Tisbury is looking at signing onto a state program which offers millions of dollars in grant money to communities which undertake policies to cut their energy use by 20 per cent, and make themselves friendly for alternative energy development.

The next meeting of the town selectmen will hear a presentation organized by town administrator John Bugbee on the benefits of joining the Green Communities Program from a state-nominated consultant who would then help navigate the requirements for entry to the program.

Yesterday, Mr. Bugbee was enthusiastic about the program.

“If a town qualifies as a green community, it allows that town to apply for grants to finance all or a portion of the costs for studying, designating, constructing energy efficient activities,” he said.

Once in the program, the town could apply for grant money to cover “anything and everything” it might undertake in the future to improve its energy efficiency.

“How it works is towns interested in pursuing the designation are given assistance by one of a number of consulting firms the state has agreements with, and the state pays them. Essentially it’s free planning assistance; their job is to give us a road map to get through the designation process,” he said.

The designated consultancy firm is Vanasse, Hangen and Brustlin (VHB).

A representative of the firm will be on hand at next Tuesday’s meeting of the board to answer selectmen’s ques tions.

But the process of establishing eligibility, he conceded, is complex; a community must agree to meet five criteria.

First, it must agree to give as of right siting for renewable or alternative energy generation, or research and development or manufacturing. Second, it must commit to an expedited permitting process for these activities, so it takes not longer than a year from initial application to final approval.

Third, the town must establish an energy baseline for all its buildings, cars, lighting and other power uses, and submit a plan to reduce them by 20 per cent within five years.

“Creating that baseline will be probably the most challenging part of the designation,” Mr. Bugbee said.

“We’re talking about collating a lot of data: energy bills, fuel usage, phone bills, anything and everything that is used by way of energy goes into this number. It’s one of the items the consultants are helping with.”

The fourth requirement for eligibility is that the town must commit to the purchase only of fuel-efficient vehicles. The guidelines set out efficiency standards for various categories of vehicles in miles per gallon. Heavy-duty vehicles, such as fire trucks and ambulances, are exempt.

The last requirement is the big one. It requires the adoption of a new building code imposing tight energy efficient standards on all new residential construction of more than 3,000 square feet, and all commercial and industrial real estate construction to minimize their life-cycle energy and water use.

The so-called stretch code for energy efficiency requires energy savings of 20 per cent, compared with the baseline state and national building codes.

“That means they need to change everything including appliances, insulation, air sealing, lighting fixtures — it goes on and on,” said Mr. Bugbee.

“Let me be honest. I understand this is not as easy as just checking off the criteria and here comes the big grant. It’s a lot of information the state wants, and they are going to want commitments from the town before they give us this designation.

“So I recognize the town has got a serious consideration; it’s a big change and a big step.

“However, if we do go down this road and the town does pursue it, there’s a sizeable pool of grant money available,” he said.

How big?

“I believe there are 32 communities already signed up, and the grant pool is $10 million for this fiscal year,” Mr. Bugbee said.

“The [grant] funds can finance the siting and construction of renewable energy projects on municipal land, can finance the procurement of energy management services, installation of energy management systems. Basically anything and everything a town can do to improve its energy efficiency, these grants can fund. That is about as open ended as it gets,” he said.

“I think it’s a good program,” he said, noting the stretch code’s adoption by the state won an award from the federal government for excellence in the advancement of building energy codes and performance.

“So the federal government has recognized the program as having done a good job in helping towns like ours use renewable energy and save energy.”

Mr. Bugbee acknowledged some communities had looked at signing up and later walked away from the program because of its stringent eligibility requirements.

“Some towns have decided it’s not in their interests, that the building code is too much,” he said. “But Tisbury has long been very proactive about pursuing renewable energy.”

He acknowledged the town was as yet only in the “infant stages” of assessing its potential involvement in the Green Communities program.

“This is strictly an attempt on my part to supply the decision makers in town the detail they need to make an informed call,” he said of next Tuesday’s presentation .

“The board has talked about it before and has shown interest,” he said.

“So I decided it would be best if VHB came to a selectmen’s meeting. That way the public the press, the cameras would be there, to give the program some additional exposure. And most importantly to give the selectmen an opportunity to ask questions about how it works and what the benefits are.”