Efficiency First

Home Performance Resource (HPR) Center’s Best Practice Working Groups

Monthly Digest – April 2011

What our Best Practice working groups have been working on:

Finance and Incentives

1. Appraised value of retrofits: What can we do to make efficiency upgrades lead to higher appraisal values for homes?

Manufacturers Council

1. Arranging for EF manufacturers to speak to local chapters during the months of September and October
2. Sales and marketing Webinar for Efficiency First members

Marketing

1. Introducing new leadership: Stephanie Inglis & Hannah Wood will be representing the Marketing committee as co-chairs.
2. A comprehensive package of marketing tools are now available for contractors and energy auditors, which includes:

• Home Performance PowerPoint
• Homeowner Case Study Template
• Tri-Fold Marketing Brochure (PDF)
• HTML Version of Tri-Fold

Download the listed marketing materials here: http://www.efficiencyfirst.org/marketing/

Multi-Family Homes

1. White paper & recommendations for program managers developing multi-family home programs and incentives
2. Case studies: The Home Performance Resource Center is going to be releasing four case studies on multi-family home programs across the country.  The case studies cover programs in New York, Texas, California and Maine. They take a deeper look into programs that have been successful and give an insight about what it takes for a multi-family home program to be successful.

Real Estate

1. Tracking Retrofit Value:  Working with Financing & Incentives Group to pursue a research study on value.
2. Tracking Retrofit Value: Proposing an Appraisal Essentials for Home Performance Contractors resource during the summer.
3. Home Labeling Programs:  First draft of a white paper completed, and monthly call with EF Chapter areas with labeling activity proposed.  Evaluating www.buildingrating.org as a member resource.
4. PITI+E: Monitoring activities related to incorporating Energy (E) in the mortgage underwriting decision process.  Attending bi-weekly calls with Institute for Market Transformation. Evaluating E-Know, HUD, SAVE Act-IMT/NRDC, etc.
5. GreenMLS: Evaluating how to engage real estate professional and related industries; to increase the value of energy-efficient and high-performance homes through the Multiple Listing Services.
6. Communication: REWG Wiki Page & Blog. Evaluating how to create a clearinghouse for information, and original content, related to home performance and energy efficiency where overlap occurs with the real estate industry.

Weatherization

1. Obama’s Stimulus Package currently provides funding for many weatherization workers. However, what is going to happen once the Stimulus ends and funding is significantly reduced? Workers who are in the field have valuable skills which should not be lost. The Weatherization working group is investigating the need to shift these workers to new opportunities as ARRA funding ends.

Workforce Development

1. Hiring? A hiring toolkit is now being developed and is in its final stages of receiving commentary and feedback for revisions. The Toolkit will help new businesses through the hiring process with tips on recruitment, interviews, writing job descriptions, apprenticeships, and much more.
2. In an effort to help job seekers identify which careers might be right for them, the Home Performance Resource (HPR) Center has created the Career Resource section to provide key job profiles and additional resources for self-assessment and job training. This tool assesses job seeker preferences and skills in five areas: physical aptitude, social and technical problem solving, basic construction knowledge, sales skills, and work environment preferences. The results are used to match the skills and preferences that are assessed with suitable careers in the Home Performance industry.

We are continually working hard to develop a thriving Home Performance industry and if you would like to join any of the nine working groups that we support, we’d love to have you on board.

For more information on Efficiency First’s Best Practice working groups, check out http://www.efficiencyfirst.org/take-action/best-practices/.

If you’d like to contribute in one of our working groups, send an e-mail to internpolicy@hprcenter.org