On June 30, David Caldwell Jr., vice president of Caldwell & Johnson, Inc., a board member of the R.I. Builders Association and chair of the Advocacy Committee of the Rhode Island Green Building Council, visited Washington, DC at the formal request of U.S. senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ). Caldwell testified before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development. The subject of the hearing was Green Housing in the 21st Century: Retrofitting the Past and Building an Energy-Efficient Future.
As a leading green builder, advocate and educator in Rhode Island, Caldwell was contacted by the office of senator Whitehouse (D-RI) to submit expert testimony on the merits of Senate Bill 1379, the Energy Efficiency in Housing Act of 2009 which Whitehouse sponsored. The intent of the legislation is to establish a variety of programs and incentives to enable and improve energy efficiency in single-family and multi-family homes.
Highlights of the bill include: creating incentives for energy efficiency in public housing; jumpstarting the market for green mortgages that consider the financial savings of energy-efficient and location-efficient homes; new requirements to consider energy costs in real estate appraisals; a revolving loan fund for states to fund renewable energy upgrades; the collection of data on energy-efficient and location-efficient mortgages.
and the launching of green banking centers at financial institutions to educate consumers about the benefits of energy conservation and financial options.
Caldwell testified in strong support of the Energy Efficiency in Housing Act, as well about his experience in green building saying that, "Green building is an economically viable business model and a means by which homeowners can dramatically save money by reducing utility costs and protect the environment. The Energy Efficiency in Housing Act is rare in that it embodies provisions that multiple stakeholders find meritorious and seem to agree on."
This diverse group of housing and national nonprofit organizations includes Enterprise Community Partners, the National Association of Home Builders and the US Green Building Council.