Efficiency First

For Immediate Release
January 27, 2012

Media Contact:
Jay Murdoch — Executive Director, Efficiency First
202-680-8915

Home Performance Industry Applauds EPA and DOE’s Decision to Keep the ENERGY STAR Brand in Retrofit Programs

Washington, DC — Efficiency First, a national trade association of building performance companies and industry allies, applauds the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy for the decision to continue the usage of the federal ENERGY STAR brand in residential retrofit programs. While the agreement has not yet been finalized, all indications are that it will be completed soon.

This welcome news comes after months of speculation that the popular ENERGY STAR brand would be eliminated from use in residential retrofit programs as those programs transition to DOE.  Efficiency First thanks EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu for working to resolve this issue in the way that make that most sense for the industry and consumers.

In November 2011, Efficiency First called on EPA and DOE to work out their differences and to continue using the ENERGY STAR brand in residential retrofit programs managed by DOE. Efficiency First also led the effort in pressing both agencies to find agreement. Very quickly, over 475 companies endorsed Efficiency First’s letter on this issue.

“Our members know first-hand that ENERGY STAR is the most recognized and trusted brand in the industry,” said Jay Murdoch, Efficiency First’s Executive Director. “Because our members touch the consumer and homeowner every single day, they know that the elimination of the ENERGY STAR brand would have been a major setback for the future of the residential retrofit industry.  Efficiency First would like to thank Administrator Jackson and Secretary Chu and for listening to input from the building performance industry on this matter. We look forward to working with DOE to promote industry growth with initiatives that maintain the high integrity associated with the ENERGY STAR brand.”

An Efficiency First representative is available for comment.

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Efficiency First is the trade association for America’s home performance industry – uniting home performance companies, building product manufacturers and related businesses and organizations.

Efficiency First represents its members in public policy and regulatory discussions at the local, state and national levels to promote the benefits of energy efficiency retrofitting, and to create market and industry demand for member products and services.

For more information: www.efficiencyfirst.org

Please join us for Efficiency First’s upcoming Webinar on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012:

Check & Verify: Why Quality Assurance Programs Matter
Tuesday, February 7^th @ 12:30 PM EASTERN/9:30 AM PACIFIC

FREE for Efficiency First Members: Click Here to Sign Into Your Account & Register!

Non-Member Registration: Non-Efficiency First Members are invited to join this webinar for a $50 fee. Please click here access non-member registration.

Description:
Across America, local governments, utilities, state agencies, and other organizations are implementing building performance programs with a quality assurance component to insure high quality work, healthy indoor environments, and to protect rate payer and tax payer investments. Increasingly, building performance companies are incorporating quality assurance programs into their private market jobs because they know this helps differentiate themselves, in the eyes of the consumer and positively impacts their P&L in the form of reduced call backs and warranty issues. Learn about the latest in quality assurance programs for residential and light commercial buildings. Understand how effective quality assurance programs protect consumer interests, can contribute to industry growth and learn tips on how your business can best leverage and operate under quality assurance programs.

BPI CEU credit pending.

Panelists:

Blake Ratcliff: Director, IBTS

Dave Abrey: Director of Quality Assurance, GreenHomes America

Lisanne Altman: Director of Residential Programs, LIPA

If you are having trouble accessing your account or the webinar please send an email to info@efficiencyfirst.org.

The recording to our webinar, “Introducing 25E: The First Performance-Based Tax Credit for Homes,” is now available.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE RECORDING. (Please scroll down to the bottom of the page.)

Many thanks to our panelists and attendees for making this webinar successful.  Over 800 people tuned in to learn about the new bill, our largest turn-out ever.

Also, please click here to sign our 25E petition to show your support for the Cut Energy Bills at Home Act.

Thanks to all who attended our webinar: “It’s OK to Use a Cheat Sheet: An Appraiser’s Perspective on Getting Fair Value on Getting Fair Value for Energy Efficient Homes” on November 30th!

We had over 150 people tuned in to hear our panelists give an overview of the Green and Energy Efficiency Addendum and how to best use it within the home performance industry.

For those who couldn’t make it and for those interesting in viewing the presentation again, a recording of the webinar has been posted to the Efficiency First website, which you can now watch at your own leisure.

Efficiency First members, click here to access the audio file as well as the accompanying PowerPoint presentation in PDF format.

