Efficiency First California Members News

EF California Plays Leadership Role at ACI

Road maps to local markets and a national chapter network were at the top of the EF California agenda for the 2013 ACI National Home Performance Conference held in Denver, Colorado, in early May.

Home Energy Leadership Summit:  The ACI Home Energy Leadership Summit is an executive level event designed to bring together the key leaders from the public and private sector who are working to drive residential energy efficiency into the mainstream. The goal of the Summit is to look out towards our ideal future and a possible road map to get there. We need to inspire innovation and collaboration in the marketplace, particularly focusing on government, utilities, finance, contractors, and homeowners.

The Current Road map: Align our interests. We've identified the key stakeholders, but we know their interests and movitations don't always align. Homeonwers want a comfortable and attractive house; utilities want to satisfy energy savings requirements; manufacturers and contractors want to grow their businesses and profits. We need everyone at the table to work on solutions that align interests, and this year's Leadership Summit will bring more individuals together to discuss how to accomplish this.

Gather important data. Our industry excels at collecting data. We measure how tight a house is and model potential energy savings, and researchers are collecting mountains of data from project homes. Data is critical to our success, and we need to gather important data on a national scale that will move our entire industry forward. Join us in this year's discussion about which benchmarks are the most critical, and what an industry scorecard should look like.

Build a successful workforce. We've raised the bar with standards and certifications, and now, momentum is growing in building science education and training. We need to attract the best and brightest to the industry, and we need a variety of successful business models to reach the mass market. Listen to and learn from successful leaders in our sister industries of HVAC, remodeling, and solar about how we can bridge the divide and stimulate industry growth.

 We must ask ourselves: What are the key benchmarks as we measure success on the current road map?

Executive Director Conrad Asper was a featured panelist during the two-day Home Energy Leadership Summit, which assembled industry leaders from around the nation for strategic discussions. Asper participated on the “Applying the Road Map in Local Markets to a National Scorecard” panel to discuss opportunities and challenges in creating home performance benchmarks that can serve as a road map for industry growth.

Addressing issues such as business viability, accurate contractor-friendly energy modeling software, level playing field for code compliance, and data access, Asper was joined by Tilak Subrahmanian /General Manager, Energy Efficiency, Northeast Utilities; Danielle Byrnett/Director, Better Buildings Neighborhood Program, U.S. Department of Energy; Cynthia Adams/Executive Director, Local Energy Alliance Program; and Derek Smith/CEO, Clean Energy Works Oregon.

 The panel discussed the questions: What should be the goal of a scorecard? What might be some of the key metrics for a scorecard that might inform the industry as we create an industry roadmap into the future? Asper stated that “a scorecard should be a tool to assess market conditions and determine program and contractor performance in order to make course corrections and replicate success.”  That set the tone for the discussion and provided a basis to debate whether a program focus would be more valuable than an industry wide focus for this scorecard. Asper also commented that it would be useful to have the scorecard tool applied on all single family residential energy efficiency programs throughout the nation so that market barriers can be identified and areas that share the same barriers can learn from each other.

ACI staff plan to set up a community of interest discussion on this topic and will be working on this issue in the near future. Efficiency First California will continue to be involved in this community of interest and we will keep our membership posted on its evolution.

 Chapter Network Prepares for Growth: During the conference, EF California convened an in-person meeting of Efficiency First chapter leaders to explore further development of the existing Chapter Network in order to facilitate and enhance communication among state chapters; discuss marketplace problems and proposed solutions to support industry growth; share lessons learned and best practices; share organizational tools and chapter growth strategies; and ensure the chapter member perspective informs Efficiency First’s advocacy role as the national voice for the home performance industry.

“As our chapters grow, it is vitally important that we help each other to ensure we build a strong foundation for industry success,” said Asper, who is working with the EF National team to support the Chapter Network?

Left to right, front row: Damian Hodkinson/EF New York, Coby Rudolph/EF National, Chris Cone/EF California, Julie Tolliver/EF Cincinnati; back row: Will Schweiger/EF New York, Conrad Asper/EF California, Jamie Clark/EF Kentucky, Don MacOdrum/Home Performance Guild of Oregon; Rob Jones  and Mark Rixson/EF Kansas City. Additional attendees included Donna Sanders/EF Kansas City, Dan Kartzman/EF New York, Allison Weston/EF National, and Peter Van Buren/EF Maryland.

“The board wants to increase support for chapters,” said national board member Hodkinson, citing expanded collaboration among state chapters as an extremely valuable tool to capture the “boots on the ground” advice of members and encourage chapter growth and best practices. EF chapters range from funded incorporated groups to nascent volunteer committees just starting their set up process. Securing funding, transitioning from all-volunteer to paid staff, and increasing chapter ability to negotiate the politics of program partnerships were all cited as top priorities. (Meeting minutes will be available on the Web.)

Immediate next steps include expanding the monthly “chapter chair” meeting to 1.5 hours, expanding the agenda to include items related to priority needs, addressing operating principles for the Chapter Network group, and creating an accessible chapter chair roster with alternates to encourage greater attendance. EF California will continue to facilitate the Chapter Network meetings as the expanded format is developed.

Efficiency First Annual Member Meeting: The Efficiency First membership and board convened for an annual meeting at the ACI conference. The new board members include: Ryan Clemmer, Clean Energy Works, Portland, Oregon; Donna Sanders, 106 Greenway, Kansas City, Kansas; Kathe Stewart, Precision Air Conditioning & Heating, Memphis, Tennessee;  and John White, ICF International, Columbia, Maryland; and two re-elected members: Damian Hodkinson, True Energy Solutions, Rochester, New York and Greg Thomas, Performance Systems Development, Ithaca, New York.

Asper reported on the Chapter Network initiative noting that: “As early adopter state chapters continue to enroll as affiliates of Efficiency First National, we are laying the foundation for long-term legitimacy as the ‘voice of the home performance’ industry in important and far-reaching policy decisions at the national, state, and local level.”

Read more original Efficiency Frst California articles:

Industry Advocacy in California – What We Have Been Doing

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