In the wake of a natural disaster, the City of Duluth, Minnesota, and its partners found a way to evolve an existing residential energy program to ensure that energy efficiency was part of rebuilding efforts, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and bringing economic benefits and healthier homes to low-income residents.

Beginning in 2011, the City of Duluth (population 86,000) partnered with a consortium of government, nonprofit, and private sector stakeholders to create the Duluth Energy Efficiency Program (DEEP),
a comprehensive energy efficiency program that benefits city residents. While low-income households were eligible for DEEP's services, they were not the focus of the program. However, when a 500-year flood hit the city in 2012, Ecolibrium3 was able to parlay its existing DEEP framework into a successful flood recovery program.

Learn more about the key features, approaches, partners, funding sources, and achievements of this program in the program profile. 

• Duluth Flood Recovery Program (PDF)(5 pp, 775 K)