Non-members can access the recording by clicking here. Non-members have access to the recording and PowerPoint presentation for up to 30 days.

Recently we introduced you to the Cut Energy Bills at Home Act– which would enact a new 25E tax credit — the first performance-based tax credit for America’s homes.

We hope you can join us for an industry-wide webinar on 25E, open to EF members AND the general public to learn more about the bill.  Here’s the info:

WEBINAR — Introducing 25E: The First Performance-Based Tax Credit for Homes
When: Tuesday, December 6th @ 4PM EASTERN / 1PM PACIFIC
Open to the public: This webinar is free and open to the general public
Register: Click here to register

On the webinar, we’ll be joined by representatives of some of our national partners who have been suppporting this legislation. Panelists will outline the key components of the bill and look ahead to discuss how we can move it forward.

Also, please check out our 25e website for the latest updates on the legislation.

The recording for our latest Webinar “Social Media Strategies 2.0 for Your Home Performance Business” is now available!  Many thanks to our panelists who discussed how to use social media strategies to grow a home performance company’s online presence.

Efficiency First members, click here to access the audio file as well as the accompanying PowerPoint presentation in PDF format.

Non-members can access the recording by clicking here. Non-members have access to the recording and PowerPoint presentation for up to 30 days.

For Immediate Release
November 18, 2011

Media Contact:
Jay Murdoch — Executive Director, Efficiency First
202-680-8915

Home Performance Industry Applauds New Energy Efficiency Tax Credit Legislation

New proposed tax credit would boost job creation in hard-hit construction sector and help reduce America’s energy consumption

Washington, DC — Efficiency First, a national trade association of home performance companies and industry allies, applauds Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA) for their bipartisan bill to create a performance-based energy efficiency tax credit for homeowners.  The Cut Energy Bills at Home Act was introduced in the Senate earlier today.

The Cut Energy Bills at Home Act, if passed, would create the nation’s first performance-based energy efficiency tax credit for home retrofits.  For the first time, homeowners would be rewarded with a federal tax credit for projects that achieve a percentage reduction in energy use, rather than for installing a certain piece of equipment. The legislation would provide tax credits of $2000-$5,000 for qualified residential energy efficiency retrofits that save 20-50% respectively, up to 30% of the cost of the retrofit.

“This performance-based legislation is crucial to the success of the growth home performance industry while also sending an important message to homeowners:  save more energy, get more tax credit, save more money,” said Efficiency First Executive Director Jay Murdoch.   “We urge Congress to pass the 25E tax credit which would go a long way toward spurring growth and employment of home performance contractors while saving energy and reducing utility bills.”

Greg Thomas, CEO of Performance Systems Development and Chairman of Efficiency First, added: “This legislation makes ground-breaking strides at accessing the current infrastructure and best practices of the home performance to provide common-sense financial savings to consumers for whole house energy improvements.”

To coincide with today’s introduction of the legislation, Efficiency First has launched a grassroots effort to build support for the bill. More information can be found at www.efficiencyfirst.org/25e.  An Efficiency First representative is available for comment.

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Efficiency First is the trade association for America’s home performance industry – uniting home performance companies, building product manufacturers and related businesses and organizations.

Efficiency First represents its members in public policy and regulatory discussions at the local, state and national levels to promote the benefits of energy efficiency retrofitting, and to create market and industry demand for member products and services.

For more information: www.efficiencyfirst.org

Join the Home Performance Resource Center’s Real Estate for their upcoming conference call:

Incorporating the EEM with Energy Rebate Programs | The Team Approach

November 17, 2011 @ 12:00pm EST / 9:00am PST

Conference Dial in: (712) 775-7000 (new dial-in as of 4/12/2011 Participant Access Code: 647614#)

The next REWG learning call will feature a roundtable discussion with Kevin Nunn. Kevin is a Residential Mortgage Loan Officer with Comstock Mortgage of Sacramento and in nearly two decades of mortgage lending he has developed extremely efficient processes for the EEM, 203k, and several other programs that support energy retrofitting in residential financing. In this series of videos Kevin and his team describe their respective roles in the process, and share their approach and strategies in financing residential energy efficiency upgrades under the auspices of the Energy Upgrade California rebate program:

Please review the related video in advance.

http://energy-financing-options.com/videotestimonials/eem-euc-video/

Kevin has personally originated more EEMs than anyone in the nation and he wants to show everyone how his approach can work in any market across the country. Join us on November 17th when Kevin and his team will share their secrets and and answer any questions or concerns.

