Turning Policy into Performance: Measuring Equity to Achieve Restorative Justice

In my last blog, The State of Strategic Energy Management in the Northeast, I gave an overview of NEEP’s efforts to assist with the adoption of Strategic Energy Management (SEM) in the commercial, industrial and municipal sectors in the Northeast. In this blog, I thought I would provide more detail on the SEM programs that are being offered by different states in the Northeast region. Driven by…

Last month in Woburn, Massachusetts, 135 air source heat pump (ASHP) stakeholders gathered to discuss market transformation strategies for ASHPs. NEEP has been hosting this annual in-person workshop since 2014 and this represented our largest event yet. The workshop is a critical opportunity for regional stakeholders to focus on collaborating towards market transformation. Not unlike past years…

In this issue of Building Decarb Central, we look at some of the critical discussions and findings from NEEP’s recent 2019 Air Source Heat Pump Market Transformation Workshop in Woburn, Massachusetts. The two-day event drew about 150 people from all over the U.S. and Canada who focused on building the market to provide low-carbon space heating for buildings. Participants included manufacturers,…

Among the excellent sessions at the NEEP Air Source Heat Pump workshop was a presentation by Peter McPhee, Director of Clean Heating and Cooling for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC). The MassCEC has run a program to support Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) technology since May 2017. VRF is a type of air source heat pump that can serve many commercial building types and larger…

There is a broad array of heating and cooling system types available in the market that can effectively either decarbonize or electrify (with an increasingly decarbonized grid) building space heating. Some of the newer ones, at least for the U.S. market, were discussed at the NEEP air source heat pump workshop. In addition to discussing ductless and variable refrigerant flow (VRF) heat pumps,…

With a population of just under 8,000 people, Montpelier, Vermont is the smallest state capital in the United States. It's a small town with big-city amenities - a lively arts and music scene, great restaurants, excellent schools, and an active community life. The city’s approach to energy and sustainability is no different. The community in Montpelier recently came together during Town Meeting…

In December 2017, NEEP published a revised edition of the Model Progressive Building Energy Codes Policy paper, or as we like to call it, our “energy code bible”. The latest version – a new Building Energy Codes for a Carbon-Constrained Era: A Toolkit of Strategies and Examples paper is divided into two sections. The first is a “how-to” advance building energy code development and adoption to…

Communities – whether at the state or jurisdictional level – are stepping up and taking their energy future into their own hands. And, in discussions about the energy future of communities, there’s also talk around reaching carbon reduction and resiliency goals. Communities are exercising their power and autonomy in making their goals a reality. Sounds simple, but it really isn’t. There’s no “…

It was a bright sunny day in Providence, Rhode Island and a cool breeze was blowing through the large sliding glass doors as people from various government departments, utilities, energy service companies, consulting firms, and energy efficiency advocate groups poured in for NEEP’s annual public meeting – Stellar EM&V. The meeting, which focused on evaluation, measurement, and verification,…

Retrofitting homes and buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is a big but necessary task for Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States and cities committed to climate stabilization goals. While significant gains have been made in building new homes and buildings to zero energy or passive house design standards, fixing our existing building stock to minimize greenhouse gas emissions is quite…