Today Mayor Mike McGinn joined Vice President Joe Biden at the White House for an announcement that the city of Seattle will receive $20 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s “Retrofit Ramp Up” program, a competitive grant program funded through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG). Locally, Deputy Mayor of Community Darryl Smith announced the award at the opening session of Go Green, a conference to promote sustainable business practices.

Seattle was one of only 25 communities to receive a Retrofit Ramp Up award, of the more than 150 cities that applied to the program. Total funding for the grant program was $452 million.

“Working with community and industry partners, our city has put together an aggressive and innovative strategy to create green jobs, save energy, and reduce carbon emissions through deep investments in energy efficiency,” said McGinn. “The Ramp Up award will greatly increase the scale of our programs and enable us to pilot potentially game-changing approaches to financing and delivering energy efficiency projects.”

Seattle’s award will support the creation of the Seattle Neighborhood WEB (Weatherize Every Building) Initiative, a targeted energy efficiency retrofit effort in the city’s most culturally and economically diverse community stretching from the downtown core to the Rainier Valley.

Click here to view a map of the geographic breakdown of the Seattle Neighborhood WEB Initiative.

Click here to view the Mayor’s press release.