a tornado but achieved national prominence by committing to rebuild in a sustainable fashion.  Mayor Dixson’s inspiring words were a testament to the power of determination and vision.  After the tornado, “the only things we had left were our relationships with each other,” he said.  “Don’t feel sorry for yourself, get after it and get things taken care of.”  The panel was moderated by Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network, who discussed a number of sustainability initiatives and preparations for the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day.  Other highlights from the summit were timely details on the status of EECBG Funding from Mark Bailey, DOE’s Director of the Office of Weatherization & Intergovernmental Programs, architect Ed Mazria’s 14x proposal for leveraging efficiency finance and ICLEI’s march on a new Washington HQ from the West Coast led by Michelle Wyman, the Executive Director.