Please check out our upcoming webinar!

Social Media Strategies for your Home Performance Business

Thursday, November 17th @ 12:30PM EASTERN / 9:30AM PACIFIC

Free for Efficiency First Members: Click here to sign-in to your account and register.

Non-Member Registration: Non-Efficiency First Members are invited to join this webinar for a $50 fee. Please click here access non-member registration.

What’s next for your company’s Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn Pages? This webinar will provide you easy social media strategies and steps to help grow your business’s online presence.  Learn from social media experts and Home Performance companies who are using and executing these marketing strategies successfully.  Learn tips on content creation and how to engage customers.

This webinar will be approximately 90 minutes and qualifies for up to 1.5 BPI CEUs.

Panelists:
Allison Bailes: Founder of Energy Vanguard

Peter Troast: Founder and CEO of Energy Circle Pro

If you are having trouble accessing your account or the webinar please send an email to info@efficiencyfirst.org

Industry veteran selected to lead trade association of America’s home performance companies

November 4, 2011 – Efficiency First is happy to announce the selection of Jay Murdoch as Executive Director.

Murdoch has been active as a member of Efficiency First – America’s home performance industry trade association – since the organization’s inception in 2009, both at a national level and through involvement in the Efficiency First Chapters in Michigan, New Jersey, and Maryland. He has a wealth of industry experience at all levels and from a variety of perspectives.

Murdoch most recently worked in Business Development for Masco Home Services and the company’s WellHome service offering, with its focus on home performance, as well as its Environments for Living offering, which focuses on energy and water efficient new homes. Prior to that, he has served in leadership roles at Owens Corning, the National Association of Home Builders, the NAHB Research Center, at the US Access Board (working on ADA design and construction guidelines), and as a remodeler and builder in the Washington DC metro area.

“We are thrilled to have Jay on board with Efficiency First, to bring our trade association and the home performance industry to the next level,” said Greg Thomas, Chair of the Efficiency First Board. “Jay knows our industry and our membership inside and out –from mom-and-pop home performance companies to Fortune 500 businesses. Jay understands how to attack the barriers that slow the growth of our industry, nationally and at the state and utility level.”

Murdoch said: “I see Efficiency First as a diverse family of job creating businesses – large and small companies, working in unison to drive meaningful and impactful energy efficiency policy, initiatives, and programs that meet marketplace and consumer needs.  The powerful thing about this organization is the richness of its membership — which is comprised of home performance contractors, energy auditors and HERS raters, insulation contractors, HVAC contractors, window and door contractors, weatherization organizations, real estate professionals, lending and financing companies, and building product and equipment manufacturers, suppliers and distributors – just to name a few.

“Equally impressive is that Efficiency First members push to impose on themselves high standards for work delivered in the homes and buildings of customers.  It’s the humble home performance company who touches the homeowner every day, who is directly and materially affected by energy efficiency program rules and requirements, and who must execute these program designs in the field.  In Efficiency First’s young existence, our members and our Efficiency First chapters have positioned themselves as key stakeholders who know what kinds of policies and programs can help scale the energy efficiency industry.

“This will be an exciting journey, and I am certain that in Washington DC, in state capitols, and at the county and city levels, Efficiency First members will be driving home the fact that energy efficiency is the really the “gift that keeps on giving” and brings with it a superior return on investment  for customers, ratepayers and taxpayers.  I feel fortunate that I will be part of this effort.”

The Efficiency First Board is also grateful to Kara Saul Rinaldi, who has served Efficiency First as Interim Managing Consultant since June and will continue on in her federal government affairs role for the organization.

Murdoch will be based in Efficiency First’s Washington DC metro area office.

More information about Jay Murdoch can be found here: www.efficiencyfirst.org/about/board/#murdoch

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Efficiency First is the trade association for America’s home performance industry – uniting home performance companies, building product manufacturers and related businesses and organizations in the escalating fight against global warming and rising energy costs.

Efficiency First represents its members in public policy discussions at the state and national levels, to promote the benefits of energy efficiency retrofitting and to help our companies grow do the industry can meet customers’ demand for quality residential energy improvements.

For more information: www.efficiencyfirst.org