Strategic Electrification

The commercial buildings market is very complex, with wildly divergent ownership, management control, and building characteristics. Buildings range from strip malls to office towers to convention centers to big box retail stores. Ownership could be local government, merchant builders (who build and then sell), local family businesses, international corporations, and fast food franchises. Each ownership category makes decisions very differently from the others. Some commercial buildings are incredibly complex, some buildings are cookie cutter simple and repetitive.

We all know the decarbonization is the big goal. It’s in the news, reports, and policy discussions.

We have figured out the puzzle pieces that need to come together to decarbonize our economy and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Renewable energy + deep energy efficiency + strategic electrification = the pathways to zero carbon.

Thank you for taking the time to read the very first issue of Building Decarb Central.

You may be wondering where the idea for this newsletter came from, or why we’ve decided to tackle the issue of building decarbonization, so let us shed some light.

This post was written by Suzanne Shelton, founder and CEO of Shelton Group, the nation's leading marketing communications firm entirely focused on energy and the environment.

At Shelton Group, we poll Americans several times a year to dig into their beliefs and expectations about energy and the environment. For years, we’ve seen that we have a few fundamental value proposition problems with energy efficiency:

The energy and carbon intensity of existing buildings has been a vexing problem for more than three decades. While lighting, appliances, and a wide variety of other technologies have significantly upgraded energy performance, the buildings that they are placed into have been remarkably resistant to major change.

On May 17, NEEP held a public webinar to present our recently published Action Plan to Accelerate Strategic Electrification in the Northeast. While we might expect everyone to drop what they were doing to attend our webinar, we understand that the world is a busy place.

April showers bring May flowers, particularly in New York where things are certainly sprouting this spring. As winter finally starts turning to spring in the Northeast, everyone begins to notice the trees greening and nature coming to life all around. Nestled in spring is also Earth Day, where we stop to acknowledge the importance of our environment and take action to protect it for generations to come.