At Mercy Housing, we care about the communities in which we serve, which is why we created Green Hope, our environmental sustainability program. This initiative was designed to around our goals to reduce our environmental impact, create healthier living conditions, raise awareness of environmental issues, and reduce utility expenses for properties and residents.
We integrate sustainability in all areas of our operations, from designing, building, and rehabilitating properties, to office practices, property operations, and resident services:
How efficiency upgrades improve residents’ lives
Environmental Commitments
We have two formal environmental commitments through the Department of Energy (DOE) that guide our work. By the year 2030, we will:
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Better Buildings Challenge |
Better Climate Challenge |
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Reduce our energy consumption by 20% |
Reduce our carbon emissions by 50% |
Our Objectives
- Energy Efficiency: Reduce energy consumption via energy efficiency retrofits, consumption tracking and overage alerts, and behavioral changes
- Renewable Energy: Increase the amount of renewable energy supplying properties’ energy needs
- Water Efficiency: Reduce water consumption via efficiency retrofits, consumption tracking and overage alerts, leak detection, and behavioral changes
- Climate Action: Decarbonization, Resiliency, Electrification Reduce portfolio greenhouse gas emissions via energy efficiency, renewable energy, electrification of gas-powered equipment
- Resident Engagement: Encourage energy and water conservation and sustainable habits among residents via behavior change prompts/flyers; reduce energy burden on residents via energy efficiency and community solar
- Real Estate Development: Encourage new construction and rehabs be built to green building standards and prioritize sustainability and resiliency; raise awareness of incentive and technical assistance programs for sustainable development
- Waste: Support local and regionally driven efforts to reduce waste and divert materials from landfills via recycling, compost, and other efforts.
- Green Procurement: Decrease environmental and health impacts of purchased products via product standards, ie: Energy STAR-rated appliances, low-VOC paints, low-flow water fixtures, green cleaning products, products with recycled content
- Corporate Sustainability: Reduce the environmental impact of Mercy Housing’s corporate offices and operations (waste, energy, water, commuting, procurement, etc.)
Celebrating 10 years of Green Hope
For more than 10 years, Mercy Housing’s Green Hope initiative has led the way for our sustainability efforts.
With the upgrade, everything seems like it's a little bit lower
and it helps out a lot."
Program impact
| To date, we have: | Which is the equivalent of: | |||
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Reduced electricity use by 15 million kWh |  |
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Greenhouse gas emissions from 3,000 passenger cars driven for 1 year
or Carbon sequestered by 16,000 acres of forest, about the size of Manhattan |
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Procured 4.8 megawatts of solar energy | |||
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Reduced natural gas use by 572 thousand therms | |||
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Reduced water use by 185 million gallons |  |
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Enough water to fill 280 Olympic-size swimming pools |
