Setting the Table for Building Decarbonization

John Otterbein, Marketing Communications Associate Throw some popcorn in an energy efficient microwave, turn down the overhead, living-room LEDS with your shiny-new home energy management system, and join our story’s protagonist, energy efficiency, on a myriad of journeys. Every year we nominate, film, and present video case studies highlighting forward thinking businesses that have molded…

NEEP joined friends in Delaware and fellow supporters of energy efficiency from around the nation in cheering a landmark bill passed in the final hours of the state’s legislative session. Included as an amendment to Senate Bill 150, the legislation set the stage for the state’s ratepayer-funded electric and gas efficiency programs to be administered by utility providers. Natalie Hildt Treat,…

Danielle Wilson, Regional EM&V Forum Associate Comparing the Evaluation, Measurement & Verification (EM&V) world to alphabet soup can be an apt description. ANSI, TRM, NREL, TNB, UMP, FERC, NAESB are just a few of the acronyms and initialisms that came up at the pre-Summit evaluation workshop hosted by NEEP’s Regional EM&V Forum (the Forum) on June 2.* Over 60 policymakers,…

Last week, during a special meeting of the Cambridge City Council that ran for more than six hours, through the night and into the next day, the Cambridge City Council approved a Building Energy Usage Disclosure Ordinance.  What brought the meeting beyond the midnight hour?  Continue below to find out… First Things First: What is Building Energy Benchmarking? Building Energy…

Massive grid defection could happen in the near future. A speaker at New England Electricity’s 141st Restructuring Roundtable, “The Electric Utility of the (Near?) Future; and The Promise of Storage for Renewables,” presented on the economic benefits of going off the grid, sending ripples through the packed audience that lined the walls and filled the overflowing room. Tom King, Executive…

“The future is coming fast,” Susan Coakley, founder and executive director of the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) told us in a recent staff meeting. That statement reflects the atmosphere here at NEEP, a forward-thinking group of people helping to organize, guide, and standardize energy efficiency information, legislation, and codes on both a regional and national…

What a cliff hanger! In the fight to expand energy efficiency in Delaware, we had an uphill battle, a gritty gang of advocates, steadfast civil servants, a reluctant lawmaker. And somewhere in there, some extraordinary legislative maneuvering. Maybe not ready for Hollywood, but for those of us who have been toiling away to bring ratepayer-funded efficiency programs to Delaware, this victory…

At the tail end of October 2013, I hit the ground running  as NEEP’s new Public Relations Manager. I quickly learned about NEEP staffers, their roles, and how they all connected together to make our projects move forward. I studied NEEP whitepapers, workshops, and business plans. I looked up acronym after acronym. I met (via email, phone, and in person) scores of NEEP partners and…

The products that we use every day (Appliances, Electronics, Lighting, etc.) may sound mundane and not at all dangerous, but when accumulated, their electrical consumption contributes to climatic and environmental damage. One of those products that continues to draw large quantities of power is the home’s hot water heater. Up until recently we had no alternative – no opportunity to realize…

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced the completion of two significant rulemakings that establish strong new minimum efficiency standards for electric motors and walk-in coolers and freezers.  The two new standards will significantly reduce energy waste, save money and cut pollution.  These and other product categories for which DOE has proposed standards mark